Written by: Jason Jowers, MFT
Permanent change of station moves and parental deployments are part of the norm for military families. For military teens, these moves bring new schools, neighborhoods, and routines. Like plants being uprooted and replanted in a new garden, military teens often have to adapt to a new environment. Military teens need support from those around them to adapt and flourish. What are some ways we as service providers can help military teens bloom where they are planted?
2024 Military Teen Experience Survey
To understand ways to support military teens, we must first understand the challenges that many of them face daily. In October 2024, The National Military Family Association (NMFA) released its fourth annual Military Teen Experience Survey as a part of their program, Bloom: Empowering the Military Teen. The survey focused on assessing military teen mental well-being, rates of self-harm, peer connections, food insecurity issues, teen employment trends, and their propensity to serve by joining the military. The results of this survey shed light on many of the challenges that military teens face.
For mental well-being, the majority of teens surveyed were classified with moderate mental well-being. The factors at play that correlated to low mental well-being included greater food insecurity, being from an active duty or dual active duty military family, and a higher number of military parent deployments. Also, military teens with an injured service member in the household were 10 and a half times more likely to report low mental well-being.
The survey also assessed mental well-being factors including suicidal ideation, self-harm thoughts, and self-harm behaviors. Findings indicate:
- 2% reported suicidal ideation
- 52.7% reported having self-harm thoughts
- 44.6% reported enacting self-harm behaviors
Reports of self-harm far outpaced their civilian counterpoints. There was a large uptick in reported self-harm thoughts and behaviors from previous years’ surveys. One aspect that was highlighted was the term “hidden helpers” which “are the children, youth, and young adults (up to age 18) who are impacted by or involved in the mental, emotional, or physical care of a wounded, ill, or aging service member or veteran” (Bloom, 2024). Military teens who fill this role of a hidden helper were more likely to report low mental well-being and had higher trends of thoughts of self-harm and engaging in self-harm behaviors.
Resources to Support and Empower Military Teens
Just as plants can thrive with the right care and nourishment, so too can military teens with the right support. Service providers should look for opportunities to engage with military teens in their homes, schools, and communities. There are lots of great online resources that service providers can utilize in their work with military teens and their families. Military OneSource has resources including their Service Provider Toolkit for military child and youth programs as well as guides such as Helping Teens Deal with Deployment. The recent Military OneSource podcast episode shares how Youth Centers are empowering military youth and features insights from the 2024 National Military Youth of the Year. Other resources include Leidos, which shares ways of fostering resilience in military youth, and Bloom, which has lots of content to inspire and connect military teens with each other.
Resources
National Military Family Association. (2024). 2024 Military teen experience survey. Bloom: Empowering the Military Teen. https://www.militaryfamily.org...ds/WEB-MTES-2024.pdf
Elizabeth Dole Foundation. (2024). Hidden helpers coalition. https://www.elizabethdolefound...grams/hidden-helpers
Photo credit: Rainister / Adobe Stock
Jason M. Jowers
Co-Principal Investigator, OneOp
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