Post-traumatic stress now a leading concern for military families

The nonprofit Blue Star Families surveys military families and identifies their Top 5 concerns. Other concerns include shrinking retirement benefits and the effect of deployment on kids.

|
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Troops at Bagram Air Base listen to President Obama speak during his visit to Kabul, Afghanistan, May 2.

A new survey that ranks the top struggles and worries of military families finds that after more than a decade of war, soldiers and their spouses are feeling isolated and financially strapped.

The vast majority – 95 percent – point to a civil-military divide, agreeing with the statement that most Americans “do not truly understand or appreciate the sacrifices made by service members and their families.” Another 40 percent say their community “did not embrace opportunities to help military children.”

For the first time, post-traumatic stress was a top concern for families – a development that the survey’s creators found “most surprising,” says Stephanie Himel-Nelson, spokesman for Blue Star Families, the nonprofit made up of troops, veterans, and their spouses that conducted the survey.

Equally surprising, she adds, is that of those who had reported post-traumatic stress in family members, more than 60 percent had not sought treatment for it.

“Post-traumatic stress has never been in the Top 5 [concerns] before,” Ms. Himel-Nelson says.

The questionnaire of some 4,200 military families is designed to uncover “key trends in military family relationships,” according to Blue Star Families. Conducted last November, it delves into views on stress, financial prospects, and the effects of deployments.

It finds that the prospect of shrinking retirement benefits is the No. 1 source of concern for 31 percent of the survey’s respondents. One-fifth cited potential changes in pay and benefits as their top concern, while 7 percent reported that the effect of deployment on their kids was No. 1. And for 6 percent, post-traumatic stress/combat stress was their No. 1 source of concern.

“Multiple deployments, longer separations and the sustained level of OPTEMPO [operational tempo] are taking their toll on military children,” the study notes. “There are lots whose parents have been gone more than half their lives,” adds Himel-Nelson.

According to another study by the RAND Corp., school-age children whose parents frequently deploy have a higher likelihood of developing behavioral problems. More than 60 percent of military families in the Blue Star Families survey said their child’s participation in extracurricular activities was negatively impacted by deployments.

Most of the survey’s respondents say they don’t feel that most Americans understand the plight of the military family. Though striking, the finding is not particularly surprising, Himel-Nelson argues, since less than 1 percent of Americans serve in the US military.

“It’s difficult if you’re not living the life to truly understand it,” she says. “We all agree that appreciation for the troops is so much higher than it was during the Vietnam era – and I don’t think that people are denying that.”

The scarcity of employment prospects for veterans – and the dearth of jobs for spouses of service members – rounded out the Top 5 concerns of respondents. More than half of spouses felt that being a military wife or husband had a negative impact on their ability to pursue a career. Of the 60 percent who were not currently employed, 53 percent said that they wanted to be.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Post-traumatic stress now a leading concern for military families
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2012/0514/Post-traumatic-stress-now-a-leading-concern-for-military-families
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe