Spring 2012 Inquiry Project

1. Cynda Tate and Ella Wilkie
Lester Spring Research Project

2. • There is an increasing amount of parental deployments in
the United States.
• The absence of the father increases anxiety and
depression in children.
• Children with deployed parents are often compared to
those without, which is how most of the studies have
been conducted.
• Parental deployments lead to a complete change in daily
life, often times being a more troubling routine.
• It is often argued whether having deployed parents is a
catastrophic event, but it is proven that children in the
situation face unique challenges that others do not have
to endure.

4. • Often times, families hear false information about injuries,
leading to more stress and worry.
• These illnesses alter children’s daily lives, in many cases
causing families schedules to be disrupted in many ways.
• Illnesses cause children to spend many hours at the
hospital or even be in the care of another adult.
• Children have to be mentally strong to see their parent in
such bad conditions.
• Depending on the age and maturity of the child, it is hard
for them to understand the severity of the injury and the
reason why it happened.

5. • The different types of sicknesses cause a lack of
communication between parents and children, many times
weakening their relationship.
• Clinicians have discovered that lack of appropriate information
about the injury leads to unnecessary worry on the part of the
children.
• Depression in the healthy parent could lead to a lack in
parenting skills.
• Sometimes the injured parent’s sense of grief and loss
interferes with the relationship between her and her children.
• The impact of PTSD on children is significant because of the
difference in the parent’s actions and the way they treat their
children.

7. • Children who are constantly worried about their parents
dying are at a higher risk of developing psychiatric
disorders or other behavioral or emotional problems.
• Advertisement of the media causes stress about the
potential death of a child’s parents.
• In many cases, if death occurs, the surviving parent is too
depressed to take care of the child.
• If a parent passes, many families who were living near
the soldiers base may move back home away from a
supportive military family. Often times the move back
home leads to more depression in both the child and the
surviving adult.