Mothering very young children after wartime deployment: A case report

Abstract

Parenting very young children in the context of military service, deployment separations, and war-related trauma can be challenging for many families. Female active duty personnel represent one of the fastest growing segments of the military, and recent policy changes have led women to pursue serving in combat positions at much higher rates. While not much is known about service member mothers, some studies have shown that they experience significant symptoms of distress, depression, and anxiety during the deployment cycle, feelings of disconnection from family during reintegration, and higher rates of childhood trauma histories than their male counterparts. Service member mothers who experience the combined stressors of deployment separation, combat exposure, and adverse childhood experiences-a triple threat-may be at serious risk of posttraumatic stress and depressive symptomatology, which can negatively influence the quality and nature of their parenting and parent-child relationships. This case report describes the participation of a young single service member mother and her preschool-aged daughter in a home-based, reintegration program designed for military families with very young children (ages 0-5). The paper illustrates how this relationship-based, reflective parenting intervention was effective in increasing the mother's sense of competence in her parenting and strengthening the parent-child relationship. K E Y W O R D Sdeployment, intervention development, reflective parenting, reintegration, service member mothers RESUMEN Criar a niños muy pequeños en el contexto del servicio militar, las separaciones debido a asignaciones militares de trabajo y el trauma relacionado con la guerra pueden representar un reto para muchas familias. Las mujeres, como miembros del personal activo con asignaciones militares, representan uno de los segmentos que aumentan más rápidamente dentro del campo militar, y los cambios recientes en las regulaciones han llevado a las mujeres a dedicarse al servicio en posiciones de combate en porcentajes mucho más altos. Aunque no mucho se sabe acerca de las madres que son miembros del servicio militar, algunos estudios han mostrado que ellas experimentan síntomas significativos de angustia, depresión y ansiedad durante el ciclo de asignación militar de trabajo, sentimientos de desconexión de la familia durante la reintegración, y más altos porcentajes de historias de trauma en la niñez que sus compañeros varones. Las mujeres en el servicio militar que experimentan la combinación de factores de estrés por la separación debido a la asignación de trabajo, el estar expuestas al combate, y las adversas experiencias de la niñez -una triple amenaza -pudieran encontrarse bajo un serio riesgo de estrés

Coparenting across the Deployment Cycle: Observations from Military Families with Young Children

“…In addition, parents may put in place family routines (Fiese, 2006) that can be maintained regardless of the service member’s status in the deployment cycle. Rituals that reinforce family cohesiveness and flexibility, and the enduring importance of an absent parent, can strengthen a young child’s sense of security and safety even when a parent is deployed (Acker, Nicholson, & DeVoe, 2019; Rogers-Baber, 2017).…”