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Infants and young children in military families: a conceptual model for intervention

Alicia F Lieberman1, Patricia Van Horn

  • 1alicia.lieberman@ucsf.edu

Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review
|June 19, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Military children face unique challenges to attachment due to parental deployments and combat stress. This article explores infant mental health, early childhood anxiety, and supportive interventions for military families.

Area of Science:

  • Child Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Military and Veteran Family Studies

Background:

  • The initial years of life are critical for developing secure attachment relationships.
  • Military families experience unique stressors, including parental deployment, separations, and combat-related trauma.
  • These stressors can disrupt the expected parental availability and emotional protectiveness crucial for child development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To outline key features of mental health in infancy and early childhood.
  • To examine developmentally expectable early anxieties in children.
  • To explore how military family circumstances exacerbate these normative anxieties and to describe supportive interventions.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review synthesizing research on infant and early childhood mental health.
  • Analysis of developmental psychology principles related to attachment theory.
  • Examination of the specific impacts of military service on family dynamics and child well-being.

Main Results:

  • Infants and young children require consistent parental availability for secure attachment.
  • Military service-related stressors significantly challenge this availability, increasing risks for developmental disruptions.
  • Normative childhood anxieties are amplified by factors such as parental absence and trauma.

Conclusions:

  • Understanding the mental health needs of infants and young children in military families is essential.
  • Specific interventions are needed to mitigate the adverse effects of military life on early childhood development and attachment.
  • Supporting military families can promote resilience and positive developmental outcomes for young children.

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