Sources of variability in remote communication between deployed military fathers and their children

Abstract: Objective: The extents to which external barriers to communication, parental stress and intimacy, child psychological adjustment and age together and uniquely are associated with the frequency and quality of remote communication between deployed military fathers and their children were explored. Findings based on data reported by deployed fathers and at-home mothers were also compared. Design: Survey data were collected from 72 military deployed fathers and their wives/partners about the fathers' communication with their 4- to 17-year-old children. Questions concerned the frequency and relationship quality of father-child remote communication and hypothesized predictors of communication extracted from the parent-child communication literature. Results: Regression analyses revealed that, as a group, external barriers to communication, parental stress and intimacy, child psychological adjustment and age predicted the quality but not the quantity of father-child remote communication and that lower quality father-child communication as reported by both parents was associated with child externalizing behavior problems. Parental stress was associated with lower father-reported quality of communication, and parental intimacy was associated with higher mother-reported quality of communication. Child older age was associated with father reported lower quality of communication. Conclusions: The quality of deployed father-child communication is associated with parental and child variables known to be associated with father-child communication when parent and child are in the same location, suggesting that interventions for improving co-located father-child relationships may be adaptable for use when military fathers and children are separated.