The Link between Deployment-Related Injuries and Suicidal Thinking in the Army National Guard: Examining the Role of Perceived Burdensomeness and Hopelessness

Abstract

Objective

In 2020, Army National Guard members demonstrated greater risk of suicide than their military and civilian counterparts. Though literature on deployment-related experiences and suicidal ideation (SI) is mixed, investigations of specific deployment-related experiences (e.g., injuries) may further elucidate the relationship between deployment and suicide risk. Deployment-related injuries, including pain severity and functional impairment, have been linked to increased risk of SI, and correlates like perceived burdensomeness (PB) and hopelessness. The current study sought to examine the cross-sectional relationship between deployment-related injuries, including pain severity and functional impairment, and severity of SI through PB and hopelessness.

Method

Immediately post-deployment, Army National Guard members (N = 2,261) completed validated self-report measures on past-week SI, PB, hopelessness, and single items regarding injury sustained during deployment and associated functional impairment and pain severity.

Results

Indirect effect analyses revealed that experience of deployment-related injury was related to SI through PB and hopelessness (R² = .1993), functional impairment was related to SI through PB, and pain severity was related to SI through PB. Contrary to hypotheses, hopelessness was not associated with SI when PB was simultaneously considered.

Conclusions

Army National Guard members who develop a sense of PB related to their injury and functional impairment of that injury may be at increased risk for suicidal ideation. Military suicide-prevention efforts may be potentiated through targeting distorted cognitions such as PB and hopelessness, especially in service members who have been injured.

Keywords:

• Hopelessness
• injury
• military deployment
• military veterans
• National Guard
• perceived burdensomeness
• suicidal ideation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States government.

The authors wish to acknowledge the time and effort put forth by the service-member respondents and study-team members at the Zablocki VA Medical Center, Milwaukee, and W. S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, Madison, WI, and the resources provided by those institutions.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Simon Goldberg was supported by the National Center for Complementary & Integrative Health of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number K23AT010879. Mary F. Wyman is supported under a Career Development Award [Award Number IK2 HX003080] funded by the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research & Development Service, VA Office of Research & Development.

Notes on contributors

Sarah Pardue-Bourgeois

Sarah Pardue-Bourgeois, MA, Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.

Simon B. Goldberg

Simon Goldberg, PhD, Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA; Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA.

Mary F. Wyman

Mary F. Wyman, PhD, William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, Madison, WI, USA; School of Medicine & Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA.

Maleeha Abbas

Maleeha Abbas, PhD, Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA; Evidence-Based Treatment Centers of Seattle, Seattle, WA, USA.

Anthony W. P. Flynn

Anthony W. P. Flynn, BA, Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA.

Sergio Domínguez

Sergio Domínguez, Jr., BA, Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA, and Raymond P. Tucker, PhD, Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA..

Raymond P. Tucker

Sergio Domínguez, Jr., BA, Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA, and Raymond P. Tucker, PhD, Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA..