This study examined the effect of the absence of the military parent due to a temporary duty assignment (TDY) on student adjustment in terms of TDY-induced negative affect and school performance. Data were also collected with regard to student coping responses used to manage negative TDY affect, perceived social support, and emotional conceptualization. Participants were 42 elementary school students attending a public school operating on an United States Air Force Base in southern Arizona. Data were collected by individual student interview and supplemented with teacher and parent surveys that measure teacher rating of student academic performance and personal adjustment, and parental perception of the role of school attendance in facilitating their child's TDY adjustment and satisfaction with school efforts to help their child cope with TDY. Results indicated that while the majority of students reported experiencing negative affect during TDY; compared to non-TDY report of these same emotions, report of negative affect during TDY did not appear significantly pronounced. Further, the majority of students did not report experiencing difficulties in school performance during TDY. Individual differences in TDY emotional experience emerged as a function of gender, teacher rating of academic performance, and characteristics of the TDY. While students were able to cogently discuss characteristics of the coping responses they would use to manage negative TDY affect and available social support providers, these variables were not found to organize individual differences in student TDY emotional experience. Individual differences in coping responses emerged as a function of age, grade level, gender, and parental report of satisfaction with school TDY efforts. Students were also able to cogently discuss emotional conceptualization. Individual differences in emotional conceptualization emerged in terms of student age, grade level, gender, and TDY emotional experience.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/288815 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Thompson, Elisa Kleehammer, 1969- |
| Contributors | McCaslin, Mary M. |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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