"They're Tired"

I’ve added another website to my list of resources for military families and those interested in their well being.  It’s the Coalition for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans .  According to their website, the CIAV “is a national non-partisan partnership of organizations committed to working with and on behalf of all military, veterans, families, survivors and providers to strengthen the existing system of care and support for all those affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

A recent article, “Study: Military Teens Have More Stress,”  points out that the focus is often on younger children, but military teenagers are experiencing significant levels of stress as well.  It’s based on the Rand Corporation study that appeared recently in Pediatrics. 

Researchers analyzed data from more than 1500 households with military children from 11 to 17 years old and nondeployed caregivers. Sources of difficulty during deployment included taking on more household responsibilities and missing school activities. Older children said it was hard to get to know the deployed parent again upon his or her return, and they were worried about the next deployment. Confusing mood changes and  differences in how their parents were getting along were also stressful for the children.

“The main parent at home is trying to juggle so many balls that some of those balls get dropped,” one participating parent said. “I find it hard to believe that you can do it all, and so by virtue of that, since I’m the adult in the picture, sometimes I don’t have time to listen to my kids.” “There was nobody big to look up to,” her son  said. “Sometimes when my mom was away, there wasn’t anybody else to help me with my homework, something personal like that, or throw a football with me.”

Around 30 percent of the children interviewed reported symptoms of anxiety, compared to 9 to 15 percent of the general population of children the same age. For reasons that have yet to be well understood, girls have more problems with the reintegration of a deployed parent into the family, the study found. The data was collected in summer 2008, but researchers have followed up with the families twice since then, and will release findings on the next phase in a few months.

The National Military Family Association, which co-funded the study, will use the results to design future programs. Joyce Raezer, executive director of NMFA, says, “I can see the strain when I have an employee or a volunteer whose spouse is on their second or third deployment,” she said. “These are brave, committed, dedicated folks determined to do what they need to do, and they work very hard to hold it together, but they’re tired.”