Research on Children and Families

Research has a lot of impact on my own children. In the past five years Psychologists have done a lot of research on the effects of this war on military children. My husband has been in the Navy for 16 years and he has been on more than 9 deployments in that time. He has been to Afghanistan and Iraq and has lost some dear friends and fellow sailors. My family has had to move every three years and that alone is hard, picking up and starting over again and again. When my oldest son was 10 he started having severe stomach issues, couldn't keep food down, and would have stomach aches all the time. We had tried no dairy and limited his foods to simple and plain, it still didn't work. We took him to the doctor, did blood work and everything was fine. As a military wife I frequent military websites for families and spouses that give us up-to-date information on issues and trends that affect us as a family. I came across a new article on the military one-source website that talked about stress on military children. The article was like a book written about my son. I had tried every avenue to help my son, but I didn't realize the emotional toll it took on my oldest. He never complained, he is very outgoing, and he always readjusted to the moves with ease and grace. He was the first one to make friends and the first one to venture out into the new neighborhood. I found out from this website and from the article that sometimes military children feel severe anxiety when their parents have to go off to war. My husband had been in Iraq right before we moved to Mississippi and then he left for Afghanistan after we moved to Mississippi. My son’s fear that his dad would not come home; he would have to take on the responsibility of being the man of the house weighed very heavily on his heart and mind. We had talked to our oldest, Garrett, before each deployment and assured him that even if dad did not come home he would still be a kid and have the right to play sports and go to college. We stressed to all our children that they would need to make sure they continued on with their school work and completed their chores. I was not new to deployments and I am a very strong motivated woman and I made sure we always followed our daily routines and schedules even if their dad wasn't here. These deployments were different though, they were to a war zone and my oldest was old enough now to understand what that really meant. The research expressed how the stress and anxiety of the unknown; their dad dying and or coming back without his arms or legs built up inside of the children. The fear of the unknown is what they were worrying about. The news and internet is constantly reminding us how war is taking a toll on our service men and women and that is where our children get their information on how life will be when their dad or mom returns. If that research had not been conducted on military children and families then my son would have gone undiagnosed and he would still be suffering from severe anxiety and that might even lead to depression. I took my oldest to the doctor with the article. The doctor talked to Garrett and he started counseling that focused on issues that he cannot control. The psychologist and his pediatrician both agreed that Garrett would benefit from taking a small dosage of medication to help him relax and be less stressed. Garrett was in counseling for a year and he still takes his medication. My son is doing exceptionally well and he is a very driven individual that works with young military children at the base youth center and he is on his High School basketball team, is on his JROTC leadership/academic team, is in advanced classes at his high school, and is PT Captain of his JROTC, and was just promoted to Staff Sargent for his JROTC. My son wants to go to West Point after high school; we hope his dreams come true. The research that was done and the article that was written had positive results that helped my son and I am sure more military children all over the world. About a year after Garrett had been diagnosed I had a friend who had a son the same age as Garrett. She was discussing all the issues her son was having and it strongly resembled Garrett's issues. Her son was soon diagnosed with sever anxiety and she was so grateful for the information I provided and the article. The article and the research data was a starting point for my son's pediatrician and psychologist. I am so glad that the research was done and the risks definitely outweighed the results. "The greater the benefit to be gained from a piece of research, the more risks are acceptable" (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, & Siraji-Blatchford, 2010, p. 78). The children that were researched did not have to be poked with a needle but they did have to ask the children some in-depth questions that brought up strong emotions and in some cases a lot of anger. Military families are all different we all come from different parts of the world and we are all come from diverse backgrounds. My mom told me that I am a very involved mother and I am constantly evaluating them and myself. She told me that some mother's might have misunderstood Garrett's symptoms as not wanting to go to school, being lazy and being defiant. That got me to thinking even more about how a military lifestyle truly does affect children. I started being a stronger advocate for military children and started working with a Child Psychologist at the Fleet and Family Service center on base. We speak and talk about the stress military children face and I give an account of what I have gone through with my children. My son has shown an interest in going to some of the meetings for the military families and talking about the anxiety issues he faces. References Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.