21:00 31 July 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Roxanne Khamsi
It is the last thing a beleaguered US military needs. The children of its soldiers deployed in war zones are suffering higher rates of maltreatment, a three-year study of US Army families has found.
The rate of overall child maltreatment by the civilian partners of soldiers increases by over 40% while their husbands serve in combat zones, while cases of specific neglect rise almost threefold, report researchers from RTI International, a non-profit institute primarily focused on health-related analyses in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, US.
The team believes that an inability to cope with the stressful situation might lead to such maltreatment, and say their findings highlight the need for better support services to reduce the strain on non-deployed spouses.
"Most military families do a great job of handling the stress" brought on by combat deployment, says RTI's Deborah Gibbs. And in fact, an earlier study she worked on suggested that, during peacetime, the rate of child maltreatment is lower among military families than non-military families.
But the findings of the new study will undoubtedly disconcert both supporters and critics of the US?s current combat commitments. As of late May, 40% of the 263,000 US troops deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq were parents. The current length of deployment for active Army units lasts 15 months.
Abuse and neglect
Between late 2001 and the end of 2004, Gibbs and her colleagues collected information on almost 3000 children from 1800 military families. In all, the researchers collated 3334 separate incidents of maltreatment.
During soldier deployments to combat zones, the rate of maltreatment rose 42%. The researchers adjusted the data to take account of multiple reports of abuse and neglect, both of which are considered a form of maltreatment. Overall, the researchers recorded 2392 incidents during 2,600,000 days when the children's army parent was not deployed, compared to 942 incidents during the 713,600 days of deployment in combat zones.
About two-thirds of the maltreatment cases involved child neglect. Looking specifically at these cases, the rate rose three-fold, from 605 over 967,362 days of non-deployment to 666 cases of neglect over 303,555 days of deployment.
"These findings were consistent, regardless of parents' age, rank or ethnic background, indicating that deployments are difficult for all kinds of families," says Gibbs. The researchers also saw a small increase in child maltreatment by male civilians whose soldier-wives were deployed, although this result was not statistically significant.
She says it is crucial that the US military strengthens its programs that support the parents who are left behind when spouses serve overseas.
'Family life consultants'
Lieutenant Colonel Ben Clark, deputy director of family programs for the US Army, based in Alexandria, Virginia, says the Army has been doing just that.
For example, there are programs in place to connect social workers and registered nurses with young spouses of soldiers who have several children. These meetings are meant to help the parents identify ways to arrange someone to watch their children while they run errands, for instance. And in 2005 the military began offering these civilian partners the help of "family life consultants" to assist them in overcoming the challenges of solo parenting.
This extra assistance is especially important as military families often have to move far away from their hometowns, where other relatives would be available to lend a helping hand.
Journal reference: Journal of the American Medical Association (vol 298, p 528-535, 2007)
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12392-going-to-war-leaves-us-soldiers-kids-at-risk.html
