Exploring Children’s Socio-Emotional Outcomes as a Result of Parents’ Military Service in Indian Context

Abstract

Military service conditions like geographical moves due to postings, disruptions in social networks and routines, separations and instability in family functioning, and potential risk of injury or death of a parent during combat operations, layers complexity to military children’s adjustment during various critical developmental phases of life. This article reviews the impact of common military stressors on the socio-emotional outcomes and attachment security of military children based on existing studies and derives similarities in findings within the Indian context. There is a deficit of studies which explore the impact on this under-researched population and this article aims to highlight the need for understanding the specific contextual stressors and stimulating discussions on the intervention needs and policy programs to benefit children from this background.