0260 The Effects of Military Parents’ Deployments on Children’s Sleep

Abstract

Introduction: Military deployments are not only stressful for the service member deployed, but impose significant stress on families. Although there is an increased awareness of the need to evaluate the mental health of soldiers, less attention has been paid to the effects of deployment on families and children. Among the research conducted among children from military families a majority has focused on symptoms of anxiety and depression while little-to-no attention has been paid to sleep. The present study aimed to explore the impact of past and present parental military deployments on specific aspects of sleep in children. Methods: Data from 50 U.S. military families with at least one parent who deployed previously as a part of the Global War on Terror were analyzed; a total of 73 children between the ages of 2-17 years were included. Self-reported questionnaires collected from both military parents and children assessed mental health symptoms, sleep symptoms, and military history. Results: Partial correlations while controlling for children's anxiety and depression levels revealed that children's perception of sleeping too little was correlated with the duration of their parent's most recent deployment, r = .31, p = .01. Additionally, children's sleep onset delay correlated with the total number of deployments reported, r = .27, p = .02. Conclusion: Some, but not all, aspects of children's sleep were associated with an increased number of parental deployments, as well as the duration of the most recent deployment after controlling for children's level of anxiety and depression. This may be indicative that attention toward regulating children's sleep is necessary even after a military parent returns from deployment. Targeting sleep may also aid in reducing children's mental health symptoms due to the strong relationship established between sleep and emotional well-being.