The Importance of Parents' Community Connections for Adolescent Well‐being: An Examination of Military Families

Abstract

Drawing from the Social Organization Theory of Action and Change (SOAC), this analysis of 223 military families, including active duty (AD) military and civilian partners, examines how parents' sense of community and community engagement (two elements of community connections) are associated with their own resilient coping, and ultimately with important outcomes capturing their adolescent offspring's individual well-being (depression, anxiety, and self-efficacy) and family well-being (family functioning and parenting quality). The roles of child gender and military context were also examined. Parents with stronger community connections, including greater sense of community and community engagement, reported more resilient coping when faced with adversity. The resilient coping of mothers, in turn, was particularly significant for more positive youth outcomes, when compared to that of fathers. While gender and military context were associated with individual and family well-being, analyses of model invariance indicated that the model fit similarly for male and female adolescents and those experiencing high and low levels of military transitions. Indirect effects were also examined. These findings illuminate malleable dimensions of both community life and family life, primarily showing that community contexts matter for multiple family members.

Community Social Organization and Military Families: Theoretical Perspectives on Transitions, Contexts, and Resilience

“…Our research on military members and families has shown that the sense of community is influenced by extent of community participation (e.g., collective events and activities), ease of making connections with others in the community, and a sense of responsibility for others in the community (Bowen, Martin, Mancini, & Nelson, ). Sense of community is measured by self‐reports of feelings of belonging in the community, feeling close to other community members, a feeling that one's own circumstances are similar to others in the community (Mancini, Bowen, Martin, & Ware, ; see O'Neal, Mallette, & Mancini, , for a discussion of the Community Connections Index).…”

Community, Context, and Coping: How Social Connections Influence Coping and Well‐Being for Military Members and Their Spouses

“…In a qualitative study of civilian spouses, Strong and Lee () found that social support was an integral, and commonly reported, method of coping with a deployment or reintegration, and the support provided by other military families was particularly important. Our earlier research suggests that military parents' sense of community and community engagement are associated with their overall resilient coping abilities, which, in turn, are associated with their adolescent child's well‐being and overall family functioning (O'Neal, Mallette, & Mancini, ). However, this work focused on resilient coping abilities more broadly, rather than identifying coping at a more nuanced level, focused specifically on individuals' abilities to cope with military challenges.…”

Stepfamily Processes and Youth Adjustment: The Role of Perceived Neighborhood Collective Efficacy

“…Stepfamilies who perceive higher levels of collective efficacy may experience reductions in parental burden and family stress, resulting in more adaptive and positive family processes. Indeed, neighbors providing support to one another and engaging in the monitoring of youth behavior might help ease tension in couple and parent–child relationships by distributing, at least in part, the load of child‐rearing and other responsibilities (Bowen et al., , ; Deng et al., ; O'Neal et al., ).…”

“…Stepfamilies who perceive higher levels of collective efficacy may experience reductions in parental burden and family stress, resulting in more adaptive and positive family processes. Indeed, neighbors providing support to one another and engaging in the monitoring of youth behavior might help ease tension in couple and parent-child relationships by distributing, at least in part, the load of child-rearing and other responsibilities (Bowen et al, 2000(Bowen et al, , 2002Deng et al, 2006;O'Neal et al, 2018). From an environmental-stress perspective, stepfamilies who perceive high-quality relationships with neighbors might also worry less about the welfare of their children in the larger environment and ease control over the behavior of adolescent youth (Noah, 2015).…”

“…Consistent with this view, Mancini and Bowen (2013) highlight the concept of "family connections," which posits that families are strengthened and supported when they have close ties to their neighbors and neighborhoods, or strong neighborhood social cohesion. Past research has linked perceptions of this component of neighborhood collective efficacy to indicators of family cohesion and functioning, lower levels of parent-child conflict, and parents' ability to engage in supportive parenting (Bowen, Bowen, & Cook, 2000;Bowen, Bowen, & Ware, 2002;Deng et al, 2006;O'Neal, Mallette, & Mancini, 2018). Moreover, higher levels of perceived neighborhood social control and social cohesion (as captured in an index of neighborhood social capital) have been linked to lower levels of neglectful parenting, psychologically harsh parenting, and domestic violence (Zolotor & Runyan, 2006).…”