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Headshot Young Girl

Maria ReGester

CHI24

United States

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Challenge

Challenge: Military-connected teachers and students do not have the skills to help students manage their Social, behavioral, and Emotional status. This impacts their academic performance and relationships. How might technology assist Teachers and students in managing and balancing their SBEL status? This matters because: Freedom is not Free! There are inherent costs. Military life can be a source of psychological stress for children. Multiple deployments, frequent moves and having a parent injured or die is a reality for many children in military families. Wartime parental deployments can be one of the most stressful events of a child’s life. Changes reported included - changes in school performance - lashing out in anger - worrying - hiding emotions -disrespecting parents and authority figures - feeling a sense of loss -symptoms consistent with depression. -High levels of sadness were seen in children in all age groups. -Depression was seen in about one in four children. -Academic problems occurred in one in five children. -Thirty-seven percent of children with a deployed parent reported that they seriously worry about what could happen to their deployed caretaker. -Parents reported that one in five children coped poorly or very poorly to deployment separation. -Media coverage of the war posed a significant source of stress for children and made it much more difficult for children to cope with a parent’s deployment. -Length of deployment was associated with mental health problems, including depression, acting out, and externalizing behaviors. Considering military-connected students' parents risk their lives to protect our freedoms, it seems worth while to study how we can help their students to be SBEL well with the use of technology.

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