Geographic Mobility, Family, and Maternal Variables as Related to the Psychosocial Adjustment of Military Children

Abstract

The present study examined maternal and family factors and family mobility as related to mothers' and children's reports of the psychological adjustment of children in military families. Participants were 86 mother-child dyads in U.S. traditional military families. Children's reports of loneliness, peer relationships, fear of negative evaluations, and self-esteem were predicted by family cohesiveness, children's reports of their relationships with their mothers, and the length of time they had lived in their current residence, but not their rate of mobility (i.e., number of moves in the child's lifetime divided by the child's age). In contrast, maternal depressive symptoms predicted children's depressive and anxious behaviors, and both maternal depressive symptoms and children's perception of their relationship with their mothers predicted children's aggression and noncompliance. Results suggest that moving may not be as important as other aspects of maternal functioning and family relationships for the psychosocial adjustment of children in military families.