TY - JOUR
T1 - Depression and mental health service use among 12–17 year old U.S. adolescents
T2 - Associations with current parental and sibling military service
AU - London, Andrew S.
N1 - Funding Information:
For many adolescents, the loss and worry they experience when a parent is currently serving in the military also occurs when they have a sibling who is currently serving. However, less attention has been paid to the mental health consequences of having a sibling than having a parent in the military (Cederbaum et al., 2014; Gilreath et al., 2013; Rodriguez & Margolin, 2011). Among adolescents who experience strains in their relationships with parents, ties to siblings, perhaps especially older siblings who are more likely to have left home to join the military, may be as or more salient than ties to parents. As such, military service-related changes in access to siblings, loss of support, and/or worry about their sibling's safety may be particularly salient for adolescent well-being (Rodriguez & Margolin, 2011). This hypothesis is supported by evidence that having a sibling in the military has a significant bivariate association with feeling sad or hopeless, depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and various measures of lifetime substance use (Cederbaum et al., 2014; Gilreath et al., 2013). Taken together, available theory and evidence related to the consequences of parental and sibling military service for adolescents supports the following hypotheses: (1) Adolescents who have a parent who is currently serving in the military will be at increased risk for a MDE (and possibly other mental health disorders) relative to adolescents who do not have a parent currently serving in the military; and (2) Adolescents who have a sibling who is currently serving in the military will be at increased risk for a MDE (and possibly other mental health disorders) relative to adolescents who do not have a sibling currently serving in the military.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Objective: To examine whether having a parent and/or a sibling currently serving in the military is associated with major depression and use of mental health services among 12–17 year old adolescents in the United States. Method: Descriptive and multivariate logistic regression analyses are conducted using pooled data from the 2016–2019 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Analyses are weighted and standard errors are adjusted for the complex sampling design. Results: Adolescents are more likely to have a sibling than a parent currently serving in the military. Having a sibling currently in the military increases the likelihood of having a lifetime and a past-year major depressive episode (MDE), but not a past-year MDE with severe role impairment or use of mental health services. Having a parent in the military is not associated with any measure of MDE, but increases use of specialty outpatient, specialty inpatient/residential, and non-specialty mental health services net of MDE and sociodemographic controls. Conclusion: Considerable attention has focused on risk and resilience among the dependent children of current service members. A better understanding of how the current military service experiences of siblings, as well as parents, influences related adolescents’ mental health, mental health care service use, substance use, and health behaviors has the potential to contribute to programs and interventions that can enhance the well-being of youth with intra-generational, as well as inter-generational, connections to the military. Adolescents who have a sibling currently serving in the military are an at-risk population for MDE and potentially other mental and behavioral health problems.
AB - Objective: To examine whether having a parent and/or a sibling currently serving in the military is associated with major depression and use of mental health services among 12–17 year old adolescents in the United States. Method: Descriptive and multivariate logistic regression analyses are conducted using pooled data from the 2016–2019 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Analyses are weighted and standard errors are adjusted for the complex sampling design. Results: Adolescents are more likely to have a sibling than a parent currently serving in the military. Having a sibling currently in the military increases the likelihood of having a lifetime and a past-year major depressive episode (MDE), but not a past-year MDE with severe role impairment or use of mental health services. Having a parent in the military is not associated with any measure of MDE, but increases use of specialty outpatient, specialty inpatient/residential, and non-specialty mental health services net of MDE and sociodemographic controls. Conclusion: Considerable attention has focused on risk and resilience among the dependent children of current service members. A better understanding of how the current military service experiences of siblings, as well as parents, influences related adolescents’ mental health, mental health care service use, substance use, and health behaviors has the potential to contribute to programs and interventions that can enhance the well-being of youth with intra-generational, as well as inter-generational, connections to the military. Adolescents who have a sibling currently serving in the military are an at-risk population for MDE and potentially other mental and behavioral health problems.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100920
DO - 10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100920
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85122692260
SN - 2352-8273
VL - 16
JO - SSM - Population Health
JF - SSM - Population Health
M1 - 100920
ER -