Identifying and Describing School-Based Support for Military-Connected Youth: Who and How

Military families have been shown to face a number of challenges such as recurrent separations, relocation, psychological problems and risk of death of the service member, and lengthy deployments. (Drummet, Coleman, & Cable, 2003; Park, 2011). Children of active military members may experience stressors (e.g., frequent school transitions, lack of constant student-teacher relationship) and unique barriers (e.g., frequent geographic relocation) as a result of parental deployment (Mmari, Bradshaw, Sudhinaraset & Blum, 2010). Studies have found that these stressors may have a negative impact on the child’s psychological wellbeing and academic performance (Chandra et al., 2009; De Pedro et al., 2011; Jensen, Martin, & Watanabe, 1996; Lester et al., 2010; Ruff & Keim, 2014). Unfortunately, little is known as to whether schools can offer this support or have the resources and infrastructure in place.

The aims of this study were to identify schools and school districts within the United States serving military-connected students and describe: (1) those school’s characteristics; (2) types of programs they have; (3) whether they view their efforts to support military-connected students as effective; (4) what challenges and successes they have had; (5)what information is given to them or gathered by them about their military-connected students; (5) whether they view services used to support other students as feasible for military-connected students. We expected to see differences in support by school districts proximity to a military base and their available resoures. 

Participants were identified by contacting schools that receive Department of Defense grants, Federal Impact Aid, are located geographically adjacent to a military base, and by posting research study announcements to listservs. Participants included school personnel who were familiar with their school’s or school district’s efforts to support military-connected students in the elementary grades. Participants were asked to complete an online survey that consisted of open and closed ended questions and rating scales. Participants were queried about their school’s or school district’s demographics, information they receive and/or gathered about their military-connected students, and efforts to support and engage military-connected students and their families. Participants also provided ratings on their level of agreement (1=strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree) on statements about their strategies, challenges and successes to support military-connected students, and ratings on how feasible (1=Not at all to 5= Extremely) they thought it would be for schools/districts to provide services used to support other students to military-connected students.

First, descriptive information was provided detailing school and district efforts to engage and support military-connected students. Next, descriptive analyses were performed to obtain frequencies and percentages. Correlational analyses were executed to determine if certain characteristics were associated with higher ratings of effectiveness. Implications for intervention efforts will be discussed.