Abstract:
The profound development that occurs during the first five years of a child\'s life may contribute to military families with young children facing unique challenges during reintegration. Yet, little is known about the reintegration experiences of military families with young children, and less so from the perspectives of non-deployed parents and families outside of the US. In this qualitative study, we explored the reintegration experiences of Australian Defense Force (ADF) families with young children (five years and younger). Through written responses to open-ended prompts, ADF service members (n = 9) and their non-deployed spouses (n = 38) reflected on periods of reintegration and discussed their family\'s adaption during this time. Using thematic analysis, six themes representing the reintegration experiences of these families were generated from the data. Four themes were generated from the combined experiences of service members and non-deployed parents, while a further two themes were generated from the experiences of non-deployed parents only. Relational and parenting challenges were at the forefront of reintegration experiences. These findings offer meaningful implications for practice and research to improve the quality of parent-child relationships and enhance outcomes for military families with young children during reintegration.
摘要:
在儿童生命的头五年中发生的深刻发展可能有助于使军人家庭的幼儿在重返社会期间面临独特的挑战。然而,对有年幼子女的军人家庭的重返社会经历知之甚少,从美国以外未部署的父母和家庭的角度来看,情况就不那么严重了。在这项定性研究中,我们探讨了澳大利亚国防军(ADF)有幼儿(5岁及以下)的家庭重返社会的经历.通过对开放式提示的书面答复,ADF服务成员(n=9)及其未部署的配偶(n=38)反映了重返社会的时期,并讨论了这段时间的家庭适应情况。使用主题分析,从数据中产生了代表这些家庭重返社会经历的六个主题。根据服役人员和未部署父母的综合经验,产生了四个主题,而另外两个主题是仅从非部署父母的经验中产生的。关系和育儿方面的挑战是重返社会经历的最前沿。这些发现为实践和研究提供了有意义的启示,以提高亲子关系的质量,并在重返社会期间增强有幼儿的军人家庭的成果。