The Military Lifestyle: Will this be on the Test?
While it may be hard to believe, it is proposed that within the United States of America, there are approximately over 1.5 million children that has either a mother or father serving within the Armed Forces (De Pedro et al., 2011). If one were to assume that a family on average has two kids, this would average out to be 750,000 soldiers. In the face of these staggering numbers, a majority of these children share similar issues. Due to the military lifestyle, many of these children suffer from psychological trauma that is brought upon them by frequent military relocations and transition. For those who are not aware, those who choose to adopt a military lifestyle are quite often asked to PCS, which is a Permanent Change of Station. Due to this process, children are quite often required to transition to different school countless times throughout their life. While my research has dictated that this constant movement does impact children, some date appears to be inconclusive regarding if the consequences are purely negative in context. Therefore, my research question will focus on whether or not the military lifestyle negatively impacts the academic achievement of compulsory school aged children. My thesis supports will focus on the idea that not only does the military lifestyle impact children more than we realize, but more research must be done to help these individuals.
Through my research, I hope that I will be able to explain to the general public the importance understanding stressors that may affect the lives of children, and what can be done to circumvent them. Therefore, I am hoping that this research proposal will be sufficient enough to educate the audience about this specific issue, so that aid may be deployed (or at least more research is undergone). As a side benefit, I am hoping that this research will further help my little sister, as she also has to participate in DoDEA (Department of Defense Education Association) schools, as well as any future children that I may have as an employee of the DoD (Department of Defense). In addition, I chose to write on this topic as a means of better understanding myself if I wasn't so fortunate in my life. Due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, my own father was deployed for months-years at a time, cause my family to move constantly due to military and financial constraints. While I was able to cope with this change, I would still like to know what would have been the worst-case scenario, as a means of warning others. The military is such an integral part of my life at this point, that I cannot conceive not participating in a study to rectify any issues. Thus, it's apt to say that the target audience is not only important military officials, but also the parents of children who are unable to identify that their child is struggling.
Review of Sources
By utilizing the Rio Salado library, I was able to find a wealth of information related to this topic. In particular, I found several journals and articles from resources such as EBSCOhost, JSTOR, and Opposing Viewpoints. This is a topic that is actually frequently studied at the Doctorate level, and even by government agencies. However, despite this, the overall consensus shows that most evidence points towards inconclusion regarding the effect of the military lifestyle on children. Regardless, most of the articles did share some similar viewpoints. In particular, a majority of the sources themselves were not only written by experts in the field, but also included interviews with the subjects in question to better understand their perception of current events. The overarching goal of all the authors appears to be creating a school environment in which educators are better able to cater to military children by creating a more streamlined syllabus across all schools.
Some of the resources relay interesting statistical information related to the study of academic achievement and military children. According to Esqueda et al., the correlation between the military lifestyle and children's academic achievement hasn't been realized until the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The author even goes so far to claim that their article might be one of the first (if not the) to state this in a publicized article. In addition, among all these resources, there did not appear to be any researchers who appeared to have a different point of view concerning the stressors brought upon the family by the military. Luckily, each author seems to have come to the conclusion that while the potential negative repercussions on children are more concrete, the mentality needed to overcome these struggles differs with every child.
Data Collection
While some would believe that I have found too many sources for my study, I do believe that I do not have enough (over 10). Due to the nature of this topic, perception is a key element in determining what needs to be changed to better understand the phenomena at hand. Thus, I would prefer to hold interviews with spouses of the military community, so that I may better understand the situation form their point of view threw carefully crafted questions. Using these interviews, I would hopefully be able to reach a conclusion on what is the most prevalent issue on military installations that would have to be addressed in the nearby future.
However, conducting the interviews themselves may potentially be the most difficult aspect of this research, due to the nature of the study. To get more varied date, I would have to locate a rather large number of participants (at least 30). Even then, this style of interview could be subject to contamination, as the military community is close-knit, meaning that it could be possible for the spouses to collude on answers beforehand. To prevent this, I would have to ask for the assistance of a counselor, or another expert in this field to keep my data collection method risk free.
Conclusion
At the end, I hoping that the reading audience will better understand the military community, by identifying the stress they must bring upon themselves to defend the country; even at the cost of their family dynamic. I do believe that if we, the people, do not help our children now, then the future as we know it is doomed before they can even reach adulthood. Therefore, it is imperative to not only study this field, but implore the reader to use whatever free time they can muster to implement changes on any level. Whether it is through counseling, tutoring, or lobbying at the government level, all help would be appreciated. These children are just starting their lives, and do not deserve to have it ruined for them due to the laziness of the prior generation.
