"Military kids may be more apt to smoke, drink and carry guns"

RallyPoint Shared Content — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 16:45:02 -0400

From: Fox News

Teens with parents or caregivers in the military may be more likely to drink, smoke, and carry weapons than other kids, a U.S. study suggests.

Researchers also found that adolescents with close ties to the military were more apt to be victims of physical violence and harassment.

“We believe this is partly due to ongoing stressors related to war, deployments, frequent moves, being bullied, and being involved in risky peer groups,” lead study author Kathrine Sullivan, a researcher in social work at the University of Southern California, said by email.

More than one million school-aged children currently have parents in the military, Sullivan and colleagues note in JAMA Pediatrics. Including families of veterans, there are four million U.S. children whose parents have served at some point since 2001.

For the current study, Sullivan’s team analyzed survey data collected in 2013 from nearly 690,000 California public school students in grades 7 through 11.

About 8 percent of the children surveyed had parents or caregivers in the military. Overall, slightly more than half were Latino, another 21 percent were white, and the group included roughly the same number of girls and boys.

Overall, more than half of the students reported experiencing violence or harassment, and approximately one in ten kids said they had brought a weapon to school.

Military kids, however, were more than twice as likely to carry guns on campus and 81 percent more likely to take knives to school. They also had higher odds of being threatened with a weapon.

Children with close ties to service members were also more likely to say they lived in fear of being beat up, and they reported higher exposure to harassment and cyber-bullying, the study found.

The picture for substance use also looked worse for military kids, who were 45 to 73 percent more likely than other children to use cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana, as well as abuse prescription drugs.

One shortcoming of the study is its lack of detail on socioeconomic status, which makes it difficult to know the extent to which poverty, family structure or other factors might have influenced students’ survey responses, the researchers acknowledge.

“Socioeconomic status is a major factor, and I think children from low-income, single parent households are in more need of extra support than other kids, whether or not they have a parent in the military,” Dr. Robert Frenck, a retired Navy pediatrician who currently practices at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

For military children in particular, deployment of a parent and living arrangements during this period may be one of the biggest factors influencing whether they engage in unhealthy behaviors, said Stephan Arndt, director of a research group on substance abuse at the University of Iowa.

“Children who can stay close to family members are still affected but seem to do better than those children who are living outside the family,” Arndt, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

Deployment can strain families through separation, leading to mental health problems and economic stress as well as impaired parenting skills that can put teens at greater risk, noted Suzannah Creech, a research psychologist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and a professor at Brown University.

“We need to ask about military service across all levels of the education and healthcare systems to better identify families and teens who may be at risk and in need of intervention,” Creech, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “We also need to convey to parents that the health of the family environment is just as important as physical health.”

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/08/17/military-kids-may-be-more-apt-to-smoke-drink-and-carry-guns/?intcmp=hpffo&intcmp=obnetwork

Military kids may be more apt to smoke, drink and carry guns

Teens with parents or caregivers in the military may be more likely to drink, smoke, and carry weapons than other kids, a U.S. study suggests.

Response by SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL made Aug 18 at 2015 4:45 PM

SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 16:45:29 -0400

Thanks for the info.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 18 at 2015 4:56 PM

MSG Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 16:56:41 -0400

Interesting. But, by the standards set forth to determine who is more likely to become a serial killer (I actually meet several criteria), and now with this "study" my whole family is destined for jails?

Response by CH (MAJ) Thomas Conner made Aug 18 at 2015 6:30 PM

CH (MAJ) Thomas Conner — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 18:30:13 -0400

Okay, the study "suggests," further, all of the students studied were from California! Once again, California is used as the measure for all of th r other 49 states. If the so-called "researchers" were going to conduct a proper study, they would use a spectrum of students from all across the USA, not just in one of the most liberal and military hating states in America. Children's Health should be ashamed of even publishing such drivel!

Response by MAJ Ron Peery made Aug 18 at 2015 8:35 PM

MAJ Ron Peery — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 20:35:19 -0400

USC methodology for scientific research......develop conclusion based on liberal political ideals. Cherry pick your data.
Present your "research" as fact.

I am throwing the BS flag on this.

Response by SPC(P) Jay Heenan made Aug 18 at 2015 11:21 PM

SPC(P) Jay Heenan — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:21:10 -0400

Well, I think I lost some brain cells reading this...

Response by LCpl Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 18 at 2015 11:35 PM

LCpl Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:35:58 -0400

...what's wrong with carrying guns?

Response by SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S. made Aug 18 at 2015 11:43 PM

SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S. — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 23:43:49 -0400

My considered opinion is "And probably better at it"

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 19 at 2015 3:15 AM

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 03:15:57 -0400

So... Basically they are going to become Marines...

Response by 2LT Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 21 at 2015 12:50 AM

2LT Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 00:50:48 -0400

So... Drinking, smoking, and carrying a firearm is bad? If you have ever been in the military, especially in combat arms, all 3 are traits of very good men. Does my concealed handgun that I carry as a public service make me a bad guy? Does getting drunk every once in a while make a person evil? Does smoking Iike a train constitute bad intentions? That study sounds like a tall glass of liberal kool-aid

Response by Capt Richard I P. made Sep 6 at 2015 5:20 PM

Capt Richard I P. — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 17:20:52 -0400

RallyPoint Shared Content (kudos on the name change, editorials was really a misnomer.)

I understand now (after our earlier discussion) the idea behind re-posting attention-grabbing headlines from other news sources. And this one is actually probably a pretty valuable topic. Perhaps next time when there is another headline about a scholarly study someone could do a little google-fu and post the link to the study itself for those who are interested, in addition to the foxnews article?

http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2427469

For those interested the abstract of the study is available for free. I actually went looking to criticize their methodology but my understanding of basic statistics makes it look like the study is actually pretty decent. Naturally correlation does not necessarily imply causation, but strong correlation like this does make people start looking for causes. Military kids move a lot, they have parents gone a lot. That in and of itself might account for some of this.

Adverse Outcomes Among Military-Connected Youth in California

This secondary data analysis of the 2013 California Healthy Kids Survey reports that during wartime, military-connected youth are at increased risk for adverse outcomes, such as use of alcohol and other substances of abuse; physical and nonphysical violence and harassment; and weapon carrying,...

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 14 at 2015 10:18 PM

MSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 22:18:23 -0500

I hope they don't smoke. I will buy them their first drink and take them to get their concealed carry permit