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Since the start of the global war on terror and increased international involvement in war zones worldwide, military service has become a common part of many young adults’ lives. For example, in 2014, out of 1.32 million active duty US army military personnel, nearly half (49.6%) were 25 years of age or younger, and 42.2% were single and had no children (
The period of mandatory military service is considered a turbulent one, as it includes challenges and dangers that can trigger stress and distress. Soldiers deployed to war zones must make life-and-death decisions and take responsibility for the lives of others; they must also participate in life-threatening missions marked by uncertainty and danger for themselves and others (
Military service is demanding and stressful not only for the recruited soldier, but also for his family, and specifically for his parents. Over the last 20 years, researchers have shown a great deal of interest in the experience and coping of military families after their soldier sons deploy to war zones, with a focus on soldiers’ spouses and/or children (
Nevertheless, despite a growing body of research on soldiers’ spouses and children, little is known about the distress and experiences of soldiers’ parents. The provision of emotional and instrumental support by parents is crucial, since in many cases soldiers are quite young, are not yet in stable romantic relationships, and have not yet formed their own families (
A few recent studies have focused on the experience of soldiers’ parents and have reported findings of emotional distress (
The lack of research on this topic is surprising, especially given the extended literature and research findings regarding parents’ distress reactions in response to their young children’s (from childhood to adolescence) distress or trauma. The vast amount of literature in this area has focused on parents’ distress connected to the pediatric medical events of their children, including cancer (e.g.,
The current study serves as a novel exploration of parents’ needs and distress in relation to their soldier sons during Operation Protective Edge, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military operation that took place in July and August of 2014.
On July 8, 2014, in response to rocket attacks fired on its population centers from the Gaza Strip, the IDF launched Operation Protective Edge. Israel’s military operation began with air and artillery strikes, followed by ground forces entering Gaza (beginning on July 17). The IDF withdrew to the international border until a cease-fire agreement was implemented on August 26 (
A total of 69 parents – 55 mothers and 14 fathers – of Israeli male combat soldiers participated in this study, which was conducted during the period dating from July 31 to August 25, 2014. Convenience sampling was used to recruit parents, on a voluntary basis, by posting ads on public Facebook groups initiated by parents of IDF soldiers, which invite other parents to exchange information and share their experience of having a child in the army. The selected Facebook groups were created prior to Operation Protective Edge. Ads were also posted on the public Facebook pages of the researchers. All parents who agreed to participate signed informed consent forms and completed the survey. The research was approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Social Work at Bar-Ilan University.
Parents completed questionnaires online, using the QUALTRICS online survey platform
Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18;
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)-Checklist-5 (
All statistical analyses were conducted with SPSS, Version 20. The subscales of the BSI-18 (anxiety, depression, and somatization) were compared to the adult Israeli community norms of the BSI (
The general distress rates of parents, indicated by the GSI score of the BSI-18, were compared to published GSI scores of adult residents (between the ages of 18 and 95 years) from southern Israel exposed to 7 years of daily rocket fire from Gaza (
Probable PTSD of parents in the study was determined by comparing parents’ PCL-5 scores to the PCL-5 cut-off point of 33, as suggested by the National Center for PTSD (
The study group consisted of 69 participants – 55 women (79.7%) and 14 men (20.3%) – with a mean age of 51.3 years (
Seven (10.1%) of the participants lived in the United States, meaning that their sons were serving as “lone soldiers” in Israel during Operation Protective Edge, while the rest lived in Israel (89.9%). Sixty-six of the participants were married (95.6%), two (2.9%) were divorced, and one (1.4%) was single. The average number of children of the parents in the sample was 4.3 (
Independent
One-sample
Means and SDs of BSI-18 subscales and
BSI-18 subscale | Current sample |
Adult Israeli norms |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Somatization | 69 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.7 | -0.1 |
Depression | 69 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 4.8∗ |
Anxiety | 69 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 8.9∗ |
Participants responses for the PCL-5 items revealed that 40 (57.9%) participants endorsed at least one intrusion symptom (Cluster B); 27 (39.1%) endorsed at least one avoidance symptom (Cluster C); 47 (68.1%) endorsed at least one symptom related to cognition or mood alterations (Cluster D); and 57 (82.6%) endorsed at least one arousal symptom (Cluster E). Given the criteria of endorsement of symptom-based clusters for a diagnosis of probable PTSD (according to DSM-V), 20 participants (28.9%) presented PTSD-like symptoms.
The PCL-5 total score presented by 21 (30.4%) participants exceeded the cut-off point suggested for probable PTSD by the National Center for PTSD (i.e., ≥33). Stricter standards, which take into consideration both the endorsement of DSM-V clusters and a total score exceeding the suggested cut-off point, showed that 14 parents (20.2%) presented PTSD-like symptoms. These PTSD prevalence rates are higher than the 10% probable PTSD rate that was found in the general population in Israel during terror waves (
This study’s main goal was to explore the experience and distress of soldiers’ parents during Operation Protective Edge, a military operation carried out by the IDF during July and August of 2014. As expected, parents of soldiers exhibited high distress and PTSD symptoms.
General distress levels, as measured by the BSI-18, were similar to distress levels of an Israeli sample exposed to the threat of ongoing rocket fire, and higher than levels of a non-threatened Israeli population (
As Operation Protective Edge was unexpected, the study was planned and executed at very short notice and therefore suffers from some limitations. First, the PTSD-like symptoms that were measured in this research may represent short-term distress and may not necessarily develop into PTSD. Although making a PTSD diagnosis wasn’t possible during the time of the study, the current findings indicate significant clinical distress among the parents. Previous studies have used terminology such as “probable PTSD” (e.g.,
In addition, while their sons were serving in the army, it might have been that parents themselves were indirectly exposed to Operation Protective Edge hostilities, through the media. There was no systematic assessment of criterion A, and it is not clear whether symptom responses were cued to a specific traumatic event. Omitting assessment of this particular criterion is common in research focused on Israeli populations (
Furthermore, the current study’s sample did not include parents of children who did not take part in Operation Protective Edge and who could have served as a control group. Such a control group would have been virtually impossible to establish, given that even combat soldiers who did not enter Gaza as part of the operation were on standby to join the operation at any stage; the threat for their parents, therefore, was quite similar to that experienced by the research sample. In addition, comparing combat soldiers’ parents to parents of non-combatants is problematic because other variables – those which perhaps distinguish combat from non-combat soldiers in the first place – may be a source of different distress responses in parents. To overcome this limitation, data from previous research conducted among a large adult sample in Israel was used and served as a statistically valid comparison group.
Despite the abovementioned limitations, the current study provides significant preliminary evidence of the distress experienced by parents of IDF soldiers and specifically by parents of combat soldiers. The findings suggest that soldiers’ parents are adversely impacted by their sons’ service, especially during periods of heightened danger. More research is needed to better understand and define the specific distress response, needs, and challenges of parents. In addition, future research should examine the distress and emotional responses of mothers and fathers, so as to uncover the potential distinctions between them, in a more planned and controlled research setting. Establishing a time-frame and conducting measurements 1 month after the traumatic event can lead to a better estimation of a probable PTSD diagnosis. A potentially productive future investigation would consider the triadic interrelated relationships between the parents’ distress and emotional resources and the child’s distress and emotional resources. Adopting this kind of broader “reciprocal influences” framework could uncover the parents’ effects on the child’s distress and vice versa.
SB, RT-M, and SF contributed equally to the study conception, design, and interpretation.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.