{"id":133502,"date":"2018-01-23T08:15:34","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T13:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=133502"},"modified":"2018-01-25T09:50:10","modified_gmt":"2018-01-25T14:50:10","slug":"married-veterans-risk-suicide-single-soldiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2018\/01\/married-veterans-risk-suicide-single-soldiers\/","title":{"rendered":"Married Veterans More at Risk of Suicide than Single Soldiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among recently returned\u00a0veterans, a new study says those\u00a0who are married or living with a partner\u00a0are at higher suicide\u00a0risk\u00a0than soldiers who are single, and older married female veterans are at the greatest risk.<\/span><\/p>\n

While one might assume soldiers returning from deployment would find comfort and support reuniting with a spouse or loved one, the transition to a domestic environment can cause stress,\u00a0according to\u00a0the analysis by researchers at the University of Connecticut and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For some veterans, the transition back to a domestic home environment\u2014and all of the pressures, roles, and responsibilities that come with it\u2014only adds to their internal struggles.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly makes sense when you think about it,\u201d says Crystal Park,\u00a0UConn psychology professor and one\u00a0of the study’s\u00a0co-authors.\u00a0\u201cThere are added pressures that come with maintaining a relationship and meeting household needs. People may have expectations when they\u2019re away and when they return it\u2019s not what they imagined, the\u00a0romance\u00a0may not be there. It\u2019s just the daily grind and that can drive up stress levels and increase feelings of despair.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The findings are based on the responses\u00a0of 772 recently returned veterans who\u00a0participated\u00a0in the Survey of Experiences of Returning Veterans (SERV), a longitudinal study\u00a0overseen by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.\u00a0Given the recent influx of women into the armed services, the survey sought to gauge the experiences of\u00a0female veterans, in particular. As a result of a targeted recruiting campaign, women represented more than 40 percent of those surveyed, which is more than double the actual representation in the military.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the survey, the average age of veterans was 35, and they had served\u00a0in Iran, Afghanistan,\u00a0and surrounding areas as part of Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and New Dawn.\u00a0<\/span>Most of them\u201462 percent\u2014served in the Army.\u00a0Seventy-five percent reported exposure to combat.<\/p>\n

More than 20 percent of those surveyed reported thoughts of suicide, with 6 percent reporting a past attempt and current thoughts of suicide.\u00a0Significantly, the study confirmed prior reports of female veterans, in general, being at increased risk of suicide relative to men.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Younger veterans in their 20s, both male and female, reported much less suicide ideation than\u00a0older vets\u00a0in their 40s and 50s\u00a0who completed the survey.\u00a0Park suspects the finding may be due to the fact that many older veterans of recent conflicts were members of the National Guard or military reserves who were\u00a0called into service.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the people who went over there weren\u2019t active duty military,\u201d says\u00a0Park. \u201cThey were people who signed up for something but probably never anticipated they would be going to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban. They had jobs. They had kids. They had a life that was much different than someone who\u00a0chooses to\u00a0enlist\u00a0in the military.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The survey also looked at the role veterans\u2019 religious feelings and spirituality might play in\u00a0increasing or decreasing\u00a0suicide risk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Researchers found that veterans who had negative attitudes about religion and spirituality\u2014meaning they felt God was punishing them or that God had abandoned them\u2014were at significantly higher risk for suicide, even after accounting for\u00a0depression and other variables.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly, the researchers found that positive feelings about religion and spirituality\u2014feelings that God is a partner in your life and someone you can turn\u00a0to for guidance, support and strength\u2014did not significantly\u00a0reduce veterans\u2019 suicide risk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most importantly, Park says, the study clearly showed that spiritual struggle among veterans is a separate and independent risk factor for suicide and not just a reflection of people\u2019s depression.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis suggests that people are experiencing some profound spiritual struggle over and above any depression they might have,\u201d says Park. \u201cWhat people experience, what they do, and what they witness can have profound negative effects on them when they come back.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The findings emphasize the importance of religion and spirituality in veteran suicide prevention efforts, the researchers say, and underscore the need for counseling and supports that are both gender specific and tailored to the needs of veterans during their\u00a0initial\u00a0reintegration into civilian life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Addressing suicidal behavior among veterans is a major public health concern. It is estimated that 20 veterans die daily by suicide and 18 percent of all suicide deaths in the United States are attributed to current or former military personnel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Park says the issue is far greater than those statistics reflect.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u00a0are\u00a0a lot more veterans out there thinking about suicide and who are in despair and we really do owe them some kind of help for these issues,\u201d says Park. \u201cPeople are having profound spiritual struggles in their lives that can\u2019t simply be linked to depression and medicated away. It\u2019s more of an existential crisis. When you think about what our country asks soldiers to go and do and then think that there won\u2019t be any consequences to\u00a0their\u00a0spiritual life as a result,\u00a0it\u2019s kind of ridiculous.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The complete\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0can be found in the Archives of Suicide Research, a journal of the International Academy of Suicide Research.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yale Professor Rani Hoff, director of the Northeast Program Evaluation Center within the VA\u2019s Office of Mental Health Operations, was the\u00a0study\u2019\u00a0principal investigator.\u00a0 Dr. Marek\u00a0Kopacz\u00a0,\u00a0a medical\u00a0sociologist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VISN2 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, was the study\u2019s lead author. Hugh\u00a0Crean, a research affiliate at the VISN2 Center, is also\u00a0a co-author.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The study was supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The transition back to a domestic home environment\u2014and all of the pressures, roles, and responsibilities that come with it\u2014may add to veterans’ internal struggles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":133517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,2231,2225],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1928],"class_list":["post-133502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-health-well-being","category-uconn-storrs"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 11:31:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133502"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133625,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133502\/revisions\/133625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/133517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133502"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=133502"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=133502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}