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As the United States continues deployments of service members to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is increasingly important to understand the effects of this military involvement, not only on service members but also on the health and well-being of their spouses and youth. The purpose of this report is to examine the functioning of a sample of youth in military families who applied to a free camp for children of military personnel and to specifically assess how these youth are coping with parental deployment. The report addresses the general well-being of military youth during and after parental deployment, with attention to their emotional, social, and academic functioning. It also examines the challenges that their nondeployed caregivers face. The study includes quantitative and qualitative components: three waves of phone surveys with youth and nondeployed caregivers, and in-depth interviews with a subsample of caregivers. The researchers found that children and caregivers who had applied to attend the camp confronted significant challenges to their emotional well-being and functioning. Four factors in particular (1) caregiver emotional well-being, (2) more cumulative months of deployment, (3) National Guard or Reserve status, and (4) quality of caregiver-youth communication were strongly associated with greater youth or caregiver difficulties.

Children of military personnel. --- Military spouses

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Long and frequent deployments, with short dwell times in between, have placed stresses on Army children and families already challenged by frequent moves and parental absences. RAND Arroyo Center was asked by the Army to examine the effects of parental deployments on children⁰́₉s academic performance as well as their emotional and behavioral well-being in the school setting. The researchers found that children whose parents have deployed 19 months or more since 2001 have modestly lower, statistically different achievement scores compared to those who have experienced less or no parental deployment. This finding held across states and academic subjects; is consistent across rank or component of the soldier, seniority of the soldier, gender of the deploying parent, and gender of the child; and has been stable since 2001. Based on interviews with school staff having experience with children of deployed soldiers and with experts and key stakeholders in behavioral health, the report describes the academic and behavioral health challenges these children face related to deployment, identifies the barriers to addressing these challenges, and offers recommendations to better meet the needs of these children.

Children of military personnel --- Parent and child --- Behavior disorders in children --- Academic achievement --- Education --- Psychology. --- Psychological aspects.