Gun Carrying Among Military-Connected Youth With Past-Year Suicidal Ideation and Suicide Plans

This cross-sectional study compares gun carrying practices and participation in violence prevention programs among youth with vs without a parent in the US military.


Introduction
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. 4Using 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. 6o-sided P < .05 was significant, and SPSS, version 29.0 (IBM Corp) was used for analyses.

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Discussion
In this cross-sectional study, we found that military-connected youth with suicidal ideation or suicide plans in the past year had lower odds of reporting handgun carrying in the past year.Risk and harm reduction efforts aimed at service members are common and military service wide, but similar programs are not standard for military dependents. 1 Nonetheless, military service-wide efforts to create community, reduce stigma, and promote lethal means safety specifically aimed at suicide prevention may have secondary benefits for dependent youth.This includes registration requirements for firearms stored on a military base that specifically addresses child safety, including lock mandates and secure storage options.
Study limitations include a lack of information on whether youths currently live with their parent, nature of the handgun carried (eg, parent owned, reason), and type of military connection (eg, Active Component, Reserve, National Guard).Findings of this study suggest that children who report mental health challenges and have a parent in the military may have a lower risk of handgun

Table 1 .
Participant Demographic Characteristics a

Table 2 .
Past-Year Characteristics for Youth With vs Without a Parent in the Military a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH): Methodological Summary and Definitions.Accessed July 11, 2024.https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt39442/2021NSDUHMethodSummDefs100422.pdf a The logistic regression analysis was adjusted for age categories, sex, and race and ethnicity.The 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health was the source of the data.6.