Youth in military families need support from parents and peers to maintain a healthy mental well-being, according to a new study from the University of Georgia.
Researchers found these relationships are connected to adolescents' abilities to utilize adaptive coping skills, such as problem-solving and self-reliance, which in turn promote their well-being.
The potential to have a parent deployed overseas, regular moves and other obstacles make adolescence a particularly challenging time for young people in military families.
"Relationships are important for all youth and for military youth in particular," said Evin Richardson, corresponding author of the study and an assistant research scientist in UGA's College of Family and Consumer Sciences. "For military youth who are highly transitional, relationships may be a little bit more challenging for them - especially non-familial relationships - because their community often changes so frequently."
By fostering connections both in and out of the home, military youth can have the stable support they need to better focus on their own self-efficacy and long-term mental health.
Friendships more integral for military youth than any other non-familial relationship
Researchers analyzed responses of more than 1,000 adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 with at least one active-duty military parent. The youth were asked to identify supportive relationships in their lives and to rate their engagement in school, their confidence and any feelings of depression or anxiety.
Of their non-family relationships, the researchers found that nearly 65% of participants felt most supported in their personal lives by their peers, including friends and boyfriends or girlfriends.
Over half of adolescents identified their mother as their primary source of familial support. This could be, the researchers said, due to parent gender or military status since most fathers identified as service members and mothers were typically civilians.
The transitions military youth experience can separate them from extended family, friends and trusted adults including coaches or teachers, so recreating these social networks is key to their well-being.
"Building strong family relationships is important but so is building strong relationships outside the family," said Catherine Walker O'Neal, co-author of the study and an associate professor in UGA's department of human development and family science. "Does someone care about you? Do they listen to you? Do they understand you? That is the heart of what this paper is about."
Coping strategies can be a bridge to well-being for adolescents
A key finding of the study is the link between relationships, adaptive coping and mental health.
Supportive relationships provided youth with repeated, meaningful encounters with role models and peers who demonstrated positive ways to cope with stress and emotions. These relationships may also function as safe spaces for adolescents to put aside their worries about external challenges, such as upcoming relocations or possible feelings of isolation. They could instead focus more on building self-sufficiency, managing their stress and nurturing their own optimism.
O'Neal said some of the ways to reinforce adaptive coping as a mentor would be to model behaviors that encourage compromising, working hard and talking things out.
"Demonstrating those behaviors and setting up situations so that they can engage in that is a big part of adaptive coping," she said. "It's important that they know how to cope on their own but also that they know it's OK to ask for help from the people in their lives, both inside and outside of their family."
Meet adolescents where they are … Start small or look at doing things as a family.
Evin Richardson, College of Family & Consumer Sciences
Youth who reported higher coping levels were also more engaged in school, had a greater belief in their ability to handle life's hurdles and had fewer symptoms of depression.
Because military moves come with many unknowns, having areas in kids' lives that can be positively influenced through quality relationships are important.
Encouraging adolescents to participate in extracurricular activities, both on and off military bases, could help kids build these key connections. Efforts by parents to spend time with their kids while getting involved in the local community are also a good idea, Richardson said.
"Meet adolescents where they are," she said. "We don't want to force anybody to go be social if they don't want to but help them find where their interests might align with someone else's interests. Start small or look at doing things as a family."
The study was published in Children and Youth Services Review.
