Parental perceptions of social and emotional well‐being of young children from Australian military families.

Introduction: Many Australian Defence Force (ADF) and Veteran families are affected by the stressors of Defence family life, including frequent and prolonged parental deployments, and frequent relocations. Objective: To address a gap in information about Defence and Veteran (hereafter Defence) paren...

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Published in:Australian Journal of Rural Health Vol. 31; no. 6; pp. 1090 - 1103
Main Authors: Rogers, Marg, Johnson, Amy, Coffey, Yumiko, Fielding, Jill, Harrington, Ingrid, Bhullar, Navjot
Format: research tables/charts Journal Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Dec2023
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Dec2023
      vid: 31
      iid: 6
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      pub: Wiley-Blackwell
      place: Malden, Massachusetts
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        10.1111/ajr.13033
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        atl: Parental perceptions of social and emotional well‐being of young children from Australian military families.
      aug:
        au:
          Rogers, Marg
          Johnson, Amy
          Coffey, Yumiko
          Fielding, Jill
          Harrington, Ingrid
          Bhullar, Navjot
        affil: School of Education, University of New England, Armidale New South Wales,, Australia
      sug:
        subj:
          Parental Attitudes
          Psychological Well-Being In Infancy and Childhood
          Military Family
          Military Deployment Psychosocial Factors
          Relocation
          Parents Psychosocial Factors
          Life Experiences
          Human
          Australia
          Funding Source
          Confidence
          Support, Social
          Coping
          Emotions
          Qualitative Studies
          Rural Areas
          Mental Health
          Parenting
          Child, Preschool
          Child
          Adolescence
          Young Adult
          Adult
          Middle Age
          Descriptive Statistics
          Data Analysis Software
          Life Style Changes
          Child, Preschool: 2-5 years
          Child: 6-12 years
          Adolescent: 13-18 years
          Adult: 19-44 years
          Middle Aged: 45-64 years
      ab: Introduction: Many Australian Defence Force (ADF) and Veteran families are affected by the stressors of Defence family life, including frequent and prolonged parental deployments, and frequent relocations. Objective: To address a gap in information about Defence and Veteran (hereafter Defence) parents' knowledge, confidence and resources to support their young children's well‐being and build their resilience. Design: This study used a mixed methods design to explore Defence parent's perceptions of their young children's (aged 2–8 years) social and emotional well‐being and understanding of their children's responses to unique stressors as well as their confidence in providing support. Data from 41 parents were available. Findings: Overall, parents reported positive well‐being evaluation of their children. However, just over a third of parents also reported that their children rarely cope well on two indicators combined (adapting to new situations and sharing negative emotions with others). Significantly, more than half of the parents (61%) were only partially confident in their ability to assist their children to cope with unique stressors in military families. Qualitative data provided further insights into children's struggle with relocations and parental absence and the challenges parents face in supporting them. Parents reported having limited access to effective age‐ and culturally appropriate resources to support their young children. Discussion: In a first‐of‐its kind study, we found that Australian Defence parents reported their young children were coping on most of the key well‐being indicators. However, awareness of currently available supports for children remains a barrier as well as access to contextualised, age‐ and culturally appropriate resources are lacking. Conclusion: There is a need for access to free, quality, online, research‐based Australian resources to support young children from Defence families, especially for those living in regional and rural locations and are less likely to have access to mental health and other specialist supports.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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