Study: Military teens more sad, hopeless

[unhappycamper]

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/nov/19/military-teens-study-USC-deployments/?st

?75d51d0aea2efce5189afce216053cbc530c46a8

Deployments are hard on military families, especially teen children, study finds.

Study: Military teens more sad, hopeless
By Gretel C. Kovach
3:40 p.m.Nov. 19, 2013

Adolescents with a parent or sibling who has deployed for military service are more likely to feel depressed, contemplate suicide and report poorer overall well-being, according to a USC study published this month in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Researchers analyzed results of the California Healthy Kids Survey given to all 7th, 9th, and 11th graders, focusing on 14,299 students from military areas. They found that over 26 percent of high school students with a military sibling and almost 25 percent with a military parent who deployed had considered ending their lives, compared to 19.1 percent in civilian families.

Military teens were also more likely to report feeling sad or hopeless during the past year: over 35 percent of students with a sibling in the military and 33.7 percent with a parent in the military, compared to 31 percent from civilian families.

Public schools, mental health providers and physicians should systematically screen adolescents, especially those in military-connected families and especially during deployment, for depression and suicide ideation, the authors recommend.

[TwilightGardener]

1. It's not deployments, speaking as a former military spouse with kids. It's the moving.

My kids had to move during middle and high school, they've never really bounced back from losing their old circles of friends.