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Military Deployment and Child Maltreatment

The overall rate of maltreatment was 42% higher during combat-related deployment.

More than one million military families have children younger than 18 years, and some studies have suggested that these children are more likely to experience maltreatment at home during large-scale military deployments.

In this study, two large confidential U.S. Army databases provided de-identified information on 1771 families of noncommissioned soldiers who had been combat-deployed at least once between 2001 and 2004; all families had substantiated episodes of child maltreatment (neglect or physical, emotional, or sexual abuse). Researchers compared rates of maltreatment during times of deployment versus nondeployment of a soldier-parent; 3334 episodes of maltreatment involving 2968 children (mean age, 6 years) were reported. The overall rate of maltreatment was 42% higher during deployment than during nondeployment, and the rate of moderate or severe maltreatment was 61% higher. During deployments, the rate of neglect was nearly four times higher among female civilian parents than during nondeployment, and the rate of physical abuse was two times higher. Overall maltreatment by male civilian parents did not differ between deployment and nondeployment periods.

Comment: Although the methodologic difficulties of secondary analyses of large data sets suggest cautious interpretation, at the very least these results argue for a prospective study of maltreatment. Such a study would include the families of officers and provide more-detailed demographic data that could be used to more precisely target preventive programs, with a particular focus on supportive services for the female civilian spouses who seem most at risk for neglect and abuse of their children during deployment.

— Thomas L. Schwenk, MD

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine July 31, 2007

Citation(s):

Gibbs DA et al. Child maltreatment in enlisted soldiers' families during combat-related deployment. JAMA 2007 Aug 1; 298:528-35.

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