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Children and deployment

a cross country comparison

Open access

Children and deployment

a cross country comparison

Open access

Samenvatting

Temporary parental absence is not unique to military families; various jobs in different industries involve work-related travel. Parental separation as a result of military deployment, however, differs from regular business travel, because it involves the risk that military personnel may be injured, or even killed, while performing their duties abroad. It is one of the unique characteristics and challenges of military life, and, presumably, the most serious concern experienced by spouses and children of deployed military personnel (Booth et al., 2007). With the evolution of professional all-volunteer militaries in many countries, the workforce demographic has changed from mainly young unmarried men to largely married military personnel who have children. As a result of military deployments, large proportions of spouses and children miss their loved ones on a regular basis and for prolonged periods of time. Moreover, military-induced separations disrupt the daily organization of family life and create temporary single-parent households. Service members’ departures and their returns both change the composition of the family, requiring adaptation by children and parents. Today, dual-income families are quite common, and trends in society away from traditional to more egalitarian family relations have led to more equally divided tasks and responsibilities within the household. During military deployments, however, nondeployed spouses typically need to take care of daily household and parenting tasks alone, while managing their careers and work responsibilities. This can result in role overload and conflict between job and family demands. Upon the service member’s return, family members face the challenges of reintegration, renegotiation (for example of family roles and rules), and reconnecting. The various challenges and stressors of militaryinduced separations are likely to impact family members’ well-being and family relationships. This chapter addresses the impact of military deployment on children and parents by providing a cross-country comparison of data collected in Canada and the Netherlands. Guided by the conceptual framework developed by Coulthard (2011) on the basis of earlier theoretical and empirical insights, we describe the stressors that families with children face, the risk and protective factors that can be identified, the impact on children’s and parents’ well-being, and the potential effects on organizational outcomes.

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Trefwoorden
Gepubliceerd inMilitary families and war in the 21st century Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon, Pagina's: 177-190
Jaar2015
TypeBoekdeel
ISBN978-0-203-40753-0
TaalEngels

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