Examining Patterns of Family Reorganization Indicators Among Military-Connected Youth: A Latent Class Approach

Background and Purpose: While many military families appear to fare well, the effects of two long wars have taken a toll on a subset of military-connected youth.  The root causes of negative outcomes among military-connected youth are not well understood.  While being military-connected alone may not be problematic, deployments and ensuing family reorganization may be related to adverse outcomes for military-connected youth. Situational characteristics (SC), which may be reflective of family reorganization, include youth reports of greater responsibilities, more independence, and better problem-solving abilities.  These characteristics, which could be protective under certain conditions, may be detrimental in the context of wartime military family life. The purpose of the present study is to examine naturally occurring patterns of SCs among military and nonmilitary-connected youth as a first step toward evaluating whether family reorganization may be associated with adverse outcomes in this population. 

Methods: Data for these analyses came from the 2013 administration of the California Healthy Kids Survey to all 7^th, 9^th and 11^th graders (N = 13,628) in a consortium of military-connected public school districts in Southern California. Military-connectedness was measured with three variables: having a military or veteran parent or sibling, experience of deployment in the previous 10 years, and worry about a currently deployed family member.  SCs reflective of family reorganization included three items, which assessed youth perceptions of their responsibilities, independence, and problem-solving compared to their peers.  Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to examine patterns of military connection and SCs and to test whether military-connected youth were more or less likely to describe themselves as experiencing these characteristics

Results: A 5-class model was best fitting for the data (non-military/hi-SC, non-military/moderate-SC, non-military/lo-SC, military/hi-SC, military/lo-SC).  All three indicators of military-connectedness grouped together to define two military classes.  Overall prevalence indicated that 29.28% of students were in the non-military/hi-SC class and 22.00% of students were in the military/hi-SC class.  Among the military-connected classes, Wald tests for differences in proportions indicated that the likelihood of being military-connected (x² = 0.027, p = 0.869) or experiencing a deployment (x² = 0.133, p = 0.716) in the previous 10 years did not differ between the military/hi-SC and military/low-SC classes. However, the difference in likelihood of feeling worried about a deployed parent in the high and low SC classes approached statistical significance (x² = 3.613, p = 0.057).

Conclusions and Implications:  Results indicate that significant proportions of both military and nonmilitary-connected students perceive themselves to have more responsibilities, to be more independent, or to solve problems better than their peers.  Military-connected youth and youth who have experienced deployment were not over-represented among adolescents who report experiencing more characteristics reflective of family reorganization. These findings call into question the theoretical value of family reorganization as a mechanism to account for negative outcomes in this population.  Further research is needed to understand factors which may be driving the relationship between wartime military connectedness and adverse outcomes for youth.  Identifying these mechanisms is critical for developing effective prevention and intervention efforts to support military families.