Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Increase rate of child abuse and neglect due to War deployment

An article I came across described an increase of instances of child abuse and neglect within Army homes due to the stresses of deployment. It stated that the rates of maltreatment have risen 42% since 2001. Studies correlate this with the stress placed on mothers whos husbands have been deployed to Iraq and Afganistan. I can only imagine what these wives go through, having to deal not only with the stresses of being temporary single parents, but also the fear of their husbands not returning. For more on this article, click here http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1648412,00.html

6 comments:

Haley said...

that is so sad that this is happing to kids the millitary and the community needs to step up and help parents who has someone serving the millitary

Caitlin said...

There are programs set up on post that are run by military wives. These programs are in place to give moral support to other wives, grief support, and help with any other issues. My cousin is on post while her husband's in Irag and she attends a "mommy free day" that's offered for mothers every month. The mother's cycle through turns and babysitting. So maybe the increase in abuse is occurring in families that don't live on post. But, if the mother is having such a hard she needs to ask for help.

Mordsith_T said...

Been there done that. When my honey was deployed for 13 months to Iraq I got to experience it myself. The problem is the women don't know how to deal with seperation. Then there is a complete lack of understanding a good portion of the time about the do's and don'ts of military life. Those that don't or can't adjust are the ones that you read about in the papers. Add that to fear and lonelyness and you get a recipe for bad things.

Anonymous said...

WOW....I would have never thought of it that way. I hav always heard the opposite. My pawpaw was in the army and my dad said he was extremely hard on him. ALways spanking him and always punishing him if his room was dirty. It made my dad an extreme clean freak, which rubbed off on me! I would have never imagined that the wives take their loneliness and sadness out on their children.

Mordsith_T said...

That is one of the problems with the military too. Spanking is a no no in the military. So that type of punishment is considered abuse. Also, as a military child care provider, I know that putting your child in time out is a no no as well as grounding, extra chores, and raising your voice. Military child care providers are supposed to be manditory reports so we got trained in things to look for for abusive situations. So those CC providers that reported the above incidents raises the statistics for abuse in the military.

Mordsith_T said...

That is one of the problems with the military too. Spanking is a no no in the military. So that type of punishment is considered abuse. Also, as a military child care provider, I know that putting your child in time out is a no no as well as grounding, extra chores, and raising your voice. Military child care providers are supposed to be manditory reports so we got trained in things to look for for abusive situations. So those CC providers that reported the above incidents raises the statistics for abuse in the military.