Children in families where a parent is deployed on active military duty are more likely to binge drink, use marijuana and abuse prescription drugs compared to children in nonmilitary families, according to a study from the University of Iowa.
Steven Arndt, a professor psychiatry and biostatistics who led the study, used data from an statewide survey of sixth, eighth and 11th grade students in Iowa and found an increase in drinking and drug use over in children of deployed or recently returned military parents.
"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," said Arndt in a statement. "Our findings suggest we need to provide these families with more community support."
Arndt and his team evaluated data from a 2010 Iowa Youth Survey, seeking to investigate whether military deployment of a parent was associated with children's substance abuse.
The statewide survey captured the views of more than 78,000 Iowa students as they answered questions online about attitudes and experiences with alcohol, drugs and violence as well as students' perceptions of their peers, family, school and community.
The majority of students who responded to the survey did not have a parent in the military, though about 1,800 did have a family member deployed or recently returned.
"Looking at the Iowa Youth Survey, we discovered we were right in regard to our idea that parental deployment would increase the risk for substance use behaviors in children. In fact, the numbers suggested we were a lot more right than we wanted to be," Arndt said.
"For example, sixth-graders in nonmilitary families had binge drinking rates of about 2 percent. That jumps up to about 7 percent for the children of deployed or recently returned parents-a three-to-four-fold increase in the raw percentage."
The survey encompassed a 30-day timeframe, and found that that rated for drinking alcohol were seven to nine percentage points higher for children of deployed or recently returned parents; the same group reported slightly lower binge drinking rates at five to eight percent higher than their peers.
Marijuana use was also higher, with 11th grade students of deployed or recently returned military families fiver percent more likely to have used marijuana.
Iowa reportedly has large portion of the population serving with the Reserve or National Guard. These families live in civilian communities and not on military bases, where they may have greater access to support services designed to help military families.
"States like Iowa that have a large proportion of National Guard may be more affected by this increased risk for children," Arndt said.
"I think our findings suggest, first, that people need to be aware that for service members and their families this is a real phenomenon, and one that should receive close attention. I would also think that schools should have a heightened awareness that children from deployed parents may need extra help."
The findings are published in the journal Addiction.