America’s Military Youth Towards A Study of Positive Development in the Face of Challenge Richard M. Lerner Tufts University Jonathan F. Zaff America’s Promise Alliance Jacqueline V. Lerner Boston College
Executive Summary of a Whitepaper Prepared for the Military Child Education Coalition December 2009
About the Military Child Education Coalition The Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC), a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization, is the nation’s only organization devoted to the education needs of America’s military-connected children. A model of positive leadership and advocacy, the MCEC’s work is focused on ensuring quality educational opportunities for all military-connected children affected by mobility, family separation, and transition. The MCEC performs research, develops resources, conducts professional institutes and conferences, and publishes resources for all constituencies. For more information, please visit www.MilitaryChild.org.
About Philip “Uri” Treisman, Ph.D Co-chair of the America’s Military Youth Study Philip Uri Treisman chairs the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) Research Initiatives, is a member of the MCEC Science Advisory Board, and serves on the MCEC National Advisory Committee. He is a professor of mathematics and of public affairs at The University of Texas at Austin, and is the founder and executive director of the University’s Charles A. Dana Center, an organized research unit of the College of Natural Sciences. Treisman is a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow.
About Richard M. Lerner, Ph.D Co-chair of the America’s Military Youth Study Richard M. Lerner is the Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science and the Director of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University. Lerner has more than 500 scholarly publications, including 70 authored or edited books. He was a 1980-81 fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science.
About Jonathan Zaff, Ph.D Jonathan Zaff is the Vice President of Research and Policy Development at the America’s Promise Alliance. He is also a scholar-in-residence at the Institute of Applied Research in Youth Development and a senior scholar at Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, both at Tufts University. His research focuses primarily on studying the content of social contexts that promote positive outcomes among youth, particularly with regard to academic achievement and civic engagement.
About Jacqueline V. Lerner , Ph.D Jacqueline V. Lerner is a full professor at the Boston College Lynch School of Education. Dr. Lerner received her doctorate from Pennsylvania State University. She has been on the faculty at the Pennsylvania State University and Michigan State University. Her current research and teaching interests include the study of normative child development within the school and home contexts; temperament; maternal employment and day care influences on child development; early adolescent transitions; and life-span developmental theory.
Military Child Education Coalition®, MCEC®, and associated programs trademarks and design elements are owned and licensed by the Military Child Education Coalition. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Military Child Education Coalition.
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America’s Military Youth: Towards A Study of Positive Development in the Face of Challenge Executive Summary
www.MilitaryChild.org
Why We Need to Know about the Strengths and Positive Development of School-Aged Military-Connected Children and Youth Military-connected children and youth have often-
3. Enhancing the lives of military-connected children
unrecognized strengths and important ways of navigating
and youth also enhances the quality of their families.
in complex situations and environments. These children
Research documents a strong relationship between
also have unique opportunities for positive growth. If
the well-being of the family of military personnel
we have the knowledge to align the strengths of military
and the likelihood that military personnel choose
children with positive, growth-supporting resources in their
to remain in the Service. By attending to the well-
families, schools, and communities we can better promote
being of families there is also an added outcome of
their thriving. This White Paper explains the need for such
“attracting” individuals to want to join the military. Just
knowledge, proposes an effective means to generate it,
as professions and avocations tend to “run in families,”
and thereby provides a knowledge base for precision in
so too does the call to Military Service.
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Services and support systems. There are four primary reasons to understand the strengths and resources of military-connected children: 1. Decisions about the well-being and thriving of military-
4. We need good science to produce strong, evidencebased knowledge about military children. The extant data on these children are framed by a deficit model, leaving a dearth of knowledge about the children’s
connected children need to be based on evidence
strengths. The deficit-based studies that have been
derived from well-designed developmental research.
conducted typically involve small, convenience
Military commanders, youth development workers, and
samples, precluding the ability to generalize to all
school administrators and teachers need to have a strong
military-connected children and youth.
knowledge base to use when acting to inform practice and policies aimed at enhancing their lives. 2. Military-connected children and youth deserve
Without precise knowledge of the strengths and opportunities for positive development among the military-connected, conjecture and the potential for
to have policies and programs designed to fit
overgeneralization will inappropriately frame decisions
their specific developmental needs. The military
about enhancing the thriving of these young people. In
and its surrounding communities provide enriching
this paper, we show that it is possible to generate precise
experiences for military children; however, the absence
knowledge about successful pathways of thriving among
of even a basic understanding of their development is
diverse children and we propose a research design that can
not appropriate.
be implemented to provide this knowledge.
1 Military-connected children and youth are considered to be those who have parents currently serving our nation in the Active Duty Forces, the National Guard, or the Reserves, as well as children of post-9/11 Veterans.
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America’s Military Youth: Towards A Study of Positive Development in the Face of Challenge Executive Summary
www.MilitaryChild.org
A Focus on the Strengths of Youth Every child and adolescent has strengths. The
promoted - the “Five Cs” of competence, confidence,
enormous capacity during the first two decades of life
connection, character, and caring and, as well, the sixth C
for change in the structure and function of the brain, the
of contribution to self, family, community, and civil society.
growth in cognitive capacities, emotional development,
Proponents of the PYD perspective focus on the strengths
motivational and goal setting abilities, and behavioral
of young people to inculcate skills that will enhance an
skills constitute a rich and potent basis for putting every
individual’s capacities to actively reduce problems and to
child on a more positive, healthier path through life.
promote thriving.
The settings within which youth develop – the families,
One key study demonstrating the usefulness of these
schools, and communities – have resources (termed
strength-based ideas about youth is the 4-H Study of
ecological “developmental assets”) that can be marshaled
Positive Youth Development, a longitudinal investigation
to translate a child’s strengths into positive development.
that has studied more than 6,000 youth from 41 states
These developmental assets include caring, competent,
and about 3,000 of their parents (Lerner, et al., 2005). The
and dedicated adults and peers, substantive and engaging
study began in 2002, when the youth were in Grade 5,
learning experiences, and opportunities for youth
and continues through this writing, with youth now in
leadership.
Grade 12. The findings from the 4-H Study document
There is compelling evidence that, if the strengths of
that all youth, regardless of sex, age, race/ethnicity, family
youth are aligned over the course of the first two decades
background, socioeconomic status, or residential location,
of life with the resources within families, school, and
have the capacity to attain high levels of the 5 Cs when
communities, then the life of all children may be enhanced.
youth strengths are aligned across time with assets in their
The theory and research that provide the foundation for
families, communities, and schools.
these ideas are part of the Positive Youth Development
To date, there has been no systematic strengths-
(PYD) perspective, a strength-based approach to
based, positive development study of military-connected
understanding and enhancing the lives of all young people.
children and no study of development – no longitudinal
While recognizing the challenges and risks that children
data – on the alignment of individual strengths with
and youth face, the PYD perspective stands in contrast to
ecological developmental assets. Because of the lack of
deficit models of child and adolescent development which
this information we are unable to describe how these
focus on problems and on the presumed inevitability of
youth may be using their strengths and resources to
storm and stress in the lives of young people. The PYD
address both the typical opportunities and challenges
perspectives view youth as “resources to be developed,”
shared by all children and the unique opportunities and
and points to attributes of young people that should be
challenges faced by these young people.
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America’s Military Youth: Towards A Study of Positive Development in the Face of Challenge Executive Summary
www.MilitaryChild.org
What We Know and What We Need to Know Considering the importance of PYD, it is inexcusable
have not yet examined the strengths of young people and
that we are at the end of the first decade of the
how these strengths may interact and develop with the
21st century and have little idea about the specific
strengths of military families (for example, their abilities to
characteristics of the development of military children.
remain emotionally close in the face of separation, and the
Of the 2 million youth with parents in the military,
sense of duty and the values of the parents). In addition,
approximately 1.2 million have parents who are in the
yet to be discovered and assessed are the resources for
Active Duty forces, and more than 800,000 children have
supporting positive child development that may exist in
parents who are in the National Guard and Reserves. More
the children’s schools or in the positive social support
than half of these children are school-age (approximately
provided by the military and civilian communities.
1.1 million), between 6 and 18 years old. To date, the thin research base on military children
We are left, then, without an understanding about the developmental supports, conditions, and processes
is focused more on the quality or function of their
that lead to positive (or negative) outcomes among the
family system and on the potential risks related to the
diversity of military youth, and cannot interrelate their
deployment of a parent than on children’s cognitive,
dynamic and individualized experiences with differences
social, emotional, and behavioral strengths or on their civic
that may exist in their families, schools, or communities.
skills, competencies, and attitudes. When military children
The PYD perspective offers a framework for changing
have been empirically studied, the research typically
this situation. It is possible to derive from the PYD
addresses stresses in the child’s environment (e.g., parent
perspective a “model” of how the positive development
deployment, family relocation, maltreatment and abuse) or
of military youth might occur. Such a model can serve as a
purported deficits of the child (e.g., risk for low academic
guide for a first-ever, state-of-the-art developmental study
standing, depression, or behavioral problems). Researchers
of military children. Figure 1 displays such a model.
How We Can Know What We Need To Know: The Model and Method of the Proposed Research The PYD perspective links the strengths of children
to family, community, and the institutions of civil society.
and adolescents with the developmental assets of their
As such, youth Contribution should be an outcome of the
families, schools, and communities. This perspective also
development of the Five Cs. As well, a young person who
assesses if and how the mutually influential relations
is thriving and engaged positively with the community
between individual and contextual variables may promote
should be less likely to manifest major or severe instances
PYD and lessen risks/problems. As shown in Figure 1, when
of risk and problem behaviors.
the strengths of a child or adolescent are aligned with
The model illustrated In Figure 1 can find rich empirical
key ecological developmental assets, the young person
support when applied to the development of military
should develop the Five Cs and be on a life trajectory
children and adolescents. This empirical support would
towards a successful and productive future; an “idealized
derive from the longitudinal study of these youth.
adulthood,” an adult life marked by contributions to self (e.g., maintaining one’s health and one’s ability therefore to remain an active agent in one’s own development) and
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America’s Military Youth: Towards A Study of Positive Development in the Face of Challenge Executive Summary
www.MilitaryChild.org
Figure 1. A PYD model for studying the development of the children and adolescents of military families.
INDIVIDUALS In families, schools, and communities
Self
+
Institutions
Contribution
Community
Ecological Developmental Assets
Youth-Adult Collaboration
Positive Youth Development (PYD)
Access
Caring
Connection
Strengths of Children and Adolescents
– Optimization
Civil Society
Confidence
Competence
Character
Selection
Family
Compensation
Depression
Risk/Problem Behaviors
Delinquency
Substance Use
A Design for the Efficient Longitudinal Study of the Development of Military Children & Adolescents: Features of a Cohort Sequential Design The type of longitudinal design we propose is termed
However, because the groups are different ages at the first
a cohort-sequential study. Cohort in the context of this
time of testing and because each group overlaps in age
type of longitudinal design refers to birth cohort, that
with another group in the study (meaning that there are,
is, to individuals who share a common year of birth, for
say, 12 year olds in two groups but they are 12 years old in
example, 2004, 2002, 2000, 1998, 1996, and 1994 and who
different years), the design accelerates the time needed to
would thus be 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 years of age in say,
study development.
2010 (when, depending on the availability and timing of funding, we could conduct the first wave of testing for all cohorts included in such a study). In such a design, several cohorts of youth are studied at the same time (for example, starting in the fall of 2010, 2011, and 2012).
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America’s Military Youth: Towards A Study of Positive Development in the Face of Challenge Executive Summary
www.MilitaryChild.org
Table 1. Design of a sequential longitudinal study of military children and adolescents.
Birth Cohort
Age of Participants
1994
16
17
18
1996
14
15
16
1998
12
13
14
2000
10
11
12
2002
8
9
10
2004
6
7
8
Time (Year) of Testing*
2010
2011
2012
* A new Retest Control Group will be added at this time of testing. The second retest group will be studied longitudinally as well.
The cohort sequential design we would use involves the addition of control participants (at the second and
understand development across the broad portion of the
third times of testing), to correct for any effects of drop
childhood and adolescent years. The above-noted design
out (attrition) from the study and for any effects of
includes these features.
repeated testing. Substantive issues, as well as methodological ones,
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at least, three times of measurement, to adequately
Finally, the proposed measurement model will assess the links between the strengths of youth and
dictate this choice of design. Of the approximately two
the ecological assets in their families, schools, and
million military youth, 75% are under 12 years old and 40%
communities as joint predictors of positive youth
are less than 8 years old. Accordingly, we need to begin
development and, in turn, youth Contributions and risk/
the study of military youth within the early elementary
problem behaviors. This set of measures is suggested
school years. However, since a key goal of the proposed
by the structure of the relations depicted in the model
research is to understand how military youth thrive across
presented in Figure 1.
their childhood and adolescence and how the links among
Provided that funding is secured by April, 2010, we
youth strengths and the resources of their ecology launch
could launch a three year longitudinal study, with Year 1
military youth into a positive and productive adulthood,
data collection starting in October, 2010. We would then
we need to assess youth throughout their high school
continue data collection through Year 3 in March, 2013. We
years. Accordingly, we need to use a design that combines
would then engage in final analysis and reporting during a
a sufficient number of cohorts that are measured at,
fourth year.
America’s Military Youth: Towards A Study of Positive Development in the Face of Challenge Executive Summary
www.MilitaryChild.org