@article{ref1,
title="The Effects of Military Deployment on Early Child Development",
journal="U.S. Army Medical Department journal",
year="2014",
author="Nguyen, Dana R. and Ee, Juliana and Berry-Cabán, Cristóbal S. and Hoedebecke, Kyle",
volume="ePub",
number="4-14",
pages="81-86",
abstract="PURPOSE: The purpose of this observational, point prevalence study is to determine if parental deployment affects the cognitive, social and emotional development of preschool age children in the military family. <br><br>METHODS: Demographic information was collected and an age-appropriate Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3) and Ages and Stages Social-Emotional Inventory (ASQ:SE) were administered. The primary outcome measure was the failure rates on the developmental instruments. <br><br>RESULTS: We identified 151 parents of eligible children; 95 children had a parent that deployed during their lifetime. We found a significant difference in ASQ-3 failure rates for children in the deployed group compared to those in the nondeployed group. Children of deployed parents were at least twice as often to fail the ASQ-3 or ASQ:SE developmental screen compared to children whose parents did not deploy. 30.5% of children in the deployed group failed the ASQ-3 screen while 12.5% of children who did not have a deployed parent failed (P=.009). On the ASQ:SE developmental screen, 16.8% of children who had a parent deploy failed versus 5.4% of children who did not have a parent deploy (P=.031). <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that parental deployment is related to adverse risk for developmental delays in children in military families. The psychological burden on military children could be life-long or require significant resources to address. These adverse outcomes could be possibly mitigated by early detection of developmental delay and firm attention to aggressive screening techniques in military communities.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1524-0436",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}