Data from the 2024 Active-Duty Spouse Survey reveal a complex picture of progress and persistent barriers for military families. While more spouses are joining the labor force, high unemployment and underemployment remain, worsened by frequent PCS moves and limited access to affordable childcare. These challenges underscore a critical truth: supporting military spouses isn’t just a family issue—it’s a force readiness imperative.
Obesity is a chronic, relapsing, and multifactorial condition that significantly increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obstructive sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, and certain types of cancer (Blüher, 2019; Bray, Kim, Wilding, & World Obesity Federation, 2017).
This blog post focuses on the family unit as a social support system for military-connected youth.
Service providers around the country are uniquely positioned to connect with and support our nation’s military spouses where they live, work, and raise their children. Understanding how domicile is established is essential for helping military spouses navigate residency and tax issues.
Families play a key role in how kids first learn to interact with others (Maccoby, 2007) and develop eating habits that can last a lifetime (Scaglioni et al., 2018).
Each year, approximately 200,000 U.S. military service members and veterans transition to civilian life, and as many as 62% experience challenges during this reintegration period (Romaniuk et al., 2020; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2023).
Military youth experience a unique lifestyle, which can sometimes cause significant stress and be difficult for others who are not military-connected to understand. Three specific factors have been identified in research as unique stressors endured by military youth: frequent moving, extended parental separations, and physical and mental health risks experienced by military service members, which affect the family unit (Frederick, & Siebler, 2022). While these factors can be experienced by all youth, military youth experience them more frequently, creating patterns of instability and uncertainty.
Military spouses often find themselves battling on the employment front, working to secure and maintain careers while managing the unique lifestyle demands of military life. Despite these challenges, there are positive strides being made to support military spouses in their employment journey through in person and virtual employment readiness services.
Children, teens, and adolescents develop many relationships as they grow. One common relationship is with teachers and other education professionals. It is vital that teachers and school professionals create positive relationships with all students, maintain those positive relationships, and continuously work towards improving teacher-student dynamics.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy, U.S. Department of Defense under Award Number 2023-48770-41333.
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