1. Military children:
The reasons behind whether or not they plan to attend University
Dr Amy Warhurst & Mrs Sarah Twist
Dr Amy Warhurst Lecturer in Psychology

2. Overview Background: Literature Review – What we know so far
Method: What we did and why
Results: What we found
Conclusions: What this might mean
Group Discussion: Lots to think about for future research
Summary: Main points to take from this session

3. Background:
Military families experience a unique environment of stressors and protective factors (Chandra et al, 2010; Engel, Gallagher & Lyle, 2010)
Some education institutions are more military friendly than others (Wilson et al, 2016)
No two military families are the same (Clever & Segal, 2013)
-children of military families experience a unique combination of stressors when parents are deployed, resulting in difficulties in mental health (e.g. anxiety), emotional difficulties, and poor academic engagement and achievement (Chandra et al, 2010; Engel, Gallagher & Lyle, 2010)
Protective factors are that the military groups are often a tight knit community composed of individuals with a standard of education, and similar life expectancy. Divorce is also a lot less common and unemployment is not an issue (Jensen, Lewis & Xenakis, 1986)
Educational institutions may be considered more or less military friendly based on their understanding and experience of military children. Considered critical for assessing education are notions such as flexible payments that align with military pay, acceptance of credits from approved military programs and options for deployed students. This can support both children who have parents in the military and the parents themselves, potentially influencing the children’s career choice (Wilson et al, 2016)
If any intervention is needed for children in the military, it should reflect the diversity of the families affected. In a study of demographics of military families (Clever & Segal, 2013), the commonalities were far fewer than the differences between families, so this should be taken into account rather than a one size fits all approach.

4. Method:
Focus Group interviews with Y10 children from military and non-military backgrounds
Designed to understand reasons behind decisions to remain in education (including University plans) or to pursue other avenues.
Widening participation was the driver behind this pilot research: What are the barriers/enablers for military children attending University?

5. Method: Details
Participants: Grp 1 Military (n=9) Grp 2 Non-Military (n=10)
Materials: Semi-Structured Interview questions/prompt sheet
Procedure: Teacher present in the room for both groups. Group warm-up conversation. Initial questions about future career thoughts and GCSE options – later asking about different influences on these choices.

6. Results: Thematic Analysis
“I wanna be in the military but I don’t want to be in the military because it looks hard. I don’t wanna go to war, but then I do. It’s just like 50/50, do I want to, do I not want to? And then I have like, electronics that I like doing so I don’t know if I’ll go down that road or that road, it’s confusing. I might go down the middle, just something different”

7. Results: Future Careers
All students (bar one in the non-military group) expressed a desire to go to university
Overall, students from both cohorts were unsure what career they wanted - Several students expressed an interest in a particular industry e.g. finance, IT.
Students in both groups stated that they would be happy to live or work in another country with their jobs
Students in both groups spoke about a desire to make money

8. Results: Family influence – Non-Military
“My dad just wants me to be rich”
“I actually want to do hair and beauty but my mum won’t let me… it’s not enough pay”
“My mum works overnight as a nurse, but I don’t want to do that…she’s always so moody”
“I’m definitely not following my dad. He’s an estate agent … he works for like, 11 hours a day”
“My dad told me to never go into social working”

9. Results: Family influence –Military
“I wanna be in the military but I don’t want to be in the military because it looks hard…”
“if you’re military then you’re used to moving around anyway, like your parents do like move around a lot”

10. Results: Family influence
A majority of students spoke about being influenced by their parents’ careers
The non-military group spoke a lot about not wanting to do what their parents did
The military group agreed that it looked like a hard job and therefore they were less likely to choose a military career themselves
Some students also expressed a desire to do what their parents or older siblings did for work e.g. electrical engineer, mountain bike coach

11. Summary of Findings:
Being a military child, or not, seems to have no influence on students’ desires to attend University
Family careers were more likely to show young people what they did not wish to do
None of the young people could name any particular barriers/enablers to attending University

12. Considerations:
This is a very small pilot study, carried out in one school, with a teacher present during the interviews – More pupils from other schools would enable a deeper understanding of pupils’ thoughts in this area.
The young people were all in Y10 - perhaps too early to have given serious consideration to University and all that entails
That these young people’s parent(s) are in the military now suggests a long- term military career – what about those whose parent(s) stay for less time (e.g. 5 years)?

13. Next Steps:
Speak with more pupils, perhaps Y13, from a variety of schools/colleges, asking similar questions
Include a group of young people who used to be military children 5+ years ago, and ask similar questions
Consider longitudinal research tracking military and non-military children through school looking at a range of aspects (attainment/attendance/ resilience/ school enjoyment etc.)

14. Group Discussion: Lots to think about for future research
What have we missed? What can we improve?
What are children from military families doing instead of HE?
What else do we need to know about military children and University attendance decisions?
What data do we need from MOD? Schools? UCAS? Universities? Anyone else?

15. References:
Chandra, A., Lara-Cinisomo, S., Jaycox, L. H., Tanielian, T., Burns, R. M., Ruder, T., & Han, B. (2010). Children on the homefront: The experience of children from military families. Pediatrics, 125(1),
Clever, M., & Segal, D. R. (2013). The demographics of military children and families. The Future of Children,
Engel, R. C., Gallagher, L. B., & Lyle, D. S. (2010). Military deployments and children's academic achievement: Evidence from Department of Defence Education Activity Schools. Economics of Education Review, 29(1),
Wilson, C., Sour, A. J., Miller, L. A., Saygbay-Hallie, M., Miller, C., & Daniels, R. A. (2016). A standardized tool for measuring military friendliness of colleges and universities. SAGE Open, 6(2),