Cole Rebekah, Cowan Rebecca G, Pearce Elizabeth, Quintana Taqueena, Ren Xiao
Department of Military and Emergency Medicine, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
Department of Health Professions Education, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
Mil Med. 2025 Feb 27;190(3-4):e717-e723. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usae524.
Recent statistics released by the Department of Defense have revealed increasing numbers of military spouse suicide. Although past qualitative research has suggested possible reasons for this phenomenon, there is a lack of wide-scale quantitative research regarding suicide within the military spouse population. To fill this gap, we aimed to examine military spouses' perceptions of suicide and their ability to access mental health care. We also aimed to explore the perceptions of sucide within various subgroups of military spouses.
We recruited military spouse participants (officer and enlisted) through social media to complete a 12-item Likert survey focusing on their perception of suicide in the military spouse community, including the threat level of suicide, their own mental health status, barriers and stigmas to accessing mental health care, the view from the spouse's leadership, and the leading causes for military spouse suicide. A total of 141 military spouses participated in our study.
Spouses' perception of the main threats to their mental health and suicides in their community were an ongoing sense of loss of control (27.7%), loss of identity (25.5%), difficulty accessing mental health services (19.1%), and fear of seeking mental health services (10.6%). Additionally, 28.3% of participants were moderately concerned, quite concerned, or extremely concerned about their mental health. The participants also believed that the threat of suicides in their community was moderately prevalent (35.5%), quite prevalent (17.7%), and extremely prevalent (5%). There was no difference between spouses of officers or enlisted service members, spouses of service members in the Army, Navy, or Air Force on perceptions of suicide risk prevalence, stigma, participants' concern for themselves, confidence in their ability to access resources, confidence in their ability to help another spouse, or the perceived importance military leaders place on preventing suicide. Spousal tenure was similarly not significantly related to any of the variables of interest.
Our military spouse particpants reported elevated perceptions about the prevalence of suicide threats, concern for themselves, and stigma toward accessing mental health resources, as well as low perceived importance placed on spouse suicide prevention by military leadership. The spouses reported moderate confidence in their ability to help another spouse or access suicide prevention resources. Our participants also reported challenges in accessing mental health services and perceived a stigma associated with receiving counseling services. Continued focus and advocacy is needed to ensure military spouses receive the mental health support needed to prevent suicide within this population.
美国国防部最近公布的统计数据显示，军事配偶自杀的人数在增加。尽管过去的定性研究提出了这一现象可能的原因，但对于军事配偶群体中的自杀问题，缺乏大规模的定量研究。为了填补这一空白，我们旨在研究军事配偶对自杀的看法以及他们获得心理健康护理的能力。我们还旨在探讨不同军事配偶亚群体对自杀的看法。
我们通过社交媒体招募军事配偶参与者（军官和士兵），以完成一项包含12个条目的李克特量表调查，重点关注他们对军事配偶群体中自杀的看法，包括自杀的威胁程度、他们自己的心理健康状况、获得心理健康护理的障碍和耻辱感、配偶领导的看法以及军事配偶自杀的主要原因。共有141名军事配偶参与了我们的研究。
配偶们认为对其心理健康和社区自杀的主要威胁是持续的失控感（27.7%）、身份丧失感（25.5%）、难以获得心理健康服务（19.1%）以及害怕寻求心理健康服务（10.6%）。此外，28.3%的参与者对自己的心理健康有中度、相当或极度担忧。参与者还认为社区中自杀的威胁中度普遍（35.5%）、相当普遍（17.7%）和极度普遍（5%）。军官配偶或士兵配偶、陆军、海军或空军服役人员的配偶在自杀风险普遍性、耻辱感、参与者对自身的担忧、获取资源能力的信心、帮助另一位配偶能力的信心或军事领导人对预防自杀重视程度的看法上没有差异。配偶任期同样与任何感兴趣的变量没有显著关系。
我们的军事配偶参与者报告称，他们对自杀威胁的普遍性、对自身的担忧以及对获取心理健康资源的耻辱感的认知有所提高，同时认为军事领导层对配偶自杀预防的重视程度较低。配偶们表示对帮助另一位配偶或获取自杀预防资源的能力有适度信心。我们的参与者还报告了在获得心理健康服务方面的挑战，并感受到接受咨询服务存在耻辱感。需要持续关注和倡导，以确保军事配偶获得预防该群体自杀所需的心理健康支持。
