Faculty Sponsor: Professor Valerie Nazzaro
Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Abstract: Suicide has become one of the top ten leading causes of death for individuals aged 10 to 64, with roughly 13.2 million adults experiencing suicidal ideation in 2022. Due to experiencing immensely stressful situations, military service members have a suicide rate that is almost double that of civilians, with suicide being the 13th leading cause of death for veterans. Recent studies have discussed that social support is the most effective protective factor against suicide. It is unclear whether specific sources of social support are associated with lower suicidal ideation in general or if a particular source has a higher relationship for military service members versus civilians. This study analyses the relationship between suicidal ideation and various sources of perceived emotion support–spouse, family, friends–compared between military service members and civilians. Data was drawn from the fifth wave of The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (AddHealth) that is nationally representative of U.S. adults in their late 30s and early 40s. The sample includes 4,064 participants, with 3,772 civilians and 292 military service members. The variables analyzed in this study include military service; experienced suicidal ideation in the past twelve months; and have social support from spouse, family, or friends. Results from this study revealed that military service members have an expected odds of having family and/or friend support that are roughly 30 percent lower compared to civilians, but the association between military service and spouse support is not statistically significant. Having support from spouse, family, and friends have expected odds of experiencing suicidal ideation that is roughly between 58 to 70 percent less than not having those sources of social support, regardless of military service. The strength of the relationship between the various sources of social support and suicidal ideation are the same regardless of military service.
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