Kelley Providing Media Commentary on New Study About Children of Deployed Military Personnel

Michelle Kelley, the Old Dominion University professor of psychology whose research examines how parenting can impact a child's social and cognitive development, is providing expert commentary to news media concerning a study published this month about behavioral problems in children of deployed military parents.

An Associated Press story distributed throughout the world in November reports the findings of a study by an Air Force pediatrician showing that children 3-5 years old with a parent away at war are more likely to show aggression than other young children in military families. The AP writer noted that Kelley has done similar research with older children in military families and quoted her favorable comments about the new study.

Kelley also has been interviewed by WTKR-TV (Channel 3) reporter Dan Tordjman, whose report on children of deployed parents is due to be broadcast on Monday, Nov. 17. (Visit www.wtkr.com.)

The study reported on in the AP story finds that about 1 in 5 of the children with a parent at war displayed troubling emotional or behavioral signs. It was published in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. The lead author is Dr. Molinda Chartrand, who conducted the study while she was at Boston University School of Medicine, but who is now on active duty in the Air Force.

Kelley began examining the impact of parental deployments on children more than a decade ago. For instance, her research in the late 1990s revealed that children of deployed mothers experience higher levels of sadness and anxiety and exhibited higher levels of behavioral problems than children with non-deployed Navy mothers.

Her research also has looked at work-family stress, paternal influences on children's development, parent-child relationships in families with disabled children, and parenting in families experiencing economic stress, job instability or substance abuse.