Research Team Gains National Attention Treating Military Families

Very young children (birth to five) are disproportionately represented among military families who have served in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Further, almost half of those serving overseas are from the National Guard and Reserve components.  Unlike other service members, Guard Members and Reservists live in the community, are older than the traditional service member, and are more likely to have children and families.

For service members and their families, the transition home after returning from combat can be difficult. A School of Social Work research team, headed by Associate Professor Ellen R. DeVoe and Assistant Professor Ruth Paris, is addressing this problem in its current project, “Strong Families Strong Forces.”

In 2008, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued DeVoe and Paris a four-year grant to create a program for service families with children under the age of five. Partnered with the Massachusetts and Rhode Island National Guard and Reserves, the program specifically addresses families with a parent at the reintegration phase of the deployment cycle.

“We are focused on putting the service member’s relationship with his or her child back together as soon as possible.” said DeVoe, “We’re addressing the impact of the deployment separation on the child and the effects of war-zone related experiences on the service member and his or her parenting..”

Service members returning home can experience a range of responses to war exposure, including  post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, irritability, anxiety and depression. Under the best of circumstances, parenting very young children is a challenge. For the service member-parent, the normal strains of home life with babies, toddlers or preschoolers can be even more difficult to manage.

While the program is “purple,” that is, open to all branches of the military, the team works closely with the the National Guard’s Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program.

The research team began conducting individual interviews with service members and their spouses in November of 2008 to assess the need for such a program. A year later they introduced a pilot program among a sample of nine families. From this early exploratory work, it was discovered that there are very few, if any, services targeting military families with young children within the New England region. As a result, the team launched a randomized trial in which all families who enter the research will have the option to participate in the program

“We have been  well-received among military families,” said Project Director Abby Ross. “We aren’t seeing the same recruitment problems as other studies, part of that is because we are flexible to go to their houses on off hours and weekends.”

“The families get comfortable when they see us on the floor playing with the kids and when we’re all sitting around the kitchen table,” Paris said. “Our philosophy is community-based participatory research, a collaborative, bottom-up approach. We’re not coming in as experts on the military experience.”

Despite their unique challenges in dealing with deployment and reintegration, “our military families are doing well,” said Paris. “As a whole, these families are quite incredible.”

Concentrating on addressing parenting stress and the child-parent relationship, their work is already showing signs of success. “Our program does not carry the stigma of a traditional mental health service.” DeVoe said. “Families are very interested in participating because of the focus on young children.”

“We have seen from our pilot work that we will have an impact,” said Paris. “So far the parents seem very pleased with the program and would like it to be longer. Parents say that communication is better between the parents and among all family members.”

DeVoe and Paris are generating a great deal of national interest. They have attended a number of conferences, and last July they were invited by the DoD to attend a meeting with five other principal investigators participating in Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs.

The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry is publishing an article on the team’s early conceptualization of the need for targeted services for military families with very young children. The article, titled “When a Parent Goes to War: Effects of Parental Deployment on Very Young Children and Implications for Intervention,” captures the state of the field as this research began.

With two years left in their grant, DeVoe and Paris have already approached the DoD pursuing another proposal based on their research. The team believes the program would work better as a preventive intervention that would support families throughout the lifecycle of deployment.

“While we believe our program will be helpful to families post-deployment, providing support for families beginning before a loved one deploys would be optimal.” said DeVoe.