Session Summaries

CNA in November 2011 funded and hosted a scientific workshop on the well-being of military families and children. CNA planned the workshop in collaboration with several other organizations, including the Military Child Education Coalition, Blue Star Families, the Center for a New American Security, Joining Forces, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

The workshop aimed to provide an opportunity for an exchange of information and ideas between researchers and other stakeholders who don’t frequently communicate. Although this is changing, researchers of civilian children and family issues don’t frequently collaborate with researchers who focus on military children and families. Conferences focused on military children and families rarely include leading researchers of civilian children and family issues, and vice versa. Moreover, funders of research and policy-makers who promote research on children and families don’t frequently have an opportunity to learn about the research needs pertaining to military families and children.

CNA designed this workshop to provide a forum for these parties to come together. Leading researchers from different areas of the scientific community, as well as policy-makers and funders of research, were invited to participate. (To view the full titles and affiliations of conference speakers, click here.) In addition, some military families and children were invited to talk to the workshop participants about their experiences, providing the context of some reallife experiences. The workshop was organized with two main goals in mind: 1) To chart a scientific research agenda for studies on military children and families and 2) To propose an implementation plan to bring this agenda to fruition.

To download a brief overview of the workshop proceedings, click here.

(Read Blue Star Families CEO Kathy Roth-Douquet’s summary of the workshop “The Scientific Study of the Military Child” posted on the Joining Forces section of whitehouse.gov)