Post on 23-Mar-2016
description
THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF MILITARY FAMILIES AND CHILDRENMilitary Child Education Coalition Training Seminar
Molly CleverCenter for Research on Military OrganizationUniversity of Marylandmclever@umd.edu
Objectives
What do we know?
How do we know it?
What do we need to know?
Defining Military Family Who is a military family member?
President & Joint Chiefs’ reports: “Supporting communities” Immediate and extended family of active duty,
Guard, Reserve, veterans, and those who died in service
Research: Household dependents Legal spouses and dependent children (22
years and younger)
What do we need to know? A decade of war
Increased strain on service members and families
Mission readiness requires timely data about well-being and satisfaction of families
Data Sources Department of Defense
Demographic and administrative Diversity of military families Comparisons with civilian counterparts
Sources: DoD: Demographics Profile of the Military Community Office of Personnel and Readiness: Population
Representation in the Military Services DoDEA: Annual Demographics Report and Report
Cards Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC): limited
access personnel and family data
Data Sources Research organizations
Quantitative and qualitative data analysis Perceptions, outcomes, trajectories
Sources: Military Child Education Coalition RAND Pew Research Center
Data Sources Academic scholarship
Military sociology, public policy, public health, medicine, psychology
Varying disciplinary approaches Sources:
Military-focused journals: Armed Forces & Society Political and Military Sociology Military Psychology Military Medicine
Family, Education, and Public Health journals
Understanding the Military Family Population Appropriate comparisons
Employed and relatively young Age distribution
Military: 18 and over, two-thirds under age 30 Civilians: 18-45 in the labor force, evenly distributed
Gender distribution Military: about 15% women Civilian labor force: 47.6% women
Dynamic population Move between active, Guard/Reserve and veteran
communities Activated Guard/Reserve nearly impossible to identify in data
General Demographics Active Duty Selected Reserve*
Comparable Civilian Population**
Total Population 1,411,425 855,867 91,208,300 Average Age 28.6 32.1 31.9 Sex Female 14.5% 18.0% 47.3%Male 85.5% 82.0% 52.7%
Race White or Caucasion 69.8% 75.7% 72.2%Black or African American 16.9% 15.0% 12.9%Asian 3.8% 3.1% 5.7%All other races and multiple races 9.6% 6.2% 9.2%
Ethnicity
Hispanic 11.2% 9.8% 19.2%Non-Hispanic 88.8% 90.2% 80.8%
Education (highest degree achieved) No High School diploma or GED 0.5% 2.4% 10.7%High School diploma or GED 79.1% 76.8% 60.1%Bachelor's degree 11.3% 14.3% 20.0%Advanced degree 7.0% 5.5% 9.2%Unknown 2.1% 1.0% --
Marital Status Now married 56.6% 47.7% 43.0%Divorced/Separated 4.5% 7.3% 10.0%Widowed/other 0.1% 0.2% 0.4%Never married 38.8% 44.7% 46.1% Children
With dependent children at home 44.2% 43.3% 43.1%Average number of children at home 2.0 2.0 2.0
Perceived meritocracy of military influences minority decisions (Segal 1989)
Education requirements exclude most without high school diploma
Active duty members more married, less divorced
Same number of children across groups
Notes: *Selected Reserve is comprised of those members of the Ready Reserve who train with reserve units throughout the year and participate in active duty training annually. The Ready Reserve also includes the Individual Ready Reserve and the Inactive National Guard components, which are comprised of members who have typically served on active duty in the past but are currently not participating in regular organized training and are therefore not included in these data.**The comparable population is defined as 18 to 45 year old civilians in the labor force.Source: Active duty and Selective Reserve data from DoD 2011 Demographics Profile. Civilian data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2011 American Community Survey, obtained through IPUMS.
Marriage and Family Formation
1973-2013: Transition from draft to AVF
Draft era: “if the Army wanted
you to have a wife it would have issued you one”
AVF: “enter single, marry
young”
Percent Married Among Active Duty Military Personnel and Civilian Counterparts,* 2011
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45+
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
90.0%
100.0%
MALE MILITARY FEMALE MILITARY MALE CIVILIAN FEMALE CIVILIAN
*Civilian counterparts are 18-44 year olds in the labor force.Source: Office of the Secretary of Defense. Population Representation in the Military Services, 2011.
Percent Married Among Junior Enlisted and Comparable Civilians
36%37%
24%
33%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Men Women
Junior Enlisted (E1-E4)
Civilian with comparableearnings (ages 18-24)
Sources: DMDC Active Duty Family Marital Status Report (2011), March 2010 Current Population Survey
Young Marriage: Push and Pull Factors
Conservative values regarding marriage and gender roles (Franke 2001, Lundquist 2004) Influences marital/family decisions among civilians, but effect is small
Retention needs family friendly policies Health coverage, on-base day care, family programs and activities Moving and housing allowances determined by family size
Contextual factors Frequent moves Scarcity of off-base housing Potentially dangerous assignments Teachman (2009): personal and contextual factors intersect to
disincentivize cohabitation among military males in relationships, esp. African Americans.
Children
Age Distribution of Children in Active Duty and Guard/Reserve Families by Service Branch, Fy2011
Army
Navy
Marine
Corps
Air Fo
rce
Total
Active D
uty Army
Navy
Marine
Corps
Air Fo
rce
Total
Selec
ted Rese
rve0%
10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%
100%
Pre-school (0 to 5 years) Primary school (6 to 14 years) High school and above (15 to 22 years)
Active Duty Selected Reserve
Schooling About 13% of military children in DoDEA schools Remaining 87% in civilian schools
Many in high military-presence communities Educators in non-military communities have become
more responsive to challenges facing military children over past 10 years (MCEC 2012)
Challenges in non-military presence communities Particularly children in Guard/Reserve families Isolated from on-base resources Only child in school with deployed parent
Family Status of Active Duty Force by Race/Ethnicity and Gender
White, non-Hisp
anic
Non-white, non-Hisp
anic
Hispanic, all Races
White, non-Hisp
anic
Non-white, non-Hisp
anic
Hispanic, all Races
Men Women
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Dual service couple without childrenMarried to civilian without childrenSingle, no childrenDual service couple with childrenMarried to civilian with childrenSingle Parent
Family Dynamics Socioeconomic status
Enlisted/Officer = Blue collar/White collar Military is more “blue collar” (83%) than
civilian labor force (61%) Spouse employment
Unemployment and underemployment Earnings penalties
Dual service and single parents Family separation Distance from extended family networks
Family Transitions and the Military Lifestyle Military families are diverse and dynamic
Move between active, Guard/Reserve, and veteran communities
The “greedy institution” framework (Segal 1986, Segal & DeAngelis 2013) Military and family compete for time, energy and
commitment Almost all will experience:
Frequent moves Deployments Separation and reunion
Military lifestyle presents both challenges and opportunities, hardships and advantages
Geographic Mobility Military families are
both “tied migrants” and “tied stayers” (Cooney et al. 2011)
Debunking the “military family syndrome” myth Moving and behavioral
problems Parental attitudes Supportive context
Family Separation Branches experience different operational
tempos Army: 39% of force, 54% of deployments in 2009 Navy: 6 month rotations on land and at sea Guard/Reserve comprised one-third of all
deployments in OEF and OIF Older and younger children face different
stressors Young children: grief, confusion, and loss Teenagers: understand dangers, renegotiation of
family roles
Family Separation At all ages, well-being of residual parent
predicts children’s well-being 68% of teenagers report helping remaining parent
cope most difficult problem (RAND 2011) Length of separation matters
Longer cumulative deployment time corresponds with increased school performance problems (RAND 2011, Engel et al. 2010)
Guard/Reserve children reported more behavioral problems than active duty children (RAND 2011)
Family Reunion Re-negotiation of
roles 54% of teenagers
reported fitting returned parent back into home routine most difficult problem
On the Homefront Military families become veteran families
Approximately 250,000 family members left military in 2011
Surge in attention to military families during 10 years of war Family needs will continue after drawdowns Continuity and transformation in family
well-being needs
Research Recommendations Longitudinal research that follows diverse
family forms through various transitions Gap in knowledge about infants and young
children Limited information on Guard/Reserve families Need for integrated data between
active-Guard/Reserve-veteran transitions Integrate research on military children with
civilian children Unique environment for understanding impact of
policies and programs on well-being
Policy Recommendations Flexible and
adaptive approaches Diversity of family
forms Gender integration
and same-sex families
Integrate with evaluation literature in civilian family programs