Resilience and Depression in Military Service: Evidence From the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health).

INTRODUCTION: Research indicates that military service involves stressors that may be related to depression. However, the military provides financial, educational, psychological, and social advantages that may help to mitigate the effects of service-related stressors. Because most prior research was based on cross-sectional data or small clinical samples, we explored individual-level trajectories of depression over time. METHODS: Data came from the restricted-use version of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) in four survey waves from 1994 to 2008, with a total of 1,112 service members, of whom 231 were female, and a total sample size of 13,544. Statistical estimation employed the multilevel growth curve modeling approach. RESULTS: Individuals who later served in the military had lower rates of depression than their civilian counterparts at year 1 of the study, and rates of depression decreased consistently for both groups throughout the study. Service members ended up with the same level of depression compared to civilians (year 14). Sex, race and parental education were unrelated to depression, and no evidence was found for the hypothesis that the military functions as a "bridging environment" to reduce depression by providing a more attractive alternative compared to civilian life. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals who were less depressed at year 1 of the study were more likely to enlist into the military. While both civilians and service members displayed decreasing depression over the years of the study, military members had less decrease in depression over time beginning at a lower level of depression than civilian. Taken together, the minor differences in depression between the civilian and military samples and the lower level of depression among military members at the beginning of the study suggest that military service selects against higher levels of depression at the start of service and, given the known stressors related to the military, membership in the service may be associated with resilience to depression.

Strapped for Time or Stressed Out? Predictors of Work Interruption and Unmet Need for Workplace Support Among Informal Elder Caregivers.

OBJECTIVE: We evaluate whether strong associations between unmet need and work interruption observed among informal elder caregivers are explained by caregiver personal characteristics, caregiving situations, or diminished caregiver well-being. METHOD: We analyze a proprietary survey of informal elder caregivers conducted by a single large U.S. employer ( N = 642 caregivers). RESULTS: Unmet need was about twice as common among those experiencing mild (29.79%) or severe interruption (35.00%) relative to those who did not interrupt work (16.87%). Although caregiver characteristics and aspects of caregiving situation show links to either unmet need or work interruption specifically, the association between unmet need and work interruption was not explained by these factors, or by caregiver well-being. DISCUSSION: Needs-related work interruptions may arise by other workplace processes, such as organizational culture, that should be measured and tested explicitly by future research.

Suicide contagion, gender, and suicide attempts among adolescents.

Exposure to suicidal behavior (ESB) through social networks is often associated with an increased risk of suicidality, but empirical research-largely limited to the Western populations-has produced mixed results. Using survey data, we examined (a) the association between ESB and suicide attempt, and (b) the exacerbating role of ESB on gender differences in suicide attempt risk among Turkish adolescents (N = 2035). ESB was significantly associated with increased risk of suicide attempt, and it contributed to the higher attempt risk among girls. Suicidal behaviors spread through social networks via ESB, and suicide contagion exacerbates the existing gender differences.

Secularity, religiosity, and health: Physical and mental health differences between atheists, agnostics, and nonaffiliated theists compared to religiously affiliated individuals.

Extensive literature in the social and medical sciences link religiosity to positive health outcomes. Conversely it is often assumed that secularity carries negative consequences for health; however, recent research outlining different types of secular individuals complicates this assumption. Using a national sample of American adults, we compare physical and mental health outcomes for atheists, agnostics, religiously nonaffiliated theists, and theistic members of organized religious traditions. Results indicate better physical health outcomes for atheists compared to other secular individuals and members of some religious traditions. Atheists also reported significantly lower levels of psychiatric symptoms (anxiety, paranoia, obsession, and compulsion) compared to both other seculars and members of most religious traditions. In contrast, physical and mental health were significantly worse for nonaffiliated theists compared to other seculars and religious affiliates on most outcomes. These findings highlight the necessity of distinguishing among different types of secular individuals in future research on health.