July 31, 2007 (Insidermedicine) Here is an important study from the Journal of the American Medical Association…..It seems that even the children of those enlisted are at risk during times of war…. But unfortunately the threat is much closer to home.

There has been a lot of research that has looked at the stress of military. Most studies have focused on the risk of anxiety and depression following combat. But being in the military is also hard on those close to the men and women who serve. Military action has been linked to stress and problems with behaviour among children in army families. It also has been associated with higher levels of stress among the parents left at home, which may make them unable to properly care for their children.

Because of this, researchers were interested in finding out if children of those in the military were at higher risk of being neglected or abused at times when a parent was away seeing military action.

To perform their study, the researchers studied nearly 2,000 families over a 3-year period.
Here is what the results showed….first the bad news:
·       The rate of maltreatment was 42% higher during times of military action
and that during these times, the rate of neglect was twice as likely.

But the good news was that
·       Physical and emotional abuse was less during times of deployment.

These findings are very important, given that there are now more than one million military families in the US with children under age 18, and because we know that children who are maltreated are at increased risk for many problems. Like depression, and continual health problems that can extend into adulthood.

So if you are living with the stress of your partner’s deployment, please do your best to not let it impact your children. Seek help of family, friends, or medical professionals.

For Insidermedicine, I’m Dr. Susan Sharma.