Exploring the context of self-care for youth in military families

Mallory Lucier-Greer, Megan McCoy, Jerry Gale, Joseph W. Goetz and Jay A. Mancini

Children and Youth Services Review, 2020, vol. 108, issue C

Abstract: Unsupervised time among youth, known as ‘self-care,’ has been linked to higher levels of anxiety. The issue of anxiety in self-care is especially salient for youth in military families, because childcare is an important issue for service member retention and focus. We hypothesized that self-care is an appropriate developmental task within certain contexts. Bronfenbrenner’s Process-Person-Context-Time (PPCT) framework was employed to explore bioecological factors that buffer the anxiety of military youth in self-care (N = 1036; mean age = 13.39 years old). Survey results were analyzed to identify factors that moderate the relationship between levels of self-care and anxiety using hierarchical regression analyses. Findings supported the study hypothesis, such that there was an initial positive relationship between more self-care and greater anxiety (e.g., time spent alone correlated with anxiety), and the relationship between self-care and anxiety was moderated when accounting for personal characteristics and context. Specifically, gender (being female) and age (being older) were associated with higher levels of anxiety. Additionally, self-efficacy and geographic location (living inside vs outside the continental US) had a moderating effect on the relationship between self-care and anxiety.

Keywords: Youth self-care; Anxiety; Military; Childcare; Bioecological theory; Context (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:108:y:2020:i:c:s0190740919304074

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104599

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