The effect of father absence on the psychiatric hospitalization of Navy children.

Some Navy families are subject to unusual stress in that the active duty parent may be deployed for several months at a time. This study examined children and adolescents from Navy and civilian families who were admitted to a private psychiatric hospital. Deployment of the father placed Navy children and adolescents at risk for psychiatric hospitalization, but mainly in non-intact families where step-parents or single parents were present. Deployment may strain an already vulnerable family structure in selected Navy families.