Military Children: Unique Risks for Mental Health and Wellbeing and Implications for School-Based Social Work Support

Children in military families experience a unique combination of stressors associated with military life that may affect every stage of their lives, including their mental health, as well as disrupt their schooling and consequent social, emotional, and academic development. A review of the key issues faced by children is presented including the challenges in providing school-based social work support. A case vignette is used to illustrate how an ecological framework can address many of the unique aspects of military life that affect children, such as mobility, multiple deployments, recent relocation, mental health and wellbeing, family stress, and their impact on social, emotional, and academic outcomes.