News From the Cause
War's toll on teenagers (Stars and Stripes)
February 17, 2011
Most teenagers in military families probably don’t remember life before war and deployment. Having a parent in a war zone may not fit into typical teenage thought processes, but our kids aren’t typical. Military members are less than 1% of the American populace, government statistics say. Our teens’ experiences set them apart, but how much and for how long?
Michelle Sherman, Ph.D., director of the Family Mental Health Program at the Oklahoma City Veterans Affairs Hospital, said there is not enough research to define the long-term affects of deployment on military children.
Although this is the most studied war in U.S. history, she said, “We did not start to do research on these kids early enough in the ten years of this war to have longitudinal data, so the jury is out.”
However, there is growing evidence of the short-term effects on children of all ages, said Sherman, who is also a professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
Research shows that some, but not all, military kids are affected in various ways, she said, including “decreased academic function, emotional toll, increased utilization of mental health care, and significant increase in the use of psychiatric medications by military children in the years since the war began.”
Other research reveals increased doctor visits and higher blood pressure among kids whose parents were deployed in comparison to kids whose parents were home, she said.
The negative impact of war is probably greater for teens whose parents have combat-related mental health issues, like post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Most everybody I see with PTSD also has some depression, and there is strong research base looking at the affects of parental depression with a variety of negative outcomes for children,” said Sherman. click here to view more
