Alcohol, Drug Use A Greater Risk for Children of Deployed Parents

A new University of Iowa study suggests that military deployment of a parent puts children at an increased risk for drinking alcohol and using drugs. 

Using data from a statewide survey of sixth, eighth, and 11th-grade students in Iowa, the researchers found an increase in 30-day alcohol use, binge drinking, using marijuana and other illegal drugs, and misusing prescription drugs among children of deployed or recently returned military parents compared to children in nonmilitary families. The increased risk was consistent across all age groups. The findings are published online in the journal Addiction. 

"We worry a lot about the service men and women and we sometimes forget that they are not the only ones put into harm's way by deployment - their families are affected, too," says Stephan Arndt, Ph.D., UI professor of psychiatry in biostatistics and senior study author. "Our findings suggest we need to provide these families with more community support." 

In 2010, almost 2 million American children had at least one parent in active military duty, according to the Department of Defense. 

A second unexpected finding was the relationship between parental deployment, disruption of children's living arrangements, and increased risk of substance use. 

"When at least one parent is deployed, there are a measurable percentage of children who are not living with their natural parents," Arndt told Medical News Today. "Some of these children go to live with a relative, but some go outside of the family, and that change in these children's living arrangements grossly affected their risk of binge drinking and marijuana use." 

The study found that for children who were not living with a parent or relative, those with a deployed parent had a risk of binge drinking that was 42 percentage points higher than a student from a nonmilitary family. In comparison, children with a deployed parent who still were living with a parent had a risk of binge drinking that was about 8 percentage points higher than children of nonmilitary families who were living with a parent. 

Because the study surveyed only Iowa children, the nature of Iowa's military population may also affect the results, Arndt notes. In Iowa, along with Vermont, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, the largest portion of military personnel serve with the Reserve or the National Guard. These groups of military personnel live in civilian communities rather than on military bases and may have limited access to support services and resources designed to help military families. 

Although the study findings may be specific to families of National Guardsmen and women, Arndt said that the results agree with previous research that focused on risky behavior for children of deployed military men and women in Washington state, which unlike Iowa has a large active duty population. 

Does your coalition want to address substance abuse and quality of life issues with the veterans and their families in your community? The VetCorps project is being conducted by CADCA in partnership with the National Guard Bureau’s Prevention, Treatment and Outreach (PTO) Program with funding assistance from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). CADCA is recruiting AmeriCorps and VISTA members, and placing them in one of CADCA’s community coalitions located throughout the country to provide support to Veterans and Military Families (VMF) with a special emphasis on serving the needs of National Guard and Reserve VMF. 

Learn more about CADCA’s VetCorps project at http://www.cadca.org/VetCorps.