A Participant Evaluation of the U.S. Navy Parent Support Program

Impact of deployment on military families with young children: A systematic review

“…In all cases, the service member had been deployed for combat. None focused on veteran households, although one study did include responses from retirees (Kelley et al, 2006). Six study samples recruited only the military service member of the family Gewirtz et al, 2010;Lee et al, 2013;Scannell-Desch & Doherty, 2013;Walsh et al, 2014;Willerton et al, 2011).…”

“…Five study samples collected data only from the service member's spouse or partner (Barker & Berry, 2009;Chartrand et al, 2008;Cozza et al, 2010;Flake et al, 2009;Schachman, Lee, & Lederman, 2004), and most of the respondents in these studies were women. Six studies included both service members and their spouses or partners (Allen et al, 2011;Gewirtz et al, 2010;Kelley et al, 2006;Ross & DeVoe, 2014;Wilson et al, 2011Wilson et al, , 2014. One study (Gewirtz et al, 2014a) compared family adjustment among military mothers, 19% of whom were also service members who had been deployed.…”

“…These included the New Parent Support Program (Kelley et al, 2006), the Strong Families Program (Ross & DeVoe, 2014), and Passport Toward Success (Wilson et al, 2011). All three programs evidenced high user satisfaction and acceptability.…”

“…Eight of the articles reviewed did not report the racial or ethnic backgrounds of the samples studied (Barker & Berry, 2009;Cozza et al, 2010;Kelley et al, 2006;McCarroll et al, 2008;Ross & DeVoe, 2014;Scannell-Desch & Doherty, 2013;Wilson et al, 2011Wilson et al, , 2014. Of the 18 studies that did report the racial/ethnic composition of their samples, 16 of those samples were comprised mostly of non-Hispanic white respondents.…”

“…However, the study by Gewirtz et al (2014b) presented only preliminary data on intervention feasibility and acceptability, and the findings presented by Schachman et al (2004) suggest that the mental health gains initially found in the experimental group were not sustained 6 weeks later. Three other studies evaluated population-based programs for military families with young children (Kelley et al, 2006;Ross & DeVoe, 2014;Wilson et al, 2011), although none were tested against a control condition and outcomes primarily focused on parent satisfaction. As a result, we were unable to find any evidencebased interventions shown to improve parent and child mental health during the early years.…”