That was one of the other things that really catalyzed our work in this field was, when we looked at
the proportion of military families who were out there, active - duty families with school age children and looked at where they were located state to state, base to base.
A growing body
of evidence suggests that stressors associated with war - related events may predispose youth to adverse outcomes.10 - 17 This stream
of research is consistent with
family systems theory, which suggests that the experiences
of a
military - connected parent will affect the functioning
of youth in that
family system.18 Although some studies have considered the impact
of military life during wartime, 12,17,19 to our knowledge, most researchers have examined negative outcomes associated specifically with deployments.1, 7,20 These studies have examined the psychosocial functioning
of children during the deployment
of a parent4, 14 or following 1 or multiple deployments.11, 13,21 Although many
military - connected youth fare relatively well despite stressors, these studies concluded that a sizeable
proportion appears to struggle with experiences
of deployment and other war - related stressors.