Description/Abstract
Adolescents who have a parent currently serving in the U.S. military face distinctive social stressors and developmental challenges, and have higher rates of internalizing and externalizing disorders, substance use, and suicidality than adolescents who do not have an active-duty parent. Additionally, adolescents with siblings who enter the military are at increased risk of experiencing a major depressive episode relative to adolescents who do not have an active-duty sibling. This brief summarizes findings from a study that used data from the 2016-2019 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) to examine whether having a sibling and/or a parent on active duty in the U.S. military is associated with suicidality (i.e., thinking about death a lot, believing oneself is better off dead, thinking about suicide, planning suicide, and attempting suicide) among 12- to 17-year-old adolescent girls and boys in the United States. The authors find that adolescents aged 12-17 who have a parent or sibling currently serving in the U.S. military are at increased risk of multiple measures of suicidality than adolescents without an active-duty parent or sibling.
Document Type
Research Brief
Keywords
Suicidality, military, military families, adolescents
Disciplines
Mental and Social Health | Military and Veterans Studies
Date
2-11-2025
Language
English
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Alyssa Kirk and Shannon Monnat for writing the preliminary draft of this brief.
Recommended Citation
London, Andrew S., and Antshel, Kevin M. (2025). Increased Suicidality Risk among Adolescents with an Active-Duty Sibling or Parent in the United States. Lerner Center Population Health Research Brief Series. Research Brief #128. Accessed at: https://doi.org/10.14305/rt.lerner.2025.5.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
