Recommendations to Support Young Children from Australian Military Families: A Report for Policy Makers, Family and Social Workers and Educators

Abstract

Deployment is considered a challenging time for military families that lasts three to nine months for Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel. There is insufficient research about children who experience parental deployment (Siebler, 2015). This recommendations report highlights valuable insights into young children's understandings and experiences of their parents' military deployment in Australia. The research utilised an adapted framework, based on the policies from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNICEF, 2015) and Clark and Moss (2011), to listen to and privilege the often-marginalised child's voice. The research found that young children's experiences of parental deployment included stressors, responses, adaptations and protective factors. Children's understandings of parental deployment were often underestimated by parents and strongly influenced by time, place, acculturation, narrative, digital technology, cognitive development, adult reinforcement and the use of age and culturally appropriate resources. This knowledge is presented to inform effective support strategies for parents, educators and professionals who work with these children in the ADF and broader community.