Table of Contents

  1. Executive Summary
  2. Demographics
  3. Effects of Injury on Families
  4. Impact of Our Military Kids Grants

Executive Summary

The purpose of this annual survey is to gauge the effectiveness of Our Military Kids’ extracurricular activity grants in mitigating stress and other negative symptoms in children of severely injured service members during their recovery.

Online surveys were sent to 1,008 families of children who received grants between September 27, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Families had two weeks to complete the survey; they were contacted and reminded by OMK staff three times. Survey questions were crafted to shed light on the program’s impact on the 1,008(this is the number of families, what’s the number of children?) children that received grants, as well as its peripheral impact on family members. The responses were provided in summary by Survey Monkey in PDF and the complete data was provided in Microsoft Excel. Data analysis was completed using Excel. The response rate was 24.40% (121 responses).

Items on the survey were worded as direct questions, and addressed the following topics:

ServiceMember Demographics; key findings include:

  • 90% of respondents are Enlisted
  • 69% serve in the Army – 52% Active and 17% Reserve
  • 56% have more than 10 years of service
  • 56% live more than 50 miles from a military hospital
  • 88% have 2 or more children

Injury Demographics; key findings include:

  • 43% deployed 3 or more times
  • 95% have PTS and 65% have TBI, the highest reported injuries
  • 69% are medically retired
  • 80% were injured in 2010 or before
  • 59% were injured in Iraq

Effects of Injury on Family; key findings included:

  • 91% of families reported suffering financial difficulties
  • 88% reported that the injury affected the caregivers’ outside employment
  • 55% saw a decrease in their children's academic performance
  • 90% noticed an increase in the stress or anxiety level of their children
  • The top two symptoms observed in children ages 4-11 were acting out/aggression and attention difficulties.
  • The top two symptoms observed in children ages 12-18 were attention difficulties, crying or depression.

Impact of Our Military Kids Grant; key findings included:

  • 90% of respondents reported seeing improvement in their children's school performance
  • 100% saw a decrease in negative symptoms
  • 91% reported that a grant had a positive impact on the service member’s recovery
  • 99% reported that a grant had a positive impact on the entire family
  • 60% of families would not have been able to fund the activity without a grant

Demographics

The percentage of respondents are broken out by servicemember demographics and injury

demographics.

Servicemember demographics include:

  • Rank of service member
  • Branch of service
  • Time in service
  • Distance service member lives from military hospital
  • Number of children (ages 3-18) in the home

Injury Demographics included:

  • Total number of times the service member has deployed
  • Type of injury sustained
  • If the service member is medically retired
  • Where the injury occurred
  • What year the injury occurred

Effects of Injury on Families

Respondents were asked the following regarding the effects of the injuryon their family:

  • Has the service member/veteran’s injury affected the ability of the child's other parent or caregiver to work outside the home?
  • Has your family dealt with financial difficulties as a result of the service member/veteran’s injury?
  • Did the family relocate, temporarily or permanently, to be with the service member/veteran while he/she was being treated at a military hospital?
  • Did you observe an increase in the stress or anxiety level of your children as a result of the service member/veteran’s injury?
  • Have you noticed any decrease in your children's academic performance as a result of the service member/veteran's injury?

Broken down in age groups of:

  • 4-7
  • 8-11
  • 12-15
  • 16-18

Respondents were also asked if any of the following symptoms were observed because of the most recent deployment:

  • Acting out or aggression
  • Attention difficulties
  • Changes in appetite
  • Crying anddepression
  • Headaches or stomachaches
  • Fearfulness or nightmares
  • Negative or morbid thoughts
  • Social withdrawal

Impact of Our Military Kids Grants

To better understand how Our Military Kids’ grants are impacting grant recipients and their families, respondents were asked the following regarding the effects the injury had on their family and children:

  • How many of your children have received at least one grant from Our Military Kids?
  • Did participation in the Our Military Kids-sponsored activity improve your children's performance in school?
  • Did participation in the grant activity positively impact your childrenand some or all of your children's symptoms?
  • Did your children's participation in the Our Military Kids-sponsored activity contribute to the overall well-being of your entire family?
  • Did your children's participation in the Our Military Kids-sponsoredactivity contribute to improved morale for the service member duringhis/her recovery?
  • Would you have been able to enroll your children in the extracurricular activity without the availability of the Our Military Kids Grant award?
  • Would availability of this program be considered a valued benefit when making a re-enlistment decision?

Our Military Kids Wounded Warrior Program Report - January 31, 20181