The Lived Experiences of Highly Mobile Military Adolescents and Their Search for Identity

Military adolescents experience several challenges related to the military lifestyle. Frequent relocations, adaptation into new schools and social settings, and parting from established peer relationships could play a role in a military adolescent’s confusion about self and purpose. Yet, despite these challenges, adolescents within military families should be encouraged to maintain a high exploration of identity, with the goal of reaching identity achievement. When exploration is high and an individual is actively seeking and exploring identity forms, a healthy developmental process towards identity achievement takes place (Kroger & Marcia, 2011).

The military child population is well understudied, especially as it pertains to developmental milestones (Milburn & Lightfoot, 2013). A review of literature using the terms “military”, “children”, and “Identity” in the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINHAL), PsychInfo, and the Education Research Information Center (ERIC) databases yielded a lack of research focusing on identity development within this population. The purpose of this study is to understand the lived experiences of highly mobile military adolescents and their search for identity. Through interpretive phenomenology, emerging themes will be drawn from the data. Further, the integration of James Marcia’s Identity Status Theory in the research of a military adolescent’s lived experiences relating to identity development could contribute to more understanding of the parental and interdisciplinary community support needed to promote identity exploration and achievement.

This study offers many individual and societal benefits, including a participant’s greater sense of identity through self-reflection, encouragement of support groups and/or programs promoting identity exploration within military communities, and the potential to review and revise stabilization guidelines for military assignments to support the development of service member’s children. Further, implications for nursing practice and the nurse’s role as part of an interdisciplinary team to assess and meet the needs of adolescents within the military communities will be established. Nurses will feel empowered advocate for this population and work to develop ways to support highly mobile military adolescents.