Child Maltreatment Rises in Homes of Soldiers Sent to War

Stress on spouse left behind cited by U.S. Army-sponsored study

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter

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TUESDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- A U.S. Army-sponsored study finds that children of enlisted soldiers are more likely to be abused or neglected when a parent is deployed to a combat zone.

The findings point to the need for more support services at home, the study authors said.

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"The practical implication is that child maltreatment incidents are much more likely to occur during soldier deployments than during other times, and this really underlines the necessity of formal and informal support for parents who are going through this," said Deborah A. Gibbs, lead author of the study and a senior analyst with the Children and Families Program at RTI International in Research Triangle Park, N.C. "Our findings really put a number on the extent of the problem and suggest the areas in which supports are most necessary."

The study is published in the Aug. 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, a theme issue on violence and human rights.

U.S. Army support of the study should give the issue of child abuse in general even more of a spotlight, experts said.

"The fact that the military is taking an interest is going to be helpful for the whole nation," said Dr. Rachel Bramson, associate professor of family and community medicine with the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and the Scott & White Clinic in College Station, Texas. "A lot of times if you have an organization of complexity with the degree of resources and the appropriate interest in their employee and family health, then you can bring about greater social change," she added.

U.S. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Ben Clark is deputy director of family programs, Family Advocacy Program, Army Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command. Responding to the study, he said, "What they [the researchers] see is pretty consistent with what we see. We see an increase of neglect cases when we have large deployments. We're getting resources to help with that."

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