Deployments put stress on women and children

More women than ever before have been deployed to overseas assignments during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terrorism.

Women make up about 16 percent of the 3.5 million people serving in the U.S. armed forces; they account for 38 percent of active duty personnel and are one out of every seven soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While having a deployed parent has always caused stress on the home front, researchers are just beginning to see the effects of so many women leaving the family for an extended time, says Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth, professor of family studies and the director of the Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University.

“We’re at a place similar to where we were years ago when we worried about women in the work force,” says Ms. Wadsworth. “It is hard research to do. Is it somehow worse for [deployed] mothers than it is for fathers? The answer is probably in some families, yes, because mothers are the primary parents when it comes to child care and other family scheduling. I think the degree for which it is difficult hinges on that and the character of the individuals in each family.”

George Mason University associate professor Mona Ternus, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserves, recently looked into the effects of deployment on women and their adolescent children. The study, “Military Women’s Perceptions of the Effect of Deployment on their Role as Mothers and on Adolescents’ Health,” interviewed 77 female service members who recently completed a deployment and were the mothers of children ages 10 to 18. She found that not only did the deployment have emotional impact, it also had health effects.

“War-induced separation impacts family life with unique stressors related to the dangerous aspects of deployment,” says Ms. Ternus, who is also director of academic outreach and distance education in George Mason’s College of Health and Human Services. “These military women believe in the mission. And what they believe in terms of their commitment and their work is very high. This is very much a personal part of their lives and a personal part of their own self-development that becomes a part of them.”

Ms. Ternus found that the female soldiers reported physical stress such as cough, headaches, joint pain, back pain, muscle aches, numbness/tingling, skin rashes, diarrhea, chest pain and breathing difficulty, as well as a correlation between the physical symptoms and the number of days deployed.

She also found that a longer deployment leads to increased risk behaviors among adolescent children such as non-accidental physical injury, physical fights, incidents involving weapons, cigarette smoking/ chewing tobacco, alcohol, illegal drug use, self mutilation, drop in school grades and attempted suicide.

Ms. Ternus points out that 75 percent of the families reported participating in risky behavior prior to deployment and between one and 10 risk behaviors during deployment.

“There are more than 3 million immediate family members of active-duty and reserve personnel, of whom approximately 400,000 are adolescents,” says Ms. Ternus. “Adolescence is a turbulent period with an increased number of risk behaviors. It follows that separation from the military mother during these potentially dangerous deployments has an impact on the adolescent.”

Karen Steiner, an Air Force Reserves major who recently completed a four-month deployment in Iraq, says she and her husband — both formerly served on active duty — thought they were prepared for her deployment. However, her daughter, 15, definitely acted up while her mother was away.

“She was like the poster child for adolescent behavior,” says Mrs. Steiner, who lives in Ohio. “She snuck out of the house and my husband was called by the police to pick her up. She also pierced the septum of her nose. My husband didn’t even notice.”

Mrs. Steiner says it is hard to know what is normal adolescent rebellion and what was brought on by the deployment, “but I don’t think this would have happened if I was home,” she said.

She also said returning home is also a hard part of being deployed.

“I wasn’t part of the routine,” she said. “It was almost like I was an outsider.”

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