Military Kids More Prone To Smoke, Drink, Use Guns, Study Reveals

Life in the military is already a challenge for families, but parents raising children in a military environment have a tougher struggle.

A study done by experts from University of Southern California revealed that children raised in a military family are likely to develop smoking and drinking habits early on, as well as grow up becoming victims of violence.

"We believe this is partly due to ongoing stressors related to war, deployments, frequent moves, being bullied, and being involved in risky peer groups," Katherine Sullivan, the study's lead author said.

The researchers did a review on data culled from 2013 that had 54,679 military-connected and 634,034 nonmilitary-connected students in public secondary schools. Many of these kids have either a parent or a caregiver in the military, according to Medical Daily. The bulk of the data was made of Latino students with 51.9 percent.

The study revealed 45.2 percent of the teenagers were already drinking alcohol in military-connected families compared to the 39.2 percent of teenagers that drink alcohol in non-military-connected families.

About 12.2 percent of military-connected teenagers have learned to smoke early, compared to the 8.4 percent of teenagers that didn't have any military influences. Some 62.5 percent of kids in military families have had reports of physical violence while it's 51.6 percent among non-military families.

Moreover, drug use among the teenagers was at 11.9 percent for those with military background, while it's 7.3 percent for non-military students. Teens in military families are likely to carry weapons, at 17.7 percent, compared to 9.9 percent of non-military kids.

The experts noted that military kids must be provided with services that will help them cope with the challenges of being in a military family. But as The Guardian points out, there isn't enough data to assess the real situation. Of the over 50 states in America, only 14 states keep track of the welfare of military children.

"There's many, many, many districts I go to, and people say: 'Oh, we don't have any military or veterans' kids.' And sometimes they have military and veteran employees and staff members ... Suddenly everybody comes out and they have hundreds," Professor Ron Avi Astor, another study author, told the news outlet. "It's almost like coming out of the closet in major cities."

"We need to ask about military service across all levels of the education and healthcare systems to better identify families and teens who may be at risk and in need of intervention," Stephan Arndt said, the research group's director.