Developing Partnerships Between Schools and Installations to Support Military Families during Parental Absence

In an effort to build collaboration between military-connected schools and military installations a university research partnership examined the effects of military parental absence on students and families, including identification of protective factors and unmet needs. Researchers conducted informal conversations with 79 military-dependent spouses and 47 children in grades 6-12, military-connected school personnel, and installation personnel. Flyers were sent home with children requesting participation. Data were collected from seven sites in CONUS and OCONUS locations that spanned across all Service branches. Informal conversations were analyzed using NVivo.

Military spouses described child emotional (60.8%), behavioral (44.3%) and academic problems (16.5%) due to parental absence. The majority of participating spouses (95%) and children (96%) reported specific protective factors that seemed to help them cope with military work-related parental absence. The most often cited protective factor by spouses (38%) and children (45%) was electronic communication (e.g., Skype and Facebook) between the family and the absent Service Member. The second most often cited protective factor was the supportive school environment for spouses and individual coping skills for children.

Results from the spouse informal conversations indicated that 39% of spouses reported unmet needs during the Service Member’s absence. Two main areas emerged: individual child counseling and parental absence support programs targeted for young and older children.

Results from the child informal conversations indicated that 39% reported unmet needs. Five themes emerged: (1) offer more parental absence support programs (21%); (2) increase the availability of those support programs (11%); (3) offer peer mentoring programs (8.5%); (4) offer more base entertainment (8.5%); and (5) provide reintegration support.

Based on the results, several recommendations are proposed. First, provide opportunities for students to communicate with their absent parent. Second, offer standardized programs to help students and families during parental absences that can be adapted for all grade levels. Programs specific to military parental absence are currently rated as Unclear (i.e., insufficient empirical evidence) on the Clearinghouse Continuum of Evidence. Future directions include evaluation of existing informal or Unclear standardized school-based programs. In addition, it was recommended that Promising or Effective programs targeting social emotional competency and coping skills be adapted for military populations and evaluated for effectiveness. Future analysis will focus on analyzing conversations from school and installation personnel and developing a collaborative relationship between those settings.