Military Brats: Film Representations of Children from Military Families

In: Armed forces & society, Band 32, Heft 1, S. 24-43

Abstract

Thousands of films coverwar and the military, but fewhighlight military family life. This study reports a systematic content analysis of forty-six films between 1935 and 2002 that spotlight children, adolescents, teenagers, and adults from military-service-related families. The results show a diverse range of portrayals across military branches, wars, genders, races, ages, military ranks, roles, and familial relationships. Furthermore, cinematic demands of military family life are portrayed inconsistently with real life experiences reinforcing a modest civil-military gap. Finally, six patterned characteristics emerge from the content analysis including intergenerational military occupational linkages, social deviance, precociousness, social mobility, youth romance, and parent-child conflicts. The present study partially confirms studies of civilian youth in film suggesting a diverse cinematic experience at the teenage stage of the life course. The results highlight a struggle in the negotiation between self-conceptions and self-images of children from military families where a reinforced stereotype of "military brat" is constructed in American cinema.