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Mental Health of Canadian Military-Connected Children: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Perspectives of Service Providers

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Abstract

The military lifestyle can be defined by a triad of unique stressors: frequent relocation, parental absence, and risk of injury, illness and/or death of a serving member. Research has suggested that this unique triad of stressors can impact the mental health of children and youth living in military families. However, research focusing on the mental health of children and youth living in military families overwhelmingly focuses on the American context. Due to key contextual differences, it is unclear to what extent the American findings are representative of military-connected children and youth living in other geographical contexts, such as Canada. A large qualitative study was conducted to explore the mental health of military-connected children in Canada from three perspectives: child, parent, and service provider. This paper reports on the service provider findings. Using individual semi-structured interviews, data were collected from 11 service providers. Data analysis was guided by qualitative content analysis. Two main themes emerged: (1) the mental health of children living in military families may be impacted by the military lifestyle stressors, and (2) the mental health of children living in military families can be impacted by the accessibility and availability of mental health services. While this qualitative study builds upon recent Canadian work that has considered the service provider perspective, additional research is needed to better understand the experiences of service providers who support military-connected children and youth.

Highlights

  • American research shows that the military lifestyle factors can impact the mental health of military-connected children.

  • The mental health of military-connected children has yet to be extensively explored in Canada.

  • The mental health of children living in Canadian military families may be impacted by the military lifestyle stressors.

  • The mental health of Canadian military-connected children can be impacted by the accessibility and availability of mental health services.

  • Our findings can help build capacity and knowledge for service providers who support Canadian military-connected children.

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Author contributions

Shannon Hill: Contributed to data analysis. Ashley Williams: Contributed to interview guide development, ethics application, participant recruitment, data collection and analysis. Sarosh Khalid-Khan: Contributed to development of protocol, interview guide, participant recruitment. Pappu Reddy: Contributed to development of protocol, interview guide, participant recruitment. Dianne Groll: Contributed to development of protocol, interview guide, participant recruitment. Lucia Rühland: Contributed to data analysis. Heidi Cramm: Designed study protocol and interview guide, contributed to ethics application, participant recruitment, data collection and analysis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Shannon Hill and all authors commented on subsequent versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript prior to submission.

Funding

This research was funded by the Health Research Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Rehabilitation Therapy, Queen’s University, Louise D. Acton Building, 31 George Street, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada

    Shannon Hill & Heidi Cramm

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, 100 West 5th Street, Hamilton, Ontario, L8N 3K7, Canada

    Ashley Williams

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Psychology and Centre of Neuroscience Studies, Queen’s University, 166 Brock Street, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 5GN, Canada

    Sarosh Khalid-Khan

  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, 201 Georgian Drive, Barrie, Ontario, L4M 6M2, Canada

    Pappu Reddy

  5. Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, Queen’s University, 99 University Ave, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada

    Dianne Groll

  6. Centre for Studies in Aging and Health, Providence Care Hospital, 52 King Street West, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 4X3, Canada

    Lucia Rühland

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  1. Shannon Hill
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Correspondence to Shannon Hill.

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Hill, S., Williams, A., Khalid-Khan, S. et al. Mental Health of Canadian Military-Connected Children: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Perspectives of Service Providers. J Child Fam Stud 32, 3447–3458 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02450-7

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