Assessing Military Community Support: Relations Among Perceived Military Community Support, Child Psychosocial Adjustment, and Parent Psychosocial Adjustment-A Mediation Model
Abstract
The emotional, cognitive, and behavioral health of the nearly two million children of military families in the United States is vital as these children play an integral role to the operational readiness of the armed forces. For example, when a service members child experiences psychosocial difficulties, these difficulties often impact the service members personal well-being and ability to focus at work, impairing the service members ability to focus on the mission (58). As such, the Department of Defense (DoD) has instituted a family readiness system in order to bolster resiliency within military families, for example, by linking families with support networks (31). While military service members and their families face many of the same stressors as their civilian counterparts, they may also face a variety of additional stressors related to being a military family, including frequent relocation, unpredictable schedule changes, long- and short-term family separation, and threats to service members safety (46). Psychosocial functioning and resilience in the face of stress may be influenced by a variety of factors, however one important factor that influences parent and family functioning is community support. Community support may be especially important for military families, due to the increased importance of social support during stress (e.g., deployment, geographic relocation, etc.) (25; 47). Research is promising regarding the protective effects of community support in the civilian population. However, there is a comparable dearth in the literature regarding military families. Due to the importance that military families have on operational readiness of service members and the significance that the DoD has placed on supporting military families, it is imperative to understand the impact of perceived military community support on military parents and their children.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 06, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1128265
Entities
People
- Allison M. Conforte
Organizations
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences