Minnesota researchers have closely studied the struggles that National Guard members experience when they return to their families from deployments. Now they are studying the best way to help them return to full-time roles as parents. The University of Minnesota announced Wednesday it is seeking 300 more Guard and reserve families for its study of the ADAPT parenting program and whether it helps ease problems post-deployment. The researchers have already worked with 100 families -- some of which received ADAPT services and group sessions, some of which received basic counseling and written materials. (ADAPT stands for After Deployment: Adaptive Parenting Tools. The program is based on a counseling approach originally created for divorcees and their kids.) The challenge for returning Guardsmen is their emotions were intensified during deployment, said Abi Gewirtz, the lead researcher of the U of M study. It can be difficult for them, she said, to regain control of their emotions when back home and faced with the more mundane but often stressful responsibilities of parenting. "Emotions associated with being in a combat zone -- where you have to really be on alert all the time -- have to be recalibrated when you come back home," she said. "Being an effective parent is really about modulating your own emotions or responding in a way that helps kids." Its too early to say whether the ADAPT approach is superior in helping Guard members resume their parenting roles. Gewirtz said the feedback from participating Guard members and their spouses and kids has been overwhelmingly positive. A key to the study, though, will be following those families for the next two years to see if they face fewer struggles than families that received traditional support. Gewirtz said the study needs 400 families in all -- with children ages 4 to 12 -- to have the statistical power to assess ADAPT. That will also allow researchers to observe whether the effectiveness of the approach varies by the age of the children, the length of deployment and other factors. Participating in the study is Melissa Polusny of the Minnesota VA Medical Center, who has already examined the mental health of Minnesota Guard members before and after their deployments. A year after returning home, 42 percent of Guard members in her research reported "problematic drinking," according to a Polusny study published in Jan. 2011. The rate of PTSD nearly doubled in that transition year following deployment, from 8 percent to 14 percent, as did depression, from 9 to 18 percent. This matches national findings from the military's post-deployment health assessments -- standard questionnaires that all returnees complete. Among active duty members returning from deployments, 7.3 percent reported two or more PTSD symptoms when they first returned, according to figures published Dec. 2010. When asked again months later, 9.1 percent reported two or more symptoms. Both figures were larger for reservists; 8.3 percent reported two or more PTSD symptoms immediately after returning from deployments and 15.3 percent reported those symptoms months later. Gewirtz imagines that some returnees get tired of being asked about their mental health and their needs back home. Many have conducted multiple surveys and questionnaires. She nonetheless hopes they'll be eager to sign up for the ADAPT study, which involves 14 weeks of group sessions and provides $595 in compensation. "I think there is a lot of burnout. People feel, quite rightly, 'we've done our duty for our country. Leave us alone,'" she said. "One of the great things about the ADAPT study is we're actually providing resources. We're not just testing, we're not just probing, and the goal is to find out if these things are really helpful for families."