A recent study shows that the deployment of military women often has an impact on their teen-aged children's health.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Joan Grewe still has the army's fighting spirit.

"They were pretty sure I was dying. They said stop by Arlington on the way home and pick out which one of your cemetery plots you want and your headstone," Grewe said.

She is now fully recovered from having multiple blood clots in her lungs, an illness discovered while she was on an 18-month deployment in Bosnia in the 90s.

"I felt chest pain, shooting down my left arm," Grewe recalled.

Her doctors still don't know what caused it, but it's a topic of interest to another military mom, George Mason University Professor Mona Ternus.

Ternus's research shows that while deployment can impact a mother's health, it can also impact her teen-aged children's behavioral health.

"You never know at that time how much they get influenced by their peers and what's around them," said Ternus said.

In her survey, Ternus found that 75 percent of teen children who showed no risky behavior, such as bad grades or drugs and alcohol use - before their mother was deployed did engage in risky behavior during and after their deployment.

In fact, it was a problem Ternus experienced with her own teen daughter while deployed with the air force.

"...To make that sudden shift at that time in her life, created a lot of repercussions for the next five years," Ternus said.

Although she was sick, Grewe says her teen's behavior never changed, but the family was still forced to cope with a reality that all military children face.

"It wasn't a business trip, I was in harm's way and I was responsible for other people who were in harm's way and my children understood that. I wasn't just their mom I was the army mom of 1200 personnel in a combat zone," Grewe said.

Professor Ternus says her research also noted many different kinds of military families, not just nuclear families where only the husband or father is in uniform. Both women say they hope this research leads to better support for all military families and their children.

 Email To Friend