The demographics of the veteran population are changing. Veterans who served after September 11, 2001, or post-9/11 veterans, are more likely to be raising children, many without support from a partner. This report provides a comprehensive look at the financial, physical, and mental health of veteran single parents and includes recommendations on policies and programs that can better support veteran single parents and their children.

Veteran Single Parents

Surviving but Not Thriving

Sierra Smucker, Teague Ruder, Stacey Yi, Coreen Farris

ResearchPublished Jan 23, 2024

The demographics of the veteran population are changing. Veterans who served after September 11, 2001 (post-9/11 veterans), are more likely to be female and identify as a person of color than their older counterparts. They are also more likely to be raising children, many of them without support from a partner. This report provides a comprehensive look at the financial, physical, and mental health of veteran single parents; explores the differences across these factors by race, ethnicity, and gender; and includes recommendations on policies and programs that can better support veteran single parents and their children.

Key Findings

  • Veteran single parents are more likely to be women and less likely to be White than veteran coupled parents.
  • Veteran single parents face greater financial insecurity than veteran coupled parents but have greater financial security than nonveteran single parents.
  • Veteran single parents report relatively similar mental and physical health to veteran coupled parents but lower access to health care services.
  • Veteran single parents are using their G.I. Bill benefits to pursue higher education; Black and Hispanic single mothers report the highest rates of school enrollment across all veteran single parents.
  • Veteran single parents enrolled in higher education reported significant barriers to using their G.I. Bill benefits and achieving academic success.

Recommendations

  • Create transition services that target single parents as a unique group.
  • Provide financial support for child care for veterans.
  • Rethink elements of the G.I. Bill to better support veteran single parents (and parents in general) who are pursuing higher education (e.g., address in-person attendance requirements and part-time attendance disincentives, which are key barriers for single parents).
  • Develop targeted outreach to connect single mothers with mental health care and encourage single fathers to seek out primary care.

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Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Available
  • Year: 2024
  • Print Format: Paperback
  • Paperback Pages: 72
  • Paperback Price: $21.00
  • Paperback ISBN/EAN: 9781977412874
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/RRA1363-6
  • Document Number: RR-A1363-6

Citation

RAND Style Manual
Smucker, Sierra, Teague Ruder, Stacey Yi, and Coreen Farris, Veteran Single Parents: Surviving but Not Thriving, RAND Corporation, RR-A1363-6, 2024. As of September 17, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1363-6.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Smucker, Sierra, Teague Ruder, Stacey Yi, and Coreen Farris, Veteran Single Parents: Surviving but Not Thriving. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1363-6.html. Also available in print form.
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Funding for this publication was made possible by a generous gift from Daniel J. Epstein through the Epstein Family Foundation, which established the RAND Epstein Family Veterans Policy Research Institute within RAND Education and Labor.

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