The stress of having an Army spouse in a combat zone leads to a 60% increase in the rate of moderate to severe maltreatment of children by the spouse left behind, researchers said Tuesday.This is from an LA Times article describing a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. I think too much attention is being placed on the spouses. The stress of having a parent in a combat zone is surely incredible as well. The stress the kids are under may affect their behavior in ways that make them more likely to be maltreated by their remaining parent. The original study seems to miss this point as well.
To be clear, I'm not "blaming the victim" but determining good policies to improve these sorts of things relies on understanding what leads to what.
3 comments:
Growing up, my father served in the military and was often away for extended times, once in Saudi Arabia. I am sure it was very difficult for my mother to raise us alone while he was away, but it would never lead her to mistreat us, quite the opposite, I respected her for the job she did while my father was away!
I do believe that having a spouse or parent in a combat zone would add tremendous stress to a family, however I don't believe it has anything to do with a child being mistreated.
One could say that children in single parent homes are at greater risk at being mistreated as well.
Your last sentence is interesting. The natural question that follows from this study is "why does maltreatment increase?" Is it simply having a parent missing from the household, as you suggest, or is having a parent in combat especially harmful? I would guess that it's a bit of both.
I don't think having a spouse in a combat zone has anything to do with it.
As to the question "why does maltreatment increase?" well I wouldn't expect it to "decrease" with the parent left behind.
I also wonder if they took into account the gender spouse, that was left to tend the children.
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