Dis-Connected: Young Adults’ Experience of Growing Up With a Canadian Service Member Parent With an Operational Stress Injury
Date
2024-04-09
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Abstract
Military-connected families in Canada have expressed concerns regarding the impact of having a parent with an operational stress injury (OSI), such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), on their children’s well-being. A recent trend in research has been focused on examining the impacts of parents’ PTSD on the mental health of military-connected children (MCC). However, there remains a paucity of studies that capture the perspective of the MCC themselves, particularly within a Canadian context. This study aimed to explore how young adult children of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) veteran service members make sense of their experience of growing up with a parent with an OSI. Individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five young adults aged 19 to 23 years, and the transcripts were analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). From this analysis, five Group Experiential Themes (GETs) emerged: (a) In a Way, I Lost My Dad, (b) Turbulent Waters at Home, (c) Don’t Rock the Boat, (d) In the Dark, and (e) Duty to Care. The participants’ accounts shed light on the complexity of dealing with a father who was present juxtaposed with a father who was absent. Participants’ narratives depicted tumultuous home environments where maintaining family harmony was a honed skill. Moreover, the pervasive uncertainty surrounding their father’s OSI during their upbringing called for participant resilience and resourcefulness in coping with a situation marked by limited information and communication. Furthermore, amidst the confusion and destabilizing circumstances, participants remained steadfast in their commitment to their families. These findings are discussed in the context of relevant literature. The strengths and limitations of the study are considered and implications for practice and research are presented.
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Keywords
military-connected children, operational stress injury, posttraumatic stress disorder, interpretative phenomenological analysis
Citation
Iverson, H. (2024). Dis-connected: young adults’ experience of growing up with a Canadian service member parent with an operational stress injury (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.