Citation

Stanley IH, Eisenhauer IF, Brooks-Russell A, Sigel EJ. JAMA Netw. Open 2024; 7(7): e2424916.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.24916

PMID

39083277

PMCID

PMC11292444

Abstract

Suicide prevention among military service members and their families, including children, is a key priority of the US Department of Defense.1 Firearm suicide is a leading cause of death among youth; firearm access broadly,2 and gun carrying specifically,3 is associated with an increased risk of suicide. Participation in violence prevention programs may decrease risk. State-level data indicate elevated levels of gun carrying among military-connected youth, perhaps due to greater firearm ownership in military families.4 Using nationally representative data, we examined differential handgun-carrying practices and participation in violence prevention programs between youths with a parent in the military and those without. Extending prior work, we examined handgun carrying among youth reporting suicidal ideation or suicide plans in the past year because handgun carrying among these individuals may be associated with increased risk for lethal outcomes.5
Methods

In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed data from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH),6 a representative survey of noninstitutionalized US civilians aged 12 years or older. Data were collected from January 14, 2021, through December 20, 2021. This analysis was approved by the Colorado Multiple Institutional Review Board. Youths and their parents provided verbal informed consent. We followed the STROBE reporting guideline.

We analyzed responses to the specific survey items from youth aged 12 to 17 years (eTable in Supplement 1). We used logistic regression analyses to examine the association between having a parent in the military (1, yes; 0, no) and past-year handgun carrying (1, yes; 0, no), controlling for age, sex, race, and ethnicity. We used listwise deletion and sampling weights provided by NSDUH.6 Two-sided P < .05 was significant, and SPSS, version 29.0 (IBM Corp) was used for analyses.
Results

This study included 10 045 youths (49.0% female and 51.0% male); 3.2% reported a military connection and 4.0% reported handgun carrying in the past year (3.8% military-connected youth vs 4.0% non-military-connected youth). Overall, 15.4% of youth reported having suicidal ideation within the past year and 6.6% reported having suicide plans. In the past year, military-connected youth compared with their counterparts had higher odds of having suicidal ideation (18.1% vs 15.3%; AOR, 1.36 [95% CI, 1.35-1.37]) and suicide plans (10.7% vs 6.5%; AOR, 1.92 [95% CI, 1.90-1.93]). Among youth reporting suicidal ideation or suicide plans in the past year, military- vs non-military-connected youth had lower odds of reporting handgun carrying in the past year (AOR, 0.74 [95% CI, 0.72-0.76] and AOR, 0.24 [95% CI, 0.22-0.25], respectively). Military- vs non-military-connected youth had higher odds of having participated in a violence prevention program in the past year (15.8% vs 8.1%; AOR, 2.02 [95% CI, 2.01-2.03]).

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Female; Male; United States/epidemiology; Adolescent; Young Adult; *Suicidal Ideation; *Firearms/statistics & numerical data; *Military Personnel/psychology/statistics & numerical data; Suicide, Attempted/statistics & numerical data/psychology; Suicide/statistics & numerical data/psychology