Effects of Deployment of Military Staff on Social Behaviours and Academic Performance of Children in the Barracks in Kenya

Abstract

Deployment of officers has numerous conceivable effects on the members of the service and their families. Deployment attitudes and experiences could affect the service members’ decisions to stay in the military and inability of the families to manage the separation period successfully results to ineffective functioning in the roles of the service members. The general objective of this study was to investigate the effects of deployment of military staff on the social behaviours and academic performance of military children at Kenyan barracks. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the effects of deployment of military staff on children’s social behaviour, academic performance and to determine the relationship between deployment, social behaviour and academic performance of military children. The study was undertaken at a Barracks in Kenya. For the purposes of confidentiality, the name of the Barracks where this research was carried out is withheld throughout this study. The study used quantitative methods and sampling of the respondents was done using stratified sampling method. The study targeted spouses of the deployed military staff, their children and teachers at Barracks schools. Sample size was 97 respondents. The study used questionnaire as the instrument of data collection. Coding and cleaning of data was done for consistency, accuracy and effectiveness and then analysed using SPSS package. From the study findings, 54% of the military staff whose households were selected for the study were male, 26.6% were within the age bracket of 30 to 35 years, 52% of the children were aged between 10 and 13 years, 26.6% had been deployed for two months while 26.67% of the officers were in their second tour of duty/deployment. The study further established that 33.3% of the children whose parents were deployed showed intense feelings of sadness and that 37.8% of the children were occasionally lonely. Moreover, the study established that relocation never affected the academic performance of 34.4% of the children whose parents were deployed. Findings also indicated that 37.8% of the children whose parents were deployed were occasionally curious and exploring and occasionally tended to give, lend and share. Additionally, 38% of the children performed poorly with only 7% and 10% performing good and outstanding respectively all the time. Regression analysis results showed that deployment of the military staff affected the social behaviour and the academic performance of the military children significantly. Furthermore, there was a negative and statistically significant association between deployment and social behaviour and also between deployment of military staff and academic performance. Since military parental absenteeism is challenging for most school age children, the study recommends expansion efforts aimed at educating school staff members on handling the military children and building of psychological and behavioural health service capacity which could increase military counsellors.