America's Families - Military Families In Wartime

In September 2003 America's active-duty military personnel had slightly more than two million dependents. While 749,000 dependents were spouses, 1.2 million (62%) were children. Another 11,600 military dependents were parents of active-duty personnel. Nine percent of military dependents lived in foreign countries and U.S. territories overseas. Typically, military families lived on or near military bases. Most knew the challenges of frequent relocations and the extended absences of husbands or wives, mothers or fathers.

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, American military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq required expanded troop strength. On March 12, 2003, the Pentagon reported 188,592 Reserve and National Guard members on active duty. By May 2003 that number had increased to 220,000. More than half of these men and women had never before been called to active duty. Others had been activated only for short-duration assignments. More than a year later, Reserve and National Guard members remained a vital part of U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan and Iraq and in support roles in other countries.

In June 2003 the Department of Defense released a survey of spouses of activated National Guard and Reserve members. Three-fourths of the activated National Guard and Reserve members had held full-time jobs. Of

TABLE 1.12

Multigenerational households, 2000
		Multigenerational households by type1
	All households	Total2	Householder with child and grandchild	Householder with parent and child	Householder with parent, child and grandchild
Note: Parent may be either parent or parent-in-law of the householder. Child may be the natural born, adopted, or stepchild of the householder. Relationship refers to howeach person is related to the householder.
1Individual types may include a small number of households with members from additional generations, for example, grandparents or great-grandparents of the householders for which tabulated data are not available.
2Total represents only those three types of households specified in the table.
SOURCE: Adapted from "PHC-T-17. Multigenerational Households for the United States, States, and for Puerto Rico, 2000," in U.S. Census 2000, U.S. Census Bureau, September 2001, http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t17.pdf (accessed August 11, 2004)
United States	105,480,101	3,929,122	2,561,637	1,289,159	78,326

TABLE 1.13

Relationship to householder for children under 18 years, by region, 2000
	Population under 18 years		Percent of population under 18 years
Area	Number	Percent of total population	Total	Son or daughter	Grandchild	Householder/spouse	Other relatives1	Foster child	Other nonrelatives2
—Represents or rounds to zero.
1Other relatives include brother/sister, nephew/niece, cousin, brother/sister-in-law, son/daughter-in-law, and the category "other relative." An example of a relationship in the latter category would be great-grandchild.
2Other nonrelatives include roomer/boarder, housemate/roommate, unmarried partners, and the category "other nonrelative." An example of the latter category would be a child of an unmarried partner or roommate but not a related child of the householder.
SOURCE: Adapted from Terry Lugaila and Julia Overturf, "Table 2. Relationship to Householder for Children under 18 Years for the United States, Regions, States, and for Puerto Rico, 2000," in Children and the Households They Live In, 2000, Current Population Reports, CENSR-14, U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau, February 2004, http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/censr-14.pdf (accessed July 19, 2004)
United States	71,843,425	26.3	100.0	90.0	6.1	0.1	2.0	0.4	1.4
Region
Northeast	12,950,914	24.9	100.0	91.1	5.5	0.1	1.7	0.5	1.2
Midwest	16,564,597	26.5	100.0	92.0	4.8	0.1	1.4	0.4	1.4
South	25,420,728	26.1	100.0	88.8	7.3	0.1	2.1 0.3	1.3
West	16,907,186	27.4	100.0	89.0	6.0	0.1	2.8	0.4	1.6

the spouses unexpectedly left in charge of the family and all family affairs, less than half were employed. (See Figure 1.3.) Fifteen percent of reservists were activated with twenty-four hours or less notice. Health insurance, finances, dependent care, and legal matters were identified as the primary types of arrangement the family needed to make prior to deployment. Dependent care was the most frequently cited concern, reported by 74.6% of respondents. (See Figure 1.4.) According to the survey, thirty percent of spouses reported family income had decreased, while 58% reported an increase in family income while the reservist was on active duty. Despite the challenges of family disruption and concerns for the safety of the active-duty family member, 61% of spouses said they were coping "very well" or "well"; 15% said they were coping "poorly" or "very poorly."

FIGURE 1.3

FIGURE 1.4