Study on divorced military parents seeks respondents for survey
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
MANHATTAN — A Kansas State University professor is investigating how divorced military parents communicate with former partners and children through technology.
"While researchers have begun to look at the issue of divorce in the military — which is slightly higher than the general population — little has been done on the impact of military lifestyle demands and deployments on divorced parents and their co-parenting relationships," said Mindy Markham, assistant professor and certified family life educator with the School of Family Studies and Human Services in the College of Human Ecology.
Markham teaches on K-State's Salina campus.
Children who are exposed to parental conflict are more apt to have emotional and behavioral difficulties, Markham said. "When family members are able to effectively communicate with one another they are better able to cope with divorce."
By understanding how these parents communicate and use communication technology such as texting, emailing and video calling, family life educators can better help develop good communication skills, she said.
Markham is recruiting parents for her postdivorce military communication study.
Participants will be asked to complete an online survey and can opt into an interview. The only requirements are that the parent is divorced, has at least one child from the marriage who is now younger than 18 years, and one of the parents is active duty in the military.
All information is confidential.
More details are available at http://www.he.k-state.edu/fshs/research/mdcs/.
