NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who
served in the military tend to have experienced more traumatic childhood
events, such as being abused or living with an alcohol-dependant parent,
than people who are not veterans, according to a new study.
In particular, men who volunteered for the military were more than
twice as likely as men without military experience to report at
least one adverse event in childhood, which supports a theory that
people may use the military to escape from dysfunctional home lives,
the researchers write in JAMA Psychiatry.
“It may be a sign of resilience,” John Blosnich said. “They may
recognize the military offers training, education and advancement.
Our next step is to look at whether or not these adverse childhood
experiences are related to their health outcomes.”
Blosnich is the study’s lead author and a researcher at the Center
for Health Equity Research and Promotion at the Veterans Affairs
Pittsburgh Healthcare System.
Adverse childhood events include a range of negative experiences
that have been linked to lifelong consequences such as
post-traumatic stress disorder, drug and alcohol abuse, attempted
suicide and shortened life expectancy.
If past research suggesting some people may join the military to
escape personal problems is true, Blosnich and his colleagues write,
adverse childhood experiences may be more common among current and
former military members.
That has implications for the current healthcare needs of military
personnel and veterans, the authors point out. And, because past
trauma may make a person more vulnerable to developing
post-traumatic stress disorder after a new adverse event like combat
exposure, it suggests elevated risks for poor mental health in the
affected soldiers.
To get a sense of how common adverse childhood experiences are among
people who served in the military, the researchers analyzed
responses to a survey conducted in 10 U.S. states and the District
of Columbia by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
2010.
The survey included questions about 11 adverse childhood
experiences, including living with a person with a mental illness,
living with a person abusing alcohol or drugs, living with someone
who was in jail, going through parental divorce, being physically or
verbally abused and being sexually abused.
Over 60,000 people, including more than 7,500 with a military
history, took the survey and were included in the analysis. The
study team distinguished between those who served in the
all-volunteer military after 1973 and those who served before 1973,
during the draft.
Overall, men who served in the army during the all-volunteer era had
more adverse experiences in all 11 categories than those without a
history of military service.
That was especially true for sexual abuse with 11 percent of those
from the volunteer-era reporting being touched sexually, compared to
about 5 percent of non-military people.
Those who served in the volunteer military were also about twice as
likely to report childhood experiences of being forced to touch
someone sexually and being forced to have sex.
People from the volunteer military were also more likely to report
adverse experiences from four of the 11 categories, compared to
people without a history of military service.
Having had an increasing number of adverse experiences is important,
the researchers write, because the number is tied to the severity of
poor health outcomes later on.
There were far fewer differences among men who were drafted into the
military, female veterans and people who never served in the
military.
In the draft era, the researchers note, men without adverse
experiences entering the military would have diluted the effect of
volunteers.
Women may not demonstrate the same patterns because female survivors
of adverse experiences – especially victims of sexual abuse – may
not see the military as an escape, they add.
It’s impossible to know whether those who reported more adverse
childhood experiences joined the military because of them or had
poorer health as adults, Blosnich said, because the survey didn’t
ask those questions.
“I think we just need to know more about this and how it may or may
not operate within military health in order to know where to go from
here,” he said.
