Child mental health outcomes in military families

ABSTRACT

Families that include a current or former member of the US Armed Services face unique challenges. These challenges center on three facets of military family life known to contribute to negative child mental health outcomes; mobility, family separation and parent health. The purpose of this study is to use the 2017–2018 National Survey of Children’s Health to understand children’s mental health outcomes in military and nonmilitary families. Parents of 39,465 United States children between the ages of 2 and 17 were surveyed about their child’s mental health and use of mental health services in the past 12 months. The association between mobility, family separation, parent health and child mental health are tested through two logistic regression analyses. Results indicate that current military families have a lower likelihood of reporting mental health problems in their children compared to nonmilitary and former military families. The potential reasons for the protective effect of military family status on child mental health problems may be related to the social networks available to active duty military families.

KEYWORDS:

• child health
• mental health
• families
• military service