There is evidence that military service increases the risk of psychosocial burden for not only service members but also their spouses and children. This meta-analysis aimed to systematically assess the association between military deployment of (at least one) parent and impact on children’s mental health. For this meta-analytic review, publications were systematically searched and assessed for eligibility based on predefined inclusion criteria (studies between 2001 until 2017 involving children with at least one parent working in military services). Measurements were determined by total problem scores of the children as well as symptoms of anxiety/depression, hyperactivity/inattention, and aggressive behavior. Meta-analyses aggregated the effect sizes in random-effect models and were calculated separately for the relation between parental deployment and civilian/normative data and for the relation between parental deployment and non-deployment. Age of the children was used as moderator variable to explore any potential source of heterogeneity between studies. Parental military deployment was associated with problems in children and adolescents compared to civilian/normative samples. Significant effect sizes reached from small to moderate values; the largest effect sizes were found for overall problems and specifically for anxious/depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior. Within the military group, children of deployed parents showed more problem behavior than children of non-deployed parents, but effect sizes were small. Age of the children had no moderating effect. The results emphasize that children of military members, especially with a deployed parent, should be assessed for emotional and behavioral problems.

中文翻译：

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父母军事部署是儿童心理健康的危险因素：荟萃分析

有证据表明，服兵役不仅增加了服役人员的心理负担，还增加了其配偶和子女的心理负担。这项荟萃分析旨在系统地评估（至少一名）父母的军事部署与对儿童心理健康的影响之间的关联。在本次荟萃分析综述中，系统根据预先确定的纳入标准（2001年至2017年之间的研究，涉及儿童中至少有一名父母在军事部门工作的研究）对出版物进行了搜索和评估，以评估其资格。通过儿童的总问题评分以及焦虑/抑郁，多动/注意力不足和攻击行为的症状来确定测量结果。荟萃分析汇总了随机效应模型中的效应量，并针对父母部署与民用/规范数据之间的关系以及父母部署与非部署之间的关系分别进行了计算。儿童的年龄用作调节变量，以探讨研究之间任何潜在的异质性来源。与民用/规范样本相比，父母的军事部署与儿童和青少年的问题有关。显着的效果大小从小到中等；对于整体问题，特别是对于焦虑/抑郁症状和攻击行为，发现了最大的影响量。在军事小组内部，已部署的父母的孩子比未部署的父母的孩子表现出更多的问题行为，但效果较小。孩子的年龄没有任何调节作用。结果强调，应评估军事人员的孩子，尤其是父母已部署的孩子的情绪和行为问题。