Military Parents’ Stress Exposure Associated with Mental and Behavioral Health Outcomes among Their Young Children

项目总结/摘要： 尽管许多军人家庭成功地科普了战时的兵役，但越来越多的经验证据表明， 表明，相当一部分与军队有联系的儿童可能会经历负面后果，包括 心理健康问题、药物使用和自杀。先前的研究表明， 父母的部署和这些结果之间，但军事特定的压力源本身并不足以 解释了近200万与军队有联系的年轻人适应不良的风险。这一知识空白 表明需要研究更广泛的心理社会压力源，以更好地解释不良心理 和行为健康的结果。本研究采用了一种新颖的，家庭- 水平应力过程透镜，以考虑各种机制，通过这些机制，早期，慢性和最近的非军事 应激源可能与军人应激源联合收割机共同影响军人父母的心理健康， 完全解释与军事有关的年轻人中不良心理和行为健康结果的风险 孩子我们使用了来自国防部（DoD）千禧年队列家庭研究的次要数据 （MCFS），对9，872对已婚军人夫妇的纵向调查。MCFS项目和链接的档案国防部 数据集提供了一个独特的机会，探索家庭层面的压力过程，包括压力扩散，压力 敏感化、心理社会资源的沉默和压力的横向扩散。二元基线数据包括 服务成员（SM）和配偶的早期，慢性和最近的非军事应激源（例如， 童年虐待、与种族/族裔少数地位有关的压力以及最近的创伤性生活事件）、军事 应激源（例如，部署），心理社会资源，如应对和心理健康。3年时收集的数据 后续行动包括家长报告的儿童心理和行为健康的客观措施。使用结构 方程模型，我们将探讨非军事和军事压力源对心理健康的双向影响 每个家长和他们的伴侣。此外，我们将探讨每个父母的早期压力暴露和 心理社会资源影响近期压力源与自身及伴侣心理健康的关系 健康最后，我们将探讨父母的压力暴露与儿童的贫困风险之间的关系 心理和行为健康结果，考虑到父母的心理健康作为中介的作用，以及 对不同年龄和性别的儿童有不同的影响。研究结果将有助于加深对 压力过程在家庭系统成员之间的横向扩散。此外，与较新的 了解这些关系将有助于有针对性的预防， 采取干预措施，减少年幼军人儿童接触有毒应激的风险，支持 健康的家庭功能，并改善这些青年及其家庭的发展成果。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: Although many military families cope successfully with wartime military service, mounting empirical evidence suggests that a sizeable subset of military-connected children may experience negative consequences, including mental health problems, substance use, and suicidality. Prior research has demonstrated an association between parental deployment and these outcomes, but military-specific stressors alone do not adequately explain the risk for poor adjustment among nearly 2 million military-connected youth. This knowledge gap suggests the need to examine a broader spectrum of psychosocial stressors to better explain adverse mental and behavioral health outcomes in this vulnerable sub-population. The present study employs a novel, family- level stress process lens to consider various mechanisms through which early, chronic, and recent non-military stressors may combine with military stressors to influence the mental health of military parents and more completely explain risk for adverse mental and behavioral health outcomes among young military-connected children. We use secondary data from the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Millennium Cohort Family Study (MCFS), a longitudinal survey of 9,872 married military couples. The MCFS project and linked archival DoD datasets offer a unique opportunity to explore family-level stress processes, including stress proliferation, stress sensitization, muting of psychosocial resources, and lateral proliferation of stress. Dyadic baseline data includes measures of service member’s (SM) and spouses’ early, chronic, and recent non-military stressors (e.g., maltreatment in childhood, stress related to racial/ethnic minority status, and recent traumatic life events), military stressors (e.g., deployment), psychosocial resources like coping, and mental health. Data collected at 3-year follow-up include parent-reported and objective measures of child mental and behavioral health. Using structural equation modeling, we will explore the dyadic effects of non-military and military stressors on the mental health of each parent and their partner. Further, we will explore whether each parents’ early stress exposure and psychosocial resources affect the relationship between recent stressors and their own and their partner’s mental health. Finally, we will explore the relationship between parents’ stress exposure and children’s risk for poor mental and behavioral health outcomes, considering the role of parents’ mental health as a mediator, as well as differential effects for children of different ages and genders. Findings will lead to increased understanding of the lateral proliferation of stress processes among members of a family system. Further, consistent with newer approaches to health promotion, understanding these relationships will inform targeted prevention and intervention efforts to reduce risk associated with exposure to toxic stress in young military children, support healthy family functioning, and improve developmental outcomes for these youth and their families.