Free Talk Explores Parenting in Military Families

It takes place on Wednesday, November 21 at 5pm and is free to attend.

Dr Misca said: "Military life is often characterised by long and unpredictable duty hours, relatively low pay for lower ranks, frequent family separations and relocations. In 2011, an Ofsted survey identified that military families face challenges that go beyond the experience of the majority of families and children living in the UK.

"There is an urgent need to gain a better understanding of these challenges, of their impact on parenting, and of strategies to support military mothers and fathers who have young children."

The talk will draw on early research that captures the complexity of parents" and young children's experience of being part of a military family and will discuss what parents have said about their coping strategies, and consider possible interventions to support these families.

Professor Nolan said: "In the last decade, research into the impact on children of belonging to a military family has expanded in the United States as the major deployment operations in Iraq and in Afghanistan have led to a surge of concern for the health and wellbeing of the thousands of military families caught up in the conflicts. Nonetheless, relatively little of this research activity has focused on pre-school children and in the British military context, there is almost no research into military families."

Dr Misca added: "Risk factors in military families include family disruption owing to the cycle of deployment; poor mental health of the caregiving parent during the absence of the serving parent; PTSD and depression on the part of the serving parent post-deployment; as well as changing dynamics between the child's parents as they renegotiate roles across the deployment cycle, and manage conflict as the family reorganises itself."

To book a ticket to this free event visit The Hive's What's on webpage.