Resources for Counselors
War, Deployment, and Terrorism Issues
With the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan, more children are having their parents in the military, whether active, reserved, or deployed to combat zones. As school counselors we are in a unique position to help these vulnerable children to cope with their fears, losses, and changes in family life. Below are fact sheets, articles, curricula, and recent research in the field.
Fact Sheets
National Association of School Psychologists
NASP provides resources for schools to help children cope with the effects of war and deployment of parents.
United States Department of Veteran Affairs: National Center for Post Traumatic Stress
The Department of Veteran Affiars published the following fact sheets regarding resilience in time of war.
How Deployment Stress Affects Children and Families
Tips for Parents and Teachers of Elementary School Children
Tips for Parents and Teachers of Middle School Children
Tips for Parents and Teachers of Teens
Traumatic Grief in Military Children: Information for Educators
This pamphlet by The National Child Traumatic Stress Network provides information on how educators can help a child whose parent had died while in the service.
Articles
Deployment and War Stress; Children
This article describes some of the stresses encountered by children of military families.
Talking with Children About Terrorism
This article by Judy Myers-Walls describes how to talk with children after acts of terrorism occur.
Talking to Children about Terrorism: By the Numbers
This article by Judy Myers-Walls suggests developmentally age appropriate responses for parents and others to children who have experienced terrorism.
Curricula
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center on School, Family and Community Partnerships offer an online course: Building Resilient Kids, for educators to help all students meet life’s challenges with resilience, focusing primarily on students from military families.
Military Child Education Coalition
The Coalition holds several professional development opportunities for educators and especially school counselors regarding issues military children might encounter such as transitioning to a new school and the stress of having a parent deployed. Their institutes are held at various dates and locations in the United States and internationally.
http://www.militarychild.org/education/professional-development/
Recent Research
The Impact of Parental Deployment on Child Social and Emotional Functioning: Perspectives of School Staff
By: Anita Chandra, Laurie T. Martin, Stacy Ann Hawkins, and Amy Richardson
Journal of Adolescent Health, 2010
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T80-4Y1W8MT-2&_user=10&_coverDate=03%2F31%2F2010&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1285438256&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=3e54d1e6ff5055f1724dfe33eca39ad4 (fee required)
When a Parent Goes Off to War: Exploring the Issues Faced by Adolescents and Their Families
By: Kristin Mmari, Kathleen M. Roche, May Sudhinaraset, and Robert Blum
Youth and Society, 2009
http://yas.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/40/4/455 (fee required)
The Psychosocial Effects of Deployment on Military Children
By: Eric M. Flake, Beth Ellen Davis, Patti L. Johnson, and Laura S. Middleton
Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 2009
http://journals.lww.com/jrnldbp/Abstract/2009/08000/The_Psychosocial_Effects_of_Deployment_on_Military.1.aspx (fee required)
Teenagers Response to Threat of War and Terror: Gender and the Role of Social Systems
Michal Shamai and Shaul Kimhi
Community Mental Health Journal, 2007
http://www.springerlink.com/content/f0521587t5405x45 (fee required)
Using Military Deployments and Job Assignments to Estimate the Effect of Parental Absences and Household Relocations on Children’s Academic Achievement
By: David S. Lyle
Journal of Labor Economics, 2006
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/499975?journalCode=jole (fee required)