Parental military service and adolescent well-being: mental health, social connections and coping among youth in the USA

The association between parental military work factors and adolescent's well-being was examined. Data were collected from 1036 military youth. Using a within-group design, we examined adolescent's well-being related to parental absence, school and neighbourhood transitions, paygrade/rank and participation in military-sponsored activities, and differentiated outcomes by sex and age. Two parental work factors primarily influenced adolescent's well-being, parental paygrade/rank and engagement in military-sponsored activities. Parental paygrade/rank was the only factor uniformly related to poorer well-being, and this variable likely represents a more complex set of family circumstances. Engaging in military-sponsored activities served as a resource and was related to enhanced well-being. Individual-level differences and implications for social workers are discussed.