This study documents affective learning during a community-based art museum education program for military and veteran-connected families, which included gallery teaching, art-making, and a final exhibition of participant artwork. A review of literature on public pedagogy, affective learning, museum education, and community-based art education provides the theoretical framework for the study. Narrative ethnography and participant observation were employed by the primary researcher-educator to gather a diverse array of data and construct a holistic narrative of the development of and participant experiences within the art museum program. Data collected includes field notes, personal communications (such as meeting notes and emails), interviews, open-ended survey questions, curriculum artifacts (such as lesson plans and worksheets), and artworks created by military family members. Analysis of the educator goals, participant expressions, and personal interactions informs the final discussion of how affective learning took place within one museum program and how attention to this domain of learning can enrich museum programs for diverse community members.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Bronwyn Fees / Since the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, a large number of service members have deployed multiple times to active combat zones as a result of U.S. involvement in the global war on terrorism. Army National Guard and Army Reserve families may find these deployments challenging as they are often isolated by living in civilian communities and have limited access to military support services and networks. Adolescents who live in these families may be particularly vulnerable as the stressors of parental deployment are layered on top of the normative stressors of adolescent development. This report will examine the challenges that adolescents and their families experience as a result of parental deployment. Additionally, protective factors that can help mitigate those challenges will also be discussed. Finally, Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory will be used as a framework to identify ways in which parents, schools, communities, and the U.S. Army can support adolescents, thus helping them to positively cope with parental deployment.

As military troops continue to deploy post September 11, 2001, limited literature indicates it is important to study the effects of the deployment on the military personnel and their families. The purpose of this nonexperimental study was to examine whether the physical distance between home and military-provided supports plays a role in whether Army families use such supports, and whether the use of these supports effects their coping strategies during the deployment process. Hobfoll's conservation of resources theory served as the framework for this study. Three hundred and two Army spouses, 44% active duty spouses, 33.8% Army National Guard spouses, and 22.2% Army Reserve spouses answered questions from the Conservation of Resources Evaluation, Brief COPE, and Participant Information Survey. Multivariate analysis of variance, between-groups t test, and Spearman's rho tests were run to determine relationships among the variables. According to study results, Army family participants determined that up to 20 miles was convenient to travel to access military-provided supports. Only the Veterans Center was used more than other supports, despite distance. Those families located closer to military-provided supports coped differently than those located farther away. The study adds to the literature on Army National Guard, Army Reserve, and active duty spouses by providing a better understanding for practitioners about Army families and their use of military-provided supports, their coping methods, social resource gain, and how distance plays a role for each. The military can use the information from this to provide support programs to enhance participation in services, which will help military families in times of deployment and inactive service.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Briana S. Goff / Events of war have long been considered traumatic and research has found that those exposed to war may develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or psychological difficulties. Although research has indicated the instance of increased PTSD and other symptoms in returning Operation Iraqi Freedom/ Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF) soldiers, it has yet to explore the trauma experiences of their female partners. The current study sought to address this limitation by exploring the ways in which partners’/wives’ primary trauma influenced the marriage relationship. Given the tendency for trauma to negatively influence relationship satisfaction, it was expected that the primary trauma experiences of the female partners of OIF/OEF soldiers would likewise negatively impact relationship satisfaction for both themselves and the soldiers. Results from this study indicated that female primary trauma, particularly trauma related to PTSD symptoms, has an influence on levels of relationship satisfaction, both for female partners and soldiers. Specifically, female partner re-experiencing symptoms were found to most significantly predict their own relationship satisfaction, while female partner arousal symptoms most significantly predicted soldier relationship satisfaction. Understanding female primary trauma may be important given the seeming sensitivity females have for developing PTSD and for experiencing symptoms that are chronic in nature. In addition, female civilian partners may play a key role in helping military families to function well throughout the deployment process given their assumption of major family responsibilities. Further, their emotional wellbeing may be considered a “family affair” due to the role that family relationships may serve in helping individuals cope with trauma, including returning soldiers. Indeed, civilian female partners appear to play a major role in helping military families cope with stresses associated with war and the deployment process. As such, the emotional condition of military families can no longer be considered solely within the realm of soldier trauma or secondary traumatization, but instead include consideration of the influence of female primary traumatic experiences.

Purpose: This study utilized the ABCX Model of Family Stress and Coping to examine the role of interparental conflict (IPC) on child adjustment in military families. We investigated how IPC as a stressor (A) relates to the meaning adolescent children assigned to the conflict (C), and how this meaning predicts adjustment outcomes among siblings in the family, reflecting a crisis (X). Methods: Data were collected from 116 families composed of an active-duty military parent, civilian parent, and two adolescent siblings. Parents and both adolescents reported their perception of IPC, and adolescents reported on their own positive adjustment. Results: Only civilian parent reports were related to adolescent sibling perceptions of IPC, and adolescent perceptions of IPC inversely predicted their own adjustment. Discussion: Findings support the importance of adolescent perceptions as a factor in their own outcomes. Results highlight the importance of at-home-caregivers as a potential point of intervention in fostering adjustment.

In this interactive presentation attendees will learn about processes used to mobilize research into practical applications. Attendees will learn about the five processes used by the Military REACH team to accomplish this goal, which extends beyond the realms of military research (e.g., social science research). The Military REACH team will discuss how research is identified, evaluated, translated, archived, and distributed to families, helping professionals, and policy makers through various avenues. The goal of this presentation is to demonstrate a systematic approach for making research visible and available to those outside of higher education. Foundational to the process utilized is an emphasis on connecting research to intended audiences (families, helping professionals, and policy makers) in a manner that is inviting, easily understood, and meaningful for their everyday context. This emphasis is demonstrated in our processes through the importance placed on identifying and highlighting implications of the research for specific target audiences.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Research on military families has increased since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; however, the research focuses on military families is general with little specific information on Black families within the military. Given the known general impact of race, this is a critical gap in the research into military families. This qualitative descriptive study explores the life of Black daughters in military families by examining the challenges and benefits of growing up as a Black daughter in a military family. There were three primary research questions asked of the participants about their experiences: 1) What challenges did you experience growing up in a military family; 2) What benefits did you experience growing up in a military family; and, 3) Do you believe that being Black affected the challenges and benefits you experienced? If so, in what way(s)? The participants also answered two additional questions of importance to social workers and health practitioners who work with military families: 1) What advice would you give to social workers who work with military families?; and, 2) What advice would you have for the military to help families address the challenges you have mentioned? The answers to the primary research questions are reviewed through the Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity (MMRI), models of systems theory, mettle, adaptability, and transformability. Consideration of the “Strong Black Woman” perspective is also examined. A look at the roles that women play as well as roles imposed on women by others is explored. Implications for social workers, health practitioners, and schools of social work are discussed, inclusive of military family culture and the importance of cultural competence in considering the intersections of a person’s life: racial identity in addition to military implications. / 2021-10-02

<p dir="ltr">Military families are a unique context as they experience separation from the service member who is away from the family for a considerable duration of time for a job that puts them at risk of serious injury or death. Service members returning from deployments may display a variety of mental health difficulties including post-traumatic stress disorder, especially when they have combat experiences. Applying a family systems framework, this thesis examined the associations between both service members’ and significant others’ PTSD symptoms, their ineffective arguing, and their reports of their children’s externalizing behaviors across three time points during reintegration, or the stage in the deployment cycle when the service member returns to the family. The study tested hypotheses that these would decline over time, and that initial levels and the rate of change in ineffective arguing would mediate the effect of parental PTSD at Time 1 on children’s externalizing behaviors at Time 3. Using data from service members and significant others in 71 families (142 individuals), I estimated multilevel models using both mixed and the structural equation frameworks. I found that parental PTSD and ineffective arguing were stable across reintegration, with considerable inter-individual variation in these at baseline. There was a decrease in children’s externalizing behaviors across time. There were also significant differences in parents’ rating of children’s externalizing behaviors. I did not find evidence for mediation but did find an association between parental PTSD and baseline levels of ineffective arguing. Results suggest that while parental stress is linked with the couple’s functioning, there may be protective factors within families that act as sources of resilience for the children.</p><p><br></p>

Doctor of Philosophy / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Jared R. Anderson / Using a representative sample of married, active duty Air Force service members (N= 29,254), a theoretical model of community functioning was tested to examine the association between community functioning and three family outcomes (i.e., parent-child relationship satisfaction, family coping, and marital satisfaction). Tests of indirect relationships included measures of psychological resilience, depression, and PTSD, while rank and gender were examined as potential moderators. Results using structural equation modeling indicated that there was a direct, positive relationship between community functioning and all three family outcome variables and an indirect relationship through both psychological resilience and depression. In addition, there was a direct, negative relationship between community functioning and depression, as well as an indirect relationship through psychological resilience. Moderation was supported for rank only. These results demonstrate the importance of community functioning and resilience as they relate to service member’s mental health and family relationships. They suggest a potential framework in which community functioning and resilience may lead to reductions in individual and family risk factors.

Since Chu T¡¦ien-wen was sixteen years old, she has been an important role in Taiwan literature. Chu T¡¦ien-wen has been influence by her parents and Zhang Ai-ling in Chinese literature for a long time. In the chinese ritual music cultur, she was educated under Hu Lan-cheng and became an author in the style of Zhang Qiang Hu Diao. Therefor, Chu T¡¦ien-wen and her sister Chu T'ien-hsin published San San magazine. However, after been through Nativist Literature Controversy and Hu Lan-cheng's death, she became a screenwriter for the movie, directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien and became one of the important participant of New Movie Movement in Taiwan. To face the problems of cross-srait relations and the visitions for the relatives, leading Chu T'ien-wen walk out military dependents' village and walk out San San and Grand View Garden, the style has also changed from San San ¢w¢w a young girl¡¦s fantasies style through growth theme of military dependents' village style and turned into the metropolis mature style. After Hu Lan-cheng passed away, Chu T'ien-wen swore to accomplish his unfinished ¡§ Woman Theory ¡¨ . To pass down the Female Writing of Woman Theory of Civilization, she decided to use ¡§ the Splendors of Fin de Siècle ¡¨ Notes of a Desolate Man and Words of a Witch. Hu Lan-cheng used to describe Chu T'ien-wen as a Japanese witch, and praised of the youth and beauty of her literature of art, which gives an inspiration to Chu T'ien-wen and to start a journey for witch. In ¡§ the Splendors of Fin de Siècle ¡¨ , giving Chu T¡¦ien-wen an advice as witch who predicted that patriarchal society were devastated. And in Notes of a Desolate Man that a desolate man who had feminine soul to offer Japanese witching dance for god. In Words of a Witch as witching word to fly from time and death that become unique to Chu T'ien-wen¡¦s Witched Writings.