Systemic prevention and intervention approaches for working with military families

The chapter provides an overview of the challenges facing military families and, in particular, the impact of wartime deployment of a parent for the family. We review the literature on the impact of deployment and its sequelae (e.g., posttraumatic stress symptoms) on children, couples, parent-child relationships/parenting, and the family as a whole. Conceptual models including military family stress models, social interaction learning theory, and ecological models provide explanations for how and why deployment and related stressors disrupt family and child functioning. Approaches to working with military families are reviewed, with a focus on programs that are theoretically informed and evidence based and that target parenting, children, and the couple relationship. Future directions and implications for research and practice are discussed.