School Engagement among Youth in Canadian Forces Families: A Comparative Analysis

Authors

  • Karen Robson York University
  • Patrizia Albanese Ryerson University
  • Deborah Harrison University of New Brunswick
  • Chris Sanders York University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11575/ajer.v59i3.55722

Keywords:

Military Youth, Deployments, School Engagement, Canadian Armed Forces, Military Stressors, jeunes de familles de militaires, déploiements, implication scolaire, Forces armées canadiennes, agents de stress d’origine militaire

Abstract

There has been a growing body of literature on adolescents in military families since 2002.  This research has focused on how frequent moves and parental deployments are two unique potential stressors for youth in military families, and are associated with negative school outcomes. Analyzing data collected from a school in a military community, and data from a national sample of Canadian youth, we examine the impact of military stressors on the school engagement of youth in military families.  While we found evidence of residential mobility contributing to negative school engagement outcomes, we also found a positive association between school engagement and parental deployments.  Surprisingly, relative to both the civilian youth in our sample and the national sample, military youth exhibited higher levels of school engagement when a parent has been deployed.

Depuis 2002, de plus en plus d’études ont été publiées sur les adolescents de familles de militaires. Cette recherche explique que les déplacements fréquents et les déploiements d’un parent constituent pour ces jeunes des agents de stress potentiels et uniques, et qu’ils sont associés à des résultats scolaires négatifs. Nous avons analysé des données provenant d’une école dans une communauté militaire ainsi que des données tirées d’un échantillon national de jeunes canadiens pour étudier l’impact des agents de stress d’origine militaire sur l’implication scolaire chez les jeunes de familles de militaires. Si nous avons trouvé des indications que la mobilité résidentielle contribuait aux résultats scolaires négatifs, nous avons également trouvé une association positive entre l’implication scolaire et les déploiements d’un parent. Étonnamment, nous avons constaté que, comparés aux jeunes civils dans notre échantillon et dans l’échantillon national, les jeunes de familles de militaires manifestent plus d’implication scolaire pendant les déploiements d’un parent.

 

Author Biographies

Karen Robson, York University

Karen Robson is Associate Professor of Sociology at York University

Patrizia Albanese, Ryerson University

Patrizia Albanese is Professor of Sociology at Ryerson University and President of the Canadian Sociological Association.

 

Deborah Harrison, University of New Brunswick

Deborah Harrison is Professor (retired) and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick.  She is a former member of the Canadian Forces Advisory Council to Veterans Affairs Canada and a member of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society.

Chris Sanders, York University

Chris Sanders is Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for AIDS Intervention Research of the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Downloads

Published

2014-06-30

How to Cite

Robson, K., Albanese, P., Harrison, D., & Sanders, C. (2014). School Engagement among Youth in Canadian Forces Families: A Comparative Analysis. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 59(3), 363–381. https://doi.org/10.11575/ajer.v59i3.55722

Issue

Section

ARTICLES