The Military Child: Research, Education and Consultation

Since its establishment in 2006, the Child and Family Program (CFP) of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) has been conducting research to advance scientific knowledge and clinical interventions that address the needs of children and families affected by trauma, especially military children and families.  The focus of CFP research is on the impact of war, including deployment stress, parenting and family function and the impact of war injuries on military children and families. In addition to research, CFP provides education and consultation to the military healthcare system and its leadership, national media outlets, professional organizations and projects dedicated to helping families and children affected by traumatic events, particularly the military child.

Under the direction of Dr. Stephen Cozza, CFP is conducting three, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) funded grants to advance the psychological health and well-being of the military child and family.  

The first study, Addressing the Needs of Children and Families of the Combat Injured is a 4-year, longitudinal study which examines the impact of combat injury on military families along five major dimensions of parent and family functioning, including: 1) acute child and parent traumatic stress symptoms; 2) levels of parental efficacy; 3) parent-child communication; 4) alterations to family schedule and structure; and 5) long term impact of injury on child, parent and family interaction. The study will follow families at three points in time to gain insight into the long term recovery process of the combat injured.

The second study, Families Over Coming Under Stress-Combat Injury (FOCUS-CI) Preventive intervention with Children and Families of Combat Injured, involves the use and study of a family-centered, resiliency-building intervention to enhance the coping and healthy development of military children affected by parental injury. The project is informed and supported by the center’s collaboration with prominent child and adolescent psychiatrists and researchers at Harvard, UCLA and University of Washington.

The third research study, Deployment Family Stress: Child Neglect and Maltreatment in US Army Families, is the first in-depth study of child maltreatment and neglect among Army families. Its goal is to describe the characteristics of substantiated child neglect cases in the Army, and to identify factors within the family, the military community and the civilian community that contribute to such neglect.

CFP also addresses the psychological health of the military child through consultation. CFP has developed a unique and ongoing consulting relationship with Sesame Workshop that has resulted in the production of its Talk, Listen, Connect DVD series on deployments, homecomings and parental changes. Dr. Cozza also had the honor of helping write a book, Children of Valor, which Arlington National Cemetery now provides to young children who have lost a military parent.

The work of the center’s CFP is strengthened by its collaborations with National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), Zero to Three, Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) and the National Military Family Association (NMFA). In the summer of 2009, CFP joined with NMFA to study families of injured service members attending their Operation Purple (Healing Adventures) Camps.

In conjunction with April’s Month of the Military Child, the Center and its CFP are introducing a hospital-based campaign, the first of its kind titled Courage to Care Courage to Talk seeks to connect hospital providers and families impacted by the injuries of war to facilitate communication and access to services and resources that can help families, especially children, during the acute hospital experience and the injury recovery process.