Protective and Moderating Factors for Illicit Substance Use Among Youth Experiencing Parental Deployment

Introduction

Relatively few studies have examined military children’s improvement of behavioral health outcomes in relation to their participation in a school-based health curriculum. Stronger evidence is needed to design appropriate prevention and intervention initiatives that support the mental health and academic needs of military children. This session will highlight the behavioral health outcomes of military children that participated in a school-based intervention. Variations in students’ health behavior outcomes, advocacy, and refusal skills will be presented to differentiate military children’s (N=3,545) responses as compared to non-military children and parental deployment status.  

Methods

Youth who reported being from a military family participated in an intervention designed to promote protective factors associated with delaying/preventing the onset of illicit substance use.  Analyses examined the prevalence of students’ intention to abstain from illicit substance use and prevalence of students’ intention to advocate to their peers to not use substances.  Additional analysis explored youth’s perception of risk associated with peer use of illicit substance use.  Associations were explored within responses to self-esteem, goal setting and decision-making skills, school engagement, and perception of risk associated with illicit substance use measures.  Additional examinations were made to differentiate among racial categories.

Results

Youth who reported being from a military family evidenced higher resiliency skills as compared to their counterparts.  Additional findings revealed:

• 68% of military youth and 69% of non-military youth experienced a high agreement in their preparedness to tell their friends to resist drugs
• 56% of the military youth that reported their father is deployed experienced a high agreement in their preparedness to tell their friends to resist drugs
• 78% of military youth and 80% of non-military children experienced a high agreement in their preparedness to refuse illicit substances
• 75% of the military youth that reported their father is deployed experienced a high agreement in their preparedness to refuse illicit substances

Additionally, during this session presenters will discuss the complex findings associated with youth who reported having a family member in the military and or parental deployment.

Conclusions

The findings presented will provide an enhanced understanding about the intervention’s feasibility in promoting military youth’s healthy behaviors.  These analyses have implications for scientific understanding of the complexities youth experience during parental deployment. Results can assist in developing targeted strategies to enhance wellbeing among military youth who are experiencing a parental deployment.