National Military Family Association: Research and Resources

The National Military Family Association (NMFA) has partnered with Bloom: Empowering the Military Teen to better understand the experience of America’s military teens. For the second year in a row, we used the validated, 7-item Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS) to measure the well-being of our military teen community ages 13 and up.

In 2021, NMFA and Bloom teamed up to field our first Military Teen Experience Survey, and over 2,000 military-connected kids ages 13-19 gave us a snapshot of their lives. They shared information about moves, deployments, and transferring schools. We learned that we needed to do a better job paying attention to our teens’ mental health.

That’s why in 2022, we joined with Bloom again to survey military teens for another year to learn: How are our military teens doing in 2022, and how can we use this information to better support them?

We are also pleased to share with you the Field Guide to the Military Teen. Written by actual teens and members of Bloom, the Teen guide is a resource that features personal stories, supported by data from the NMFA/Bloom Survey, and offers tangible solutions to members of the community on how to interact with and support the military teens in your community.

After the presentation, attendees will be broken into groups of 8-10 and given a sample case study. Each group will work together in the role as advocates on how to best address an education or transition-related issue of a military-connect kid. At the end of the session, we will share how each group used their knowledge, resources, or tools to advocate in their case and how the experience enhances our ability to address the needs of Military families.