Background
Children in military families experience frequent separation from parents and/or siblings due to deployment or operations, regular moves and relocations, indirect exposure to and awareness of conflict and violence, and exposure to a family member who may return from combat with psychological or physical injuries [
1]. However, these children also experience particular benefits, such as a parent in employment and, thus, a stable family income.
To date, studies examining the impact of military family membership on child psychological adjustment and wellbeing have yielded mixed results (e.g. [
2‐
7,
8]). Thus, how military family membership may impact child psychological wellbeing, including externalising behaviours such as physical fighting and weapon carrying, substance use, and mental health problems, as compared to their peers in civilian families remains unclear.
Child externalising behaviours are associated not only with concurrent health problems, lower educational attainment, but also violent behaviour in adulthood (for a review, see [
2]). In civilian families, externalising behaviours are more commonly observed in male children and can be associated with rejection by peers and low socio-economic status [
3,
4]. In military families, some studies have observed children are more likely to exhibit externalising behaviours when the parent is deployed due to heightened anxiety regarding the deployment situation and the service member’s safety [
5‐
7]; however, this deleterious effect of deployment on child externalising behaviours has not been consistently found [
9,
10].
Another key component to child psychological wellbeing is substance use, with early consumption of alcohol and drugs associated with increased risk of dependence later in adulthood [
11,
12]. Nationally representative studies in the US have found the prevalence of substance use disorders in children aged 13–18 years to be 11.4%, with substance misuse more common in males and older adolescents [
13]. In military families, young people with deployed parents have been found to be more likely to consume alcohol and binge drink than their civilian peers [
14,
15]. Nonetheless, beyond parental deployment, how other factors, such as age and gender, may moderate the relationship between military family membership and child substance use as compared to children in civilian families remains unclear.
Finally, the experience of other mental health problems in childhood, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicidality, can adversely affect wellbeing. Young people in military families may potentially be vulnerable to mental health problems due to their exposure to a range of stressors, including a parent with mental health difficulties (i.e. military-service related psychological problems, non-deployed parent coping difficulties, etc.) [
16], frequent relocations, or the reintegration of the deployed parent. However, as youth in civilian families are also exposed to challenging circumstances, such as poor parental mental health [
17], how the mental health of young people in military families compares to children in civilian families is not well understood.
Little research attention has been given to the impact of having a sibling in the military on child wellbeing. Previous studies have found sibling relationships to have developmental significance, with sibling relationship difficulties linked to a range of poor outcomes in children, including depression, low family functioning, aggression, substance use, and delinquency [
18]. Evidence from qualitative studies highlights that sibling enlistment may be particularly challenging for children in military families, with difficulties including family role shifts on sibling enlistment, increased loneliness, and concerns that their sibling may be injured on deployment [
19]. Sibling enlistment can also be distressing for the family unit as a whole, increasing familial conflict and causing significant parental distress [
19]. As poor family functioning and shifts in familial roles have been found to adversely impact child wellbeing in civilian families (e.g. [
20‐
22]), how sibling enlistment impacts wellbeing compared to children of military parents and children in civilian families is poorly understood.
Taken together, it is unclear how children in military families compare to their non-military peers in terms of wellbeing. The aim of this review was to examine the association between military family membership and child wellbeing compared to non-military controls. We also considered several moderators of child outcomes, including child age, gender, and methodological factors.
Discussion
The aim of this review was to examine the impact of military family membership on child wellbeing compared to children from non-military families. We examined child wellbeing in relation to externalising behaviour, substance use, and mental health problems. The findings of this review show the existing literature to be heterogeneous, largely involving children recruited from US public schools, where children completed self-report questionnaires to measure wellbeing. The main finding was that, overall, there was little difference between military and non-military connected children, except those with deployed parents and older military-connected children were at greater risk of substance use and externalising behaviour. Moreover, while only assessed by two studies, having a sibling in the military and experiencing sibling deployment was associated with substance use and depressive symptoms.
Externalising behaviour
A relationship was found between military family membership and higher rates of externalising behaviour compared to children from civilian families, including engagement in physical fights and carrying a weapon [
26,
27,
30]. However, this effect appeared to be moderated by child demographic characteristics (i.e. older age, male gender) and parental deployment [
26].
Externalising behaviours are an important component to consider in examining child psychological wellbeing given the relationship between externalising problems and issues later in child and adulthood (e.g. crime, low education attainment, etc.) [
2]. It is possible that the elevated rates of violent behaviour found in some children from military families is due to these youths being disproportionately influenced by portrayals of the military and war in the media, which emphasises physical fighting and weapons [
26]. Furthermore, US military connected children may have increased access to weapons as, compared to civilians, military personnel are more likely to have a firearm in their home [
37]. These results tentatively suggest that additional support, such as violence prevention programs, for some children within military families could be beneficial.
Substance use
Substance use in childhood represents a concern as 90% of US adults with chronic substance abuse problems report starting drinking or using drugs before the age of 18 years [
38]. Three studies found higher rates of substance use in youth who had experienced the deployment of a family member [
15,
26,
28] compared to those with non-deployed or civilian parents. The deployment of a family member can be a substantial stressor for some children and alcohol and drugs may be utilised as a coping strategy [
39]. Lower levels of parental monitoring during adolescence are associated with higher levels of child drug and alcohol use [
40,
41] and parental deployment may also reduce the availability of the non-deployed parent due to increased household responsibilities [
42]. As older children in military families were more likely to consume alcohol and drugs than those in civilian families [
26], this could potentially suggest that children in military families are vulnerable to substance use problems at a certain age. Children with a sibling in the military were also significantly more likely to consume alcohol than children with a parent in the military [
15]. This indicates that it may be beneficial for existing services for youth from military families, such as Families Overcoming Under Stress (FOCUS) and Military OneSource [
43,
44], to offer advice and support for issues, such as child substance misuse, as an adjunct to the familial resilience intervention.
Mental health
There was a lack of consistent evidence for the relationship between military connectedness and poorer mental health (i.e. suicidal ideation, depression, and PTSD) and low quality of life (i.e. perceived stress, positive affect, quality of life). Contributing to this was the notable lack of research regarding the relationship between military connectedness and mental health outcomes, for example only one study examined child PTSD [
14]. Nonetheless, rates of mental health problems in military and non-military connected youth were generally consistent with nationally representative studies of US adolescents [
13]. However, some evidence for elevated rates of mental health difficulties in youth with deployed parents compared to civilian parents was found (e.g. [
14,
31]). This effect was more pronounced for males, with male children reporting significantly more depressive symptoms, poorer quality of life, and suicidal ideation compared to those with civilian parents [
14]. This is notable as previous research has found such mental health problems to be generally more common in adolescent females than males in the general population (e.g. [
45,
46]). Moreover, the deleterious impact of deployment on child psychological adjustment was not restricted to parental deployment and Cederbaum et al. [
31] found an increased likelihood of depressive symptoms in youth who experienced the deployment of either a parent or a sibling compared to those who had not experienced familial deployment.
While most military connected children cope well, it is possible that the deployment of a family member can contribute towards the development of mental health difficulties in some children. This could be due to the stress experienced by young people when a family member deploys, such as the disruption of family routines, fears for the potential injury of the service member and uncertainty about the service member’s return [
1,
47]. Familial reintegration following deployment can also be distressing for children due to the renegotiation of familial roles and psychological and/or physical injuries of the service member [
48,
49].
Strengths and limitations
This review was limited by several factors. First, no included study collected retrospective data on the child’s mental health. Second, most studies were cross-sectional (n = 8), school-based and reliant on child self-report. As a result, no data was collected regarding sample socio-economic status, deployment features (e.g. length of deployment, date of deployment) or family characteristics (e.g. family history of mental health problems). Therefore, it is unclear whether child wellbeing worsened immediately following parental deployment but later stabilised, if the elevated rates of child internalising and externalising problems are due to parental deployment or a comparatively challenging environment. Moreover, the collection of data regarding parental military status and wellbeing outcomes via child self-report may be subject to bias and future studies should include parent and/or teacher report. Third, several studies used data from the same large-scale public-school surveys and must be taken into consideration when interpreting the findings. Finally, all included studies were conducted in the US. Rates of mental health difficulties for civilian and military personnel children differ between the US and other nations, and the duration of deployment of US. AF is often longer than in other countries [
13,
50,
51]. Therefore, the impact of parent or sibling military service on child wellbeing may be greater compared to non-US contexts, although this relationship requires further exploration.
Nonetheless, this review has several strengths, including the use of a thorough, systematic search strategy and the direct comparison of child wellbeing in military and non-military families. This review utilised a broad definition of what constitutes a “military family,” including a parent and/or a sibling in the AF. In doing so, we found having a sibling in the military to be significantly associated with higher rates of alcohol consumption compared to children with a military parent [
15] as well as an increased likelihood of depressive symptoms in youth whose parent or sibling had deployed compared to those who had not experienced familial deployment [
31]. This highlights the need for the impact of military family membership on child wellbeing to be examined more broadly, including not only parents but also siblings and other close relatives.
Authors’ contributions
VW, SS, NTF and EDS contributed towards the study design. VW SS and EDS contributed towards the identification of eligible studies and data extraction. VW and SS contributed towards data analysis. VW SS NTF and EDS contributed towards writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.