The Effects of Stress and Social Support on Externalizing Behaviors Among Children in Military Families

ABSTRACT

Drawing on social support theory, this study examines the main and interactive effects of parental perceived stress and social support on externalizing behaviors in military youth. Findings reveal that not only do social support and stress affect the conduct of military children, but social support also moderately buffers the effects of parental stress. Given the increasing distance between military and American culture, more generally, this research is one opportunity to make sense of contradictory expectations about the well-being of military youth. In doing so, it provides implications for how a more supportive organization can benefit military families.

Notes

¹ According to this report: “children include minor dependents age 20 or younger or dependents age 22 and younger enrolled as full-time students” (2010:59).

² See Anda et al. (2006) for a thorough review of this literature.

³ However, the same work shows higher indications of depression and suicide ideation for this group (Wickman et al. 2010).

⁴ We chose a target age of six because children are usually in school by this age and are starting to gain some independence from their parents. Six is also an age when children are starting to develop skills on how to handle their emotions. As a result, displays of externalizing behavior are considered problematic at this age. Furthermore, the Behavioral Problem Index, which measures externalizing behaviors, can be administered on children as young as the age of four (Mott 1995).

⁵ Although not ideal in terms of obtaining a representative sample of military children more broadly, this was the access we were able to obtain after several efforts to obtain access to military personnel through the U.S. military. Lack of funding and additional support from the Department of Justice proved to be prohibitive to systematically accessing military personnel and/or their partners and spouses.

⁶ One respondent who indicated that her child was 45 years old was excluded from the current analyses. In this study, we also sought to survey military personnel; however, only 33 military personnel responded. As a result of the small number, these were also excluded from the analyses.

⁷ All of those who responded to the questions at the end of the survey asking participant “gender” and “marital” status indicated they were female and married. However, because of missing data on these questions (likely as a result of their placement at the end of a lengthy questionnaire) respondents are described as “military partners” to allow for the possibility that those with missing data on these variables were non-married and/or male. This representation of female married spouses was not intentional. We solicited information from both military personnel and partners of military personnel who were either married or co-habiting. The much higher response rate by female military spouses (only 33 military personnel responded to the separate survey) is likely a result of our sampling frame. Most active members of the NMFA are female spouses of military men. This pattern of spouses as female, however, is consistent with the patterns among the military more generally. According to the 2010 Department of Defense Demographics report, the vast majority of military spouses are female (93.1% for Active Duty and 88.1% for Reserve Component spouses).

⁸ Although a random sample of military spouses was not obtained in this work, some comparative points are worth noting. The 2010 Department of Defense Demographics report indicates the majority of military personnel who have children are married. The average age of Active Duty enlisted members’ spouses is 29.5, officers’ spouses is 36.3, Selected Reserve (Reserve and Guard) enlisted is 35.0, and Selected Reserve officers’ spouses is 40.3. Given our sample includes mostly Active Duty spouses (89%) it may be that they are older than the average Active Duty spouse. For both Active Duty and Selected Reserve Members, the average number of children (when having any children) is 2.0. Only employment data for Active Duty spouses are provided and indicate that nearly half are employed either in the armed forces or in civilian labor force (42% spouse report and 48% member report). Additional population characteristics (such as race/ethnicity) for military spouses are not provided.

⁹ Factor analyses using principal factors method with varimax rotation suggest that the items load on a unitary factor for the measure of externalizing behaviors, military services, social support, and stress (results are available upon request).

¹⁰ We chose to only ask about the oldest child’s level of externalizing behavior for two reasons. First, this procedure eliminated any potential for clustering of responses. More specifically, the answers to many questions would have been the same for both siblings within the home (i.e., amount of stress, social support, military services, relocation, deployment, occupational status, etc.). As a result, to avoid duplicating information (clustering of subjects), we chose to examine only the oldest child’s level of externalizing behavior. Second, we selected the oldest child in a family (rather than allowing the parent to randomly select a reference child) because late childhood and adolescence are periods of time when externalizing behaviors are considered non-age appropriate.

¹¹ These two broad categories represent categories of military pay grade that relate to military rank.

¹² Although the results from the t-tests and correlation analyses show a non-significant relationship between some of our control variables, independent variables, and dependent variables, we retained them all in our analyses for theoretical reasons. We did, however, replicate our analyses with some of the control variables removed and the results remained virtually identical to those presented here (and are available on request).

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank the Pennsylvania State University’s Social Science Research Institute for awarding a level 1 social science research grant that provided funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Jennifer Sumner

JENNIFER SUMNER is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Her primary research interests address the relationship between corrections policy, practice and culture, and gender and sexuality. Most recently, her research examines transgender populations within the criminal justice system.

Danielle Boisvert

DANIELLE BOISVERT is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Sam Houston State University. Her key research interests include life-course/developmental criminology, biosocial criminology, and child development. Her research focuses mainly on the examination of genetic and environmental influences on a variety of delinquent and criminal behaviors throughout the life course.

Judith P. Andersen

JUDITH P. ANDERSEN is a health psychologist whose research interests focus on the biopsychosocial mechanisms by which stress impacts mental and physical health. Her ongoing research projects include resilience training and research on the health and performance outcomes of psychophysiological stress intervention techniques for civilians, police, and military personnel.