A systemic perspective on children’s well-being in military families in different countries

Abstract

Introduction: Children are influenced by different environments – home, friends, school, community, society, and the existence and availability of various services – and child well-being is the outcome of the interrelationships between the child and these environments. The military is one of the environments that shapes the well-being of children in military families, and the environments interact with each other. Methods: Our main assumption is that the effect of military environment on child well-being may vary in different societies depending on the general social security system. We describe how the military children’s well-being is embedded in military systems, which in turn is embedded in welfare state. The main question is how the well-being of children from military families varies across countries and how much variation can be explained by the interplay between military systems and different welfare regimes. Results: We begin by describing the differences in welfare states and military systems, and then give a short overview of children’s well-being in the context of different welfare regimes (e.g., availability of public child care, health care, and access to education and extracurricular activities). Discussion: Next, we look at the interplay between the military and welfare regimes and, finally, we show how the well-being of military children is supported across countries by their different welfare regimes.

Military Families

“…The wellknown sociological concept of "greedy institutions" by Coser (1974) has given ground for military sociologists to emphasize the fact that the military and the family are institutions that put high demands on individuals' commitment, time, loyalty and energy (Segal, 1986 the assumption that the position of families with one or more members serving in the military, and whether this family is perceived to belong to the civilian or the military sphere, is shaped by the context of the welfare state, the development of the military system, and cultural and normative family ideology. As stated by Kasearu and Olsson (2019), the military and civilian spheres divide the obligation to support the wellbeing of children from military families, depending on the context of the welfare regime.…”

“…According to Nolte (2003), European military law systems vary greatly according to the civilianization of the armed forces; for instance, on the basis of whether military personnel are seen as regular employees whose contracts are very similar to the civil service, or as representatives of a very demanding profession. Moreover, military sociology follows the assumption that the military is a subset of society, and is primarily determined by the socio-political system (the welfare regime) in which the military is embedded (Callaghan and Kernic, 2003; Kasearu and Olsson, 2019). This embeddedness thus shapes how the state, the military and the family divide and combine the obligations and responsibilities to support their members' wellbeing.…”

“…These member organizations are run by and for soldiers and veterans (officers and servicemenemployees and previous employees of SAF) and their family members, making their voices heard, co-creating joint communities and providing preventive support, as well as stepping in to help. In Sweden, in the context of international military deployments, the PREP has been found to be highly valued by participants 5 (Olsson, 2019).…”

Military Families in Estonia, Slovenia and Sweden – Similarities and Differences

“…the assumption that the position of families with one or more members serving in the military, and whether this family is perceived to belong to the civilian or the military sphere, is shaped by the context of the welfare state, the development of the military system, and cultural and normative family ideology. As stated by Kasearu and Olsson (2019), the military and civilian spheres divide the obligation to support the wellbeing of children from military families, depending on the context of the welfare regime.…”