Sibling and Parental Military Service and Suicidality Among Adolescents in the United States

Introduction: This study aims to examine whether having a sibling and/or a parent on active duty in the military is associated with suicidality-think about death, better off dead, think about suicide, plan suicide, and attempt suicide-among 12- to 17-year-old adolescent girls and boys in the United States.

Materials and methods: Descriptive and multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted using pooled cross-sectional public-use data from the 2016-2019 National Survey of Drug Use and Health. Analyses were weighted and standard errors were adjusted for the complex sampling design.

Results: Having a sibling on active duty increases the likelihood of reporting all five suicidality outcomes. Having a parent on active duty increases the likelihood of each of the suicidality outcomes except think about death for both adolescent boys and girls relative to adolescents without a parent in the military. Adolescent girls who have a parent serving in the military are more likely to report suicidal ideation (better off dead, think about suicide) than adolescent boys who have a parent currently serving in the military but are equally likely to report suicide planning and attempt.

Conclusions: Those working clinically with military families should be mindful of the association between suicidality and sibling military service, as well as parental military service. Programs aiming to reduce the negative impact of sibling deployment need to be developed and tested empirically. The current findings suggest the need for targeted family-centered approaches to suicide prevention among youth with siblings, parents, and potentially other relatives currently serving in the armed forces.