Recommended Directions for Future Research

Recommended Directions for Future Research
Compiled from the
CNA Workshop on the Scientific Study of Military Children
November 17 and 18, 2011
Washington, DC

The 2011 CNA Workshop on the Scientific Study of Military Children generated a range of ideas for future research on issues concerning military families; please find a synopsis below.

Future Research Area: Secure attachment
Secure attachment helps children have the necessary confidence to explore their environments and to turn to trusted adults for comfort and help. Studies of civilian children indicate that securely attached children have better socio-emotional and developmental outcomes and academic achievement. Family separations caused by military service pose challenges to secure attachment and should be studied so we can understand their impact and assess the applicability of civilian programs to military families for addressing secure attachment issues.

Future Research Area: Variation in ability to withstand stress
Variation in children’s temperaments and in their abilities to deal with stress are associated with individual differences in how well they cope with life’s challenges. Research is needed to better understand how the stresses of military life—deployments, reunions, injury, and death—affect different families and children of different ages and psychological profiles. The effects on children with pre-existing psychological or other conditions of being a member of a military family at time of war should also be examined.

Future Research Area: Positive youth development
Past research on the effects of parental deployment and injury generally looked for harmful effects on children. However, speakers at the 2011 CNA workshop suggested that most children are doing well despite the challenges they face. Workshop participants argued for a new research focus on positive youth development. Some of the speakers suggested that research should examine the positive roles of children’s involvement in productive activities (e.g., sports, music) and social engagement with friends.

Future Research Area: Psychological health of parents and intra-family conflict
Speakers at the CNA workshop discussed how parents’ psychological health was important for their children’s functioning. There is a need for research exploring such questions as, “What, specifically, are the healthy attitudes and behaviors of military parents whose children function well despite the stresses of being part of a military family at time of war?” (These attitudes and behaviors, once discovered, may be taught in parenting programs.)

Also, studies of civilian families presented at the workshop showed that conflict in the family has negative effects on children, suggesting the need to better understand how deployment, reunion, and injury of a military parent may increase family conflict and what can be done to reduce it.

Future Research Area: Long-term effects
The effects of deployment on children may be immediate (and dissipate or increase over time) or may not emerge until later. Several presenters at the CNA workshop emphasized the importance of conducting longitudinal research and tracking military children over time to understand how different effects may manifest themselves as children age.

Future Research Area: Methodologies
Much of the research regarding military children is based on “samples of convenience,” leaving it unclear whether the findings are applicable to other military children (i.e., those who were not studied). The research also relies heavily on information provided through questionnaires which, although useful, may be biased by respondents’ attitudes or their psychological health.

For their conclusions to be valid, researchers studying military children and families should follow the model used to study civilian families—systematically recruiting families and children who are representative of the larger group being analyzed, and complementing questionnaire-based research methods with objective methods, including observation and using standardized age-appropriate measures.

Future Research Area: The success of existing programs
The CNA workshop presentations indicated a need to evaluate existing interventions or service programs to determine how well they reduce stress, increase coping skills, promote resilience and well-being, and support attachments to key figures in the child’s life—all of which are associated with better outcomes for children. There was disagreement among workshop participants over whether such evaluations needed to be methodologically rigorous or could be based on educated/professional judgment. (Evidence from other efforts suggests that rigorous evaluations, the most exact being randomized controlled trials, are the most useful in determining whether programs are being implemented as intended and whether they are effective.)