A Qualitative Exploration of Military Children’s Experience of Education when a Parent has Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Military life has been reported to pose many challenges for service personnel and their families, including operational deployments resulting in lengthy periods of separation, increased rates of child psychopathology, and significant mental health difficulties for serving personnel (Fisher & Kennedy, 2016). A growing number of studies have explored the impact of parental posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on military children, most of which are informed by veteran parent’s perceptions of their PTSD on their children (Duranceau et al., 2015). The current study aimed to explore the lived experiences of military children who have a serving or veteran parent who has PTSD as a means to help inform policy makers and the systems around military children, including education.

Utilising Aldridge’s (2017) conceptual participatory model, the current study included the recruiting and participation of a co-researcher during the design stage of the research. The co-researcher developed a schedule for semi-structured interviews. After the recruitment of 3 participants, the researcher conducted individual interviews with participants to elicit their experiences of being a military child who has a parent with PTSD.

The researcher analysed the data using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, which produced themes both at an individual participant level and across participants. Four superordinate themes were identified across participants in line with their individual lived experiences. Participants described the importance of friendships and connections in facilitating a sense of feeling understood and in helping them to gain support. Participants discussed how their understanding of PTSD has increased with age, and how they recognised that the symptoms their parent displayed as a result of PTSD could be viewed as separate from their parent. Participants also described a sense of silence surrounding their parent having PTSD which manifested as widespread difficulties in people talking about it, and aspects of their parent’s illness being hidden from them. Finally, participants described the emotional impact of living with a parent who has PTSD and support they feel would be helpful for them.

The findings in the current study have implications for educational psychologists and those working in wider educational institutions in relation to providing effective support for military children, giving consideration to the unique experiences of military children, which can pose significant challenges. The researcher and co-researcher are hopeful this study will promote social justice by facilitating the participation of a group who have been underrepresented in research involving military families previously. Finally, the inclusion of a military child co-researcher is hoped to encourage future research to involve further participation of military children as a means of addressing the gap between theory and practice.