Adjustment among youth in military families: The protective roles of effortful control and maternal social support

Abstract

This study examined coping, effortful control, and mental health among 65 youth (ages 9–15) residing in families where at least one parent was serving in the United States military. Parents provided basic demographic and deployment information. Youth reported on their coping, effortful control, and adjustment using standardized self-report measures. Results indicate that youth residing in military families report elevated levels of conduct problems according to established clinical norms. However, study findings also indicate that effortful control and maternal support act as important protective factors against the development of conduct problems and emotional symptoms, whereas avoidant coping is associated with greater emotional symptoms. No significant differences emerged among youth of recently deployed versus non-deployed parents. Findings are discussed in light of current stressors on military youth and families, and in terms of their implications for successful intervention and prevention programming.

Introduction

Military-wide, there are approximately 1.5 million children and adolescents living in active duty, ready reserve and National Guard military families in the United States (Department of Defense, 2005, Lamberg, 2004). A recent report released by RAND's Center for Military Health Policy Research (2008) found that 14% of recently deployed individuals screened positively for PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and major depression. Many of these individuals are likely to be parents, and research on the impact of deployment on children and adolescents is strikingly absent. In the past, children and adolescents of reservists usually recognized that their parents had regular, full time jobs outside the military with only part-time and generally non-threatening military service obligations. However since late 2001, a significant proportion of these youth have been and remain impacted by family separations prompted by the military service of their parents in support of war efforts in or near Afghanistan and Iraq, forcing many of these children to cope with their parents being in life threatening situations. Indeed, military leadership has expressed concern about the growing number of adolescent military children experiencing mental health problems and exhibiting adjustment difficulties through involvement in youth violence, substance abuse, and gang activity (Shelton, 2003). Despite these concerns, there is little research on children and adolescents residing in military families. In response, the purpose of the current investigation was to examine adjustment among a sample of older children and young adolescents whose parents were active in the U.S. military, and to explore factors that may influence their adjustment such as coping, social support, and emotion regulation.

The lack of research on children and youth in military families is surprising given that children of active and reserve duty United States service members face many stressors that test their personal and familial coping resources. In today's political climate of general uncertainty and war, the occurrence of longer and more numerous parental separations from the family unit has become more commonplace. In addition, not since the Vietnam War have children and adolescents residing in military families had to cope with such dangerous and uncontrollable events affecting the core of their social support network. Events such as repeated separations via the voluntary or involuntary activations of parents (mothers and/or fathers), as well as children's awareness of the nature of their parents' military service, can be a source of significant stress among military children. These stressful circumstances can prompt adjustment difficulties such as depression, anxiety, and conduct problems (Horton, 2005, Shelton, 2003) due to possible strains on military family youth's coping capabilities as well as their internal and external resources.

In one of the few studies to examine mental health among military children and adolescents, Jensen et al. (1995) found that levels of psychopathology were not higher among military children and adolescents, ages 6 to 17, compared to community sample levels. Jensen et al. argued that these findings are in line with other studies (Jensen et al., 1986, Kenny, 1967, Morison, 1981) that indicate conduct problems are at lower levels among children in military families, and that this may be due to high degrees of parental control and authority (although most studies examining children and youth not in military families find that harsh control is actually associated with increased conduct problems; Bugenthal & Grusec, 2006). Jensen et al.'s study did not occur during or after a period of sustained military conflict. Thus, it is not clear if such results are generalizable to today's current military families given the changes in circumstances. Additionally, more current research suggests that children from military families do experience adjustment difficulties prompted by particular stressors such as frequent family relocations, maternal functioning difficulties, and school changes (Horton, 2005, Strobino and Salvaterra, 2000, Weber and Weber, 2005). Thus, in the current study we examined emotional and behavioral symptomatology among youth in military families during a time of extended war.

Vulnerability to behavioral and psychological maladjustment significantly increases when a person experiences stressful events (Printz, Shermis, & Webb, 1999). Moreover, an accumulation of unresolved stress, such as recurring parental deployments, likely increases one's susceptibility to maladjustment (Printz et al., 1999, Wertlieb et al., 1987). Thus, learning to cope with stress and related emotions in adaptive and constructive ways is an important skill that children and adolescents need to learn in order to be well-adjusted (Eisenberg and Morris, 2002, Eisenberg et al., 2002). Coping is typically defined in the literature as the broad interrelationship among emotion, cognition, and behavior during efforts to prevent or manage general distress (Sandler, Tein, Mehta, Wolchik, & Ayers, 2000). In stressful situations children and adolescents learn to assess how useful particular coping strategies are, how to match them to the demands of a situation, and how to integrate them into a larger range of self- regulatory processes as the child psychologically matures (Diamond & Aspinwall, 2003).

Ayers, Sandler, West, and Roosa (1996) developed and tested a multi-dimensional model of coping for preadolescents. The dimensions of the model included active coping, support seeking, distraction, and avoidance. Distinct from the majority of previous research, the avoidance and distraction strategies were separated. The avoidance dimension is defined as a cognitive strategy with a behavioral component (e.g., avoiding thinking about or exposure to stressful situations). The distraction dimension is described as a behavioral strategy involving the use of an activity to take the child's mind off the stressor (Ayers et al., 1996). Several studies have noted links between the use of avoidant coping strategies and higher rates of maladjustment, namely depression, anxiety, and conduct problems (Sandler, Tein, & West, 1994). Though generally avoidant coping is related to poorer outcomes, this stance does not necessarily hold in situations viewed by the child as uncontrollable and where avoidance might prevent a negative escalation of the situation (Eisenberg, Fabes, Nyman, Bernzweig, & Pinuelas, 1994). Distraction coping strategies have only scant findings available, as in past research distraction was often combined with avoidant strategies (Ayers et al., 1996). However, it is expected that distraction may be a less negative form of coping compared to avoidance, as it is viewed as a more temporary coping strategy (Sandler et al., 1994).

Active coping strategies involve problem-focused, approach strategies where an individual directly tries to alter the stressful problems or emotional reaction to the stressor (Compas, Connor-Smith, Saltzman, Thomsen, & Wadsworth, 2001). A review of the literature regarding active coping indicates that these strategies are correlated with successful child adjustment to stress (Sandler et al., 2000). For example, Eisenberg et al. (1995) found that instrumental problem-focused coping was associated with positive outcomes, especially when the stressor was perceived by the child as controllable. In addition, adolescents' use of problem solving strategies has been found to be positively associated with perceptions of controllability (Roecker, Dubow, & Donaldson, 1996), lower rates of depression and adjustment problems (Losoya, Eisenberg, & Fabes, 1998), and greater self-efficacy (Sandler et al., 1994). Thus, adolescents generally experience better adjustment when approaching or engaging with the stressor (Silk, Steinberg, & Morris, 2003) and when utilizing fewer avoidant strategies (Hardy, Power, & Jaedicke, 1993).

Support seeking, actively seeking support from family, peers, or an older adult in times of stress, is often considered an active coping strategy. Support seeking specifically has received little attention in current research. There is some evidence that support seeking may be related to more negative outcomes. For example, there appears to be a positive path from support seeking coping to depression and anxiety (Sandler et al., 1994). Yet, no adaptive explanation for such a differential effect has been suggested, and it may be that seeking support is a natural response in highly distressing situations. In contrast, because support seeking is a more active, problem-solving strategy, it may be associated with more positive outcomes (Wadsworth & Compas, 2002). Thus, evidence on whether or not support seeking is an effective coping strategy is not yet clear from the literature. However, it should be noted that support seeking as defined here and by Sandler et al. (1994) does not include the quality of support received.

In addition to coping, the ability to regulate negative emotions related to stress is an important factor in understanding adjustment (Eisenberg & Morris, 2002). The temperamental construct of effortful control is often assessed as an indicator of children's emotion regulation (Eisenberg, Morris, & Spinrad, 2005). Although emotion regulation also involves socialization and cognitive processes (see Eisenberg and Morris, 2002, Morris et al., 2007), effortful control is considered one component of emotion regulation because it impacts abilities to regulate emotion via effortful control of attention and emotion related behaviors and impulses (Eisenberg & Zhou, 2000). Specifically, effortful control refers to a child's ability to utilize attentional resources and to inhibit behavioral responses in order to regulate behaviors and emotions. Effortful control over emotions can be viewed as a specific, emotion-focused type of coping (for more on the relation between effortful control/emotion regulation and coping see Losoya et al., 1998, Silk et al., 2003). Low effortful control has been linked to aggression and behavioral problems in youth (Eisenberg et al., 1996, Rothbart et al., 1994) and longitudinal studies indicate that poor effortful control is associated with emotional and behavioral problems in adolescence (Henry, Caspi, Moffitt, & Silva, 1996), and interpersonal conflict in adulthood (Newman, Caspi, Moffitt, & Silva, 1997). Researchers believe that links between poor effortful control and adjustment problems occur because emotional arousal interferes with problem solving efforts (Altshuler & Ruble, 1989) and can lead to emotional outbursts (Frick & Morris, 2004). Poor effortful control also can hinder social functioning (Diamond & Aspinwall, 2003), as social interaction problems can result from children and adolescents' failure to acquire the skills needed to manage emotional arousal and emotional responses (Calkins et al., 1999, Zeman et al., 2002).

Due to the added stress that can occur in military families, it is likely that effortful control and coping play important roles in adjustment among youth residing in military families. However, little is known regarding these processes among this population. Thus, one purpose of this study was to explore whether or not factors such as effortful control and coping are beneficial in the adjustment of youth in military families. Another potentially important factor to consider in the adjustment of this population is parental support.

The parent–child relationship has been found to be a strong predictor of child and adolescent functioning across developmental domains (Parke and Buriel, 2006, Steinberg and Morris, 2001). Studies indicate that youth whose parents are unresponsive and inconsistent are more likely to suffer from emotional and conduct problems (Bugenthal and Grusec 2006, Messer and Gross, 1995, Parke and Buriel, 2006). In contrast, parents who are warm and directive have children who are independent, socially responsible, and do well in school (Baumrind 1971, Maccoby and Martin, 1983). Parental responsiveness specifically has been linked to a variety of positive outcomes in many studies and to lower levels of problem behavior in general (Bugenthal and Grusec 2006, Steinberg and Morris, 2001). Responsive parents are characterized by high levels of sensitivity to their children's needs and are perceived as accessible by their children. This sensitivity and accessibility aids children in self-regulation and in the management of distress (Bugenthal & Grusec, 2006).

Thus, what has been referred to as social support in the literature more broadly, individuals feeling that they are valued and cared for (Cobb, 1976, McLoyd, 1990), can be viewed as a form of responsive parenting in the context of helping a child during times of distress. Dubow, Edwards, and Ippolito (1997) and Dubow and Tisak (1989) have examined family support specifically as a protective factor against the negative impact of stress. Their research indicates that family support buffers the negative effects of stressful life events on antisocial behavior and that family support is related to lower levels of conduct problems among youth. Additionally, Dubow et al. (1997) found that peer support had a negative impact on inner-city youth, actually exacerbating the effect of stressors on maladjustment. Thus, it is important to consider the source of social support. Among military families where peer groups are often changing as a result of frequent moves (Weber & Weber, 2005), the family is even more likely to be influential.

In the current study, family support was separated into maternal support and paternal support in order to identify actual sources of support, and because it is likely that parental support will vary based on deployment status (i.e., if one parent is away for an extended period of time). Moreover, research indicates that fathers play a differential role in children's socio-emotional development (e.g., McDowell, Parke, & Wang, 2003); thus, it is important to examine maternal and paternal support separately when examining adjustment. This is particularly important in military families where one parent, usually the father, is often away from home for extended periods of time due to deployments.

In addition to examining main effects of parental social support on adjustment, we also examined effortful control and coping as potential mediators between social support and youth adjustment. Indeed, research indicates that one of the ways in which parenting impacts youth's adjustment is via its effects on children's effortful control and coping (Morris et al., 2007). Several studies support this claim. Contreras, Kerns, Weimer, Gentzler, and Tomich (2000) found that the association between maternal attachment and peer competence was explained by the effects of attachment on children's constructive coping. Eisenberg and colleagues have demonstrated that emotion regulation is a link between parenting and youth adjustment in several studies (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 2001, Eisenberg et al., 2003). For example, they found that the effects of parental behavior on children's externalizing behavior were indirect through children's regulation of emotion (Eisenberg, Losoya et al., 2001). Thus, it is important to consider the possible mediating role of effortful control and coping when examining the influence of parental social support on adjustment. This was an additional goal of the current investigation.

Sex differences also may impact the effects of coping, effortful control, and/or parenting on adjustment. Indeed, studies indicate sex differences in levels of effortful control and the socialization of emotion regulation. Girls are typically better regulated than boys, and this may be due to innate differences in reactivity levels (Morris et al., 2002). Some evidence suggests that parents encourage distraction and problem solving strategies more among boys than for girls (Eisenberg, Cumberland, & Spinrad, 1998). Moreover, research indicates that during early adolescence important sex differences emerge in psychopathology. Girls tend to suffer more from internalizing disorders such as depression, and boys tend to suffer more from externalizing disorders such as conduct disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Our study specifically focused on youth in late childhood/early adolescence. This is an important transition period given that recent research indicates that early adolescence is a developmental period of increased stress, emotional reactivity, and psychosocial vulnerability, and is a window of opportunity for research (Dahl, 2004, Steinberg et al., 2006). Moreover, many types of psychopathology emerge or intensify in adolescence (Kazdin, 1993) and understanding factors that influence adjustment, such as coping and effortful control, is crucial for this developmental period.

Review of the scant, current literature regarding military families indicates that children and adolescents from military families experience adjustment difficulties related to the stress of military life (Horton, 2005, Shelton, 2003, Strobino and Salvaterra, 2000, Weber and Weber, 2005). Yet, no previous research could be located specifically regarding effortful control and coping styles of military families and youth. This dearth of research highlights the absence of attention to military families, children, and adolescents in psychological research in general, which is unfortunate given that military youth often experience frequent and uncontrollable life disruptions in connection with the service obligations of their parents.

In response, the current study examined the role of effortful control and coping strategies in youth residing in military families. The focus is on youth in grades four through eight from a charter school designed to serve children from local military families. Military youth with currently non-deployed parents or parents deployed in the past year were involved. Specifically, the four types of coping identified by Ayers et al. (1996; active, support seeking, avoidance, and distraction), effortful control, maternal and paternal social support, and emotional symptoms and behavior problems among participating military youth were examined.

Youth with deployed parents were expected to report lower effortful control, less parental support, more negative coping strategies (e.g., avoidance), fewer positive coping strategies (e.g., active coping), and more symptoms of psychopathology (emotional symptoms and problem behavior) compared to children with non-deployed parents. It was hypothesized that active coping, low avoidance, high effortful control, and parental social support would be associated with better adjustment, acting as protective factors against the stress of having a parent in the military. The roles that support seeking and distractive coping would play in adjustment were uncertain, as past findings have been mixed (Sandler et al., 1994). As has been found in past studies, it was expected that the effects of parental social support (maternal and paternal) on symptomatology would be indirect via their impact on youth's effortful control and coping (mediated relationship). Sex differences in findings were explored as past studies have found differences among girls and boys in this age range, as is described above.

In addition to these hypotheses, we also expected that youth in military families would have elevated adjustment difficulties as indicated by norms for clinical symptomatology ranges. Our adjustment measure allows for a rough comparison of the current sample with community norms, as was done by Jensen et al. (1995) using other assessment protocols; however no inferential method for determining the magnitude of the exact differences is possible.