Parenting and Children’s Resilience in Military Families: A Twenty-First Century Perspective

This chapter provides a backdrop to and overview of the book, “Parenting and Children’s Resilience in Military Families.” While literature on military families spans several decades, the recent conflicts have spurred a surge of empirical research regarding the impact of deployment on the families of those deployed. This is not surprising, given that almost two million children have experienced the deployment of a parent to the conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan, and these children are twice as likely as their peers to subsequently become Service members. There is arguably no more powerful socializing force for young children than their parents, and parenting is a crucial mediator of the effects of transitions and other stressful events on young children. Given this, surprisingly little research has focused on parenting in military families. This book (and its overview in this chapter) aims to provide a foundational resource for understanding the role of parenting in the lives of military families.