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Child Maltreatment Rises in Homes of Soldiers Sent to War
07.31.07, 12:00 AM ET

TUESDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- A U.S. Army-sponsored study finds
that children of enlisted soldiers are more likely to be abused or
neglected when a parent is deployed to a combat zone. 
The findings point to the need for more support services at home, the
study authors said.

"The practical implication is that child maltreatment incidents are
much more likely to occur during soldier deployments than during other
times, and this really underlines the necessity of formal and informal
support for parents who are going through this," said Deborah A.
Gibbs, lead author of the study and a senior analyst with the Children
and Families Program at RTI International in Research Triangle Park,
N.C. "Our findings really put a number on the extent of the problem
and suggest the areas in which supports are most necessary."

The study is published in the Aug. 1 issue of the Journal of the
American Medical Association, a theme issue on violence and human
rights.

U.S. Army support of the study should give the issue of child abuse in
general even more of a spotlight, experts said.

"The fact that the military is taking an interest is going to be
helpful for the whole nation," said Dr. Rachel Bramson, associate
professor of family and community medicine with the Texas A&M Health
Science Center College of Medicine and the Scott & White Clinic in
College Station, Texas. "A lot of times if you have an organization of
complexity with the degree of resources and the appropriate interest
in their employee and family health, then you can bring about greater
social change," she added.

U.S. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Ben Clark is deputy director of family
programs, Family Advocacy Program, Army Family and Morale, Welfare and
Recreation Command. Responding to the study, he said, "What they [the
researchers] see is pretty consistent with what we see. We see an
increase of neglect cases when we have large deployments. We're
getting resources to help with that."

Deployment of a parent results in added stress, particularly to the
parent left behind. Stress, in turn, is thought to play a role in
child maltreatment, including neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse
and sexual abuse.

In 2004, there were more than 1.1 million American military families
with children younger than 18.

Although there is not a long history of research in this field,
previous studies have found that children of parents in the U.S.
military serving in Iraq and elsewhere have higher blood pressure,
heart rates and stress levels than other youngsters, and that children
from military families are twice as likely to die from severe abuse as
other children are.

Gibbs and her colleagues looked at confirmed incidents of child
maltreatment by a parent in 1,771 families of enlisted U.S. Army
soldiers who had been deployed to combat at least once between
September 2001 and December 2004.

In total, 1,858 parents in these families had maltreated their
children. The overall rate of child maltreatment was 42 percent higher
during the times when the soldier-parents were deployed, compared to
when they weren't deployed.

Moderate or severe maltreatment was 61 percent higher during
deployment periods as compared to non-deployment periods.

While rates of child neglect were nearly double during deployment, the
rate of physical abuse was less.

The rate of maltreatment by female civilian spouses was more than
triple during times of deployment. Male civilians had a higher rate of
maltreatment during these periods, but not significantly so, the study
found.

The rate of child neglect by civilian female spouses was nearly four
times the rate at other times.

"When people are stressed, there's a much higher likelihood of abuse.
It's true of any situation," Bramson said. "Also, most abusers were
themselves abused. The key is preventing abuse, so you don't raise
kids who are going to go on to be abusers. Luckily, there's more
interest in trying to create community interventions. One of the major
things is awareness, and that's why I'm excited about this coming from
the military. That's going to get some attention."

Among the themed issue's other reports:

Almost 40 percent of Nepalese sex-trafficked girls and women, many
forced into prostitution, who were repatriated tested positive for HIV
infection. 
Group psychotherapy helped reduce depression among displaced
adolescent girls who had survived war in northern Uganda. The
interventions were less effective among adolescent boys. 
Former Ugandan and Congolese child soldiers who have more symptoms of
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are less likely to be open to
reconciliation and are more likely to have feelings of revenge. 
Adults displaced by war in northern Uganda have high rates of PTSD and
depression. They are also more likely to favor violent means to end
the conflict, compared to people without comparable symptoms. 



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