Paternal Separation and the Military Dependent Child

Educators Supporting Families in Times of Crisis: Military Reserve Deployments

“…KEYWORDS: deployment, education, military, National Guard, reservists, youth RESEARCHERS HAVE ESTABLISHED that deployment of a family member can negatively impact children and adolescents emotionally, academically, and behaviorally (Abell, 2004;Heubner & Mancini, 2005;Hiew 1992;Levai, Kaplan, Ackermann, & Hammock, 1995;Yeatman, 1981). Researchers investigating the impact of wartime deployments have conducted studies with children of deployed family members during Operation Desert Storm (Cozza, Chun, & Polo, 2005;Jensen, Martin, & Watanabe, 1996;Peebles-Kleiger & Kleiger, 1994;Rosen, 1995) and with military families during routine deployments (Kelley, 1994).…”

Boundary Ambiguity and Ambivalence in Military Family Reintegration

“…Generally, researchers seem to conclude that, historically, the majority of military families weather separation and reintegration fairly well (Yeatman, 1981). However, there is certainly some quantitative evidence of distress and potentially impaired functioning in military families as one or more family members may have fantasies about what reunion and reintegration will be like that subsequently get shattered (Amen et al, 1988).…”

Parent-child separation: A comparison of maternally and paternally separated children in military families

“…The data provided evidence that the cycle of father separation and reunion affects a child's super-ego formation, the ability to tolerate object loss and the development of object relations. Further support for the development of childhood behavioral and somatic problems during father separation emerged from a survey of approximately 500 active-duty families served by a pediatric clinic at an Army hospital in Georgia (Yeatman, 1981). Results showed that at least one child in 66 percent of the families experienced behavioral or medical symptoms during the separation.…”