KING’S: IMPACT OF HAVING A MILITARY DAD ON SERVICE FAMILIES

KIDS STUDY NEWSLETTER

KING’S CENTRE FOR MILITARY HEALTH RESEARCH

Hello again. In the last three years, you and your family took part in a US

Department of Defense-funded research project looking at having a father in the military (KIDS study) based at King’s College London. This involved answering questionnaires to look at the impact of military service and deployment on fathers and their children and families. More than 600 families took part in this project.

We would like to thank you and your family for taking part. We would like to keep you up to date on a few of the findings from our research so far and let you know what research we have planned.

What are we going to do with this information?

The main results of the study are still being analysed to make sure we report everything correctly. We expect these results to be published in scientific journals over the next couple of months. If you would like to see these articles, keep an eye on our website.

No data linking your participation to this project will be included; it will all be anonymous. With the answers you have given us, we hope that this information will help influence how, if needed, families are supported in dealing with military service and deployment.

Just to recap...

The KIDS study aimed to look at the ups and downs of military service and deployment, and how this may affect fathers who have been in the military and their families. In order to look at this, we asked you to complete questionnaires online and answer questions on the telephone. We asked questions about you and your family’s health and wellbeing

and how you get along as a family. Some of your children’s teachers answered questions on how they thought your children were getting along at school to give us a picture of military children outside the family home n

What type of people took part?

Below are a few graphs showing what type of personnel and children took part. We had over 600 families participate.

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Keeping up to date

We hope you have found this newsletter interesting and useful and we would like to take this opportunity to thank you once again for your continued support in this valuable health research. We hope you continue to support our research in the future.

If you would like to keep up to date with current news and information you can follow us on Twitter @kcmhr or check out our website ww.kcl.ac.uk/kcmhr. Here you can find more information about our studies as well as a list of publications and our 15 year report, which summarises our work to date n

What’s it like to be part of a military family?

We asked adolescents aged 11-16 years old what they thought of having a father in the military.

Here are some of the positive experiences that were mentioned:

Here are some of the difficulties that were mentioned:

“He fights for the country and helps

people.”

“He is sometimes posted in foreign

places and we don’t see him for ages.”

“I meet loads of friends, been to lots

of houses and been to different countries.”

“I’m proud of him, where he’s been and

what he’s seen.”

“Moving around and going to different

schools.”

“I don’t like it when he goes away for long

periods of time because I miss him.”

“I get to travel to different places and meet different

people.”

“We have to leave friends and family

behind when we move.”

“He’s a hero and he’s saving people’s

lives.”

ADVANCE studyThe ADVANCE study has been set up to investigate the possible medium to long-term impact on the health and wellbeing of service personnel returning seriously injured from deployment to Afghanistan. We are also exploring the feasibility of designing and implementing add-on studies that will look at the health and wellbeing of family members of ADVANCE study participants.

Phase I of the ADVANCE family study will explore, in depth, the different types of family structures and support networks surrounding these service personnel. It is hoped that this work will inform Phase II of this study and further research in this area.

Since the impact on family members who care for severely injured service personnel in the UK is not widely documented, we hope to be able to fill this gap in research by setting up this longitudinal study.

Impact of conflict on the personal relationships of the UK military It is well documented that aspects of military lifestyle, especially separations caused by deployments, can have a negative impact on personal relationships of military personnel. Research investigating the impact of military lifestyle on the civilian spouse suggests that spouses’ ability to cope during separations, readjust when reunited and manage possible psychological symptoms in their returned husbands, may have an impact on their wellbeing and marital relationships.

Research examining deployment experiences of the military husband

and the effect on personal relationships indicates that certain characteristics of deployment may lead to post-deployment difficulties which adversely affect marital relationships through related mental health difficulties.

This PhD focuses on the UK military to investigate romantic relationships and the impact of military lifestyle, especially deployment. Data from the existing KCMHR cohort study is being used along with new qualitative data collected via semi-structured interviews.

What’s it like to have a partner in the UK military? The social and psychological experiences of women Military families experience unique stressors as a result of the frequent relocations and disruptive separations and reunions that dominate military life.

While there has been a lot of research on how military service impacts the health of UK military personnel, little evidence exists on the health and wellbeing of their spouses and partners (S/Ps). The available evidence suggests from US studies that military life can have negative implications for the social wellbeing and employment outcomes of military partners, with further impacts for mental health and marital relationships.

This PhD will investigate social and mental health and wellbeing of military S/Ps in the UK and determine which social and military factors are influential in social and mental health outcomes. It will also add to the growing field of research in this area by developing an understanding of the factors that influence wellbeing among military partners during relocation n

*King’s Centre for Military

Health Research,King’s College London,

Weston Education Centre, Cutcombe Road, London SE5 9RJ

)Telephone:

020 7848 0230

Fax: 020 7848 5397

@space-study@kcl.ac.uk

8www.kcl.ac.uk/kcmhr @kcmhr

An update on our other studies