Program Offers Help for At-Risk Kids of Military Families
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New York -- A decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has taken its toll on children whose parents are deployed, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Washington School of Public Health. The study, of more than 10,000, 8th, 10th and 12th-grade students, found that boys especially have been affected by the stress of a parent’s deployment. Researchers wrote that they are more likely to engage in high-risk behavior, experience low self esteem and suffer from depression and suicidal thoughts. The study was conducted in Washington state, home to 60,000 active-duty service members. “It’s really time to focus on the children that are left behind,” said Sarah Reed, the lead author of the report, “Adolescent well-being in Washington state military families,” published last week in the American Journal of Public Health.
