New York ? While the aftermath of divorce can be difficult for any parent, those called up from civilian life for military duty in Iraq or elsewhere often face extra headaches ranging from long-distance custody disputes to more onerous child-support burdens.

Those concerns don’t always rank among the priorities in the military’s many family-support programs, but federal and state officials are trying to help. Specifically, some states are streamlining the process though which activated military personnel — facing a cut in pay compared to civilian wages — can request a temporary reduction in child-support payments.

“We’re not going to send a soldier into harm’s way with this nagging, pesky problem hanging over him,” said Nick Young, a former Army colonel who heads Virginia’s child-support enforcement division. “We’re going to send him with the knowledge that the right things are happening back home.”

Roughly 175,000 National Guard and reserve personnel are now on active duty, part of the biggest overall civilian call-up since World War II. No official figures show how many are divorced parents, but almost certainly there are thousands.

Shirley Calhoun of the National Military Families Assn. said the military was confronting an increasing array of divorce-related problems because of its extensive use of citizen-soldiers in their 30s and 40s.

“The last time we had such big call-ups, you didn’t have as many divorces,” she said.

Calhoun said she knew of situations in which an ex-spouse had sued to gain custody of children that an activated parent was forced to leave behind.

Custody disputes figured in two notable cases last year:

• Spc. Simone Holcomb was released from active Army duty after she refused to return to Iraq so she could care for her children in Colorado. She and her husband had both been deployed in Iraq, but returned home to settle a custody dispute involving the husband’s ex-wife.
• In Nevada, James Denson II temporarily lost custody of his child when he missed a court hearing after being called up for Navy duty in Kuwait.

“Divorced men have their challenges anyway. You add being on active duty, and you’re doubling those problems,” said Dianna Thompson of the National Family Justice Assn., which advocates on behalf of noncustodial parents.

Advocates say a widespread problem involves child-support payments owed by activated personnel whose military pay is less than their civilian pay.

“Once a soldier or airman gets deployed, trying to get the child-support order changed is not easy,” said Michael Cline, executive director of Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States. “You can’t be there to run down to the court.”

There are no mechanisms for automatically reducing court-ordered support payments in such cases; activated troops must request temporary reductions and file paperwork to support their claims.

Virginia’s Nick Young said he and his counterparts in other states were committed to speeding the process so support payments could be modified before troops deployed.

However, James Hagler, a Chicago lawyer who serves in the Illinois Army National Guard, said some called-up soldiers lacked the time or the savvy to complete the process before deployment.

“You often need an attorney, and not all of them have the financial resources for that,” he said.