Soldiers more likely to have experienced childhood abuse: study

JMO but this survey albeit a military tie-in should be in the national enquirer for entertainment purposes. Then again, maybe it got syndicated to media outlets from them to begin with.
The logic is in the filler. pinger.

this is ridicules these guys are trying to reinvent the wheel so they can direct the attention away from military action being the result of these problems by offering and alternate causality even though the rise in these problems started after the afghan mission.

fact ; by far the highest percentage of those that try and seek a carer in the military is the typical male. I believe they call this the type A male.

fact ; two of the most prominent psychological characteristics of this type of individual are ;;

aggression and stubbornness

ok a substituted stubbornness for another word I cant recall right now but it has the same meaning .

now for the connections .

do you think this type of person ( not the general population) but type A males got spanked more than military personnel ??????

I think not!!!!

do you think type A males got spanked more than type A females ???

I think so????

im a type A male and I got spanked what's more I got spanked loud.

what's more im glad I did because I fracking deserved it!!!!

ya think a couple of spankings bothers people more than the evil things you sometimes may have to do to protect yourself or others while on tour ????

again I think not!!!!

not sure who these idiots are trying to fool or why but it looks like a load of crap to me.

propat

prawnstar,

That is and excellent post - my thoughts exactly - well said.

I don't understand how they can complete a study like that - define counterparts.

What is the population of Veterans versus counterparts ?

The obvious answer would be the counterparts would outnumber Veterans in respect to the population of the study, outnumber us to the extent that would make the study speculative.

Anybody growing up in the 20th century knew that being a smart ass or impolite or not respectful would probably get you a slap upside the head. That meant there were consequences to your actions. Today, child abuse would be like telling your kid to take out the garbage and if they refuse, a slap upside the head like the old days, could land a parent in court. The kids know this and they push it to the limit. I do not condone corporal punishment but seriously when mother would threaten to get the wooden spoon that's all it took to smarten up.So today's surveys are not generation based. The questions are worded in today's definition of abuse. I know they targeted a specific age group but what it all boils down to is if you were raised to respect others and got a slap upside the head once in while it makes you a better person instead of being a "f@ck the whole world it's all about me."

Reading this, all I can think is that the department will use this as some kind of ammunition to deny or reduce mental health claims. They may claim that there is a chance that one was predisposed to mental health problems because of their childhood, even though their guidelines state that pre-existing conditions must be evident upon joining, or shortly after, in order to be used as evidence to deny a claim.

On the flip side, these childhood experiences, could be what motivates citizens to put their own self worth aside, to serve their country, and to protect others. I bet the findings would be similar to those found among police officers. And another factor is, how many Veterans who are actually suffering from Mental health issues, have been victims of child abuse, (and I do not classify getting spanked more than three times, as child abuse). For all we know, these experiences could shield them from developing depression or PTSD. So until a follow up report is issued, detailing how many of those CF members identified in the report, actually go on to develop mental health issues later in life, the report is inconclusive.

Don't really understand the logic of this study - or what it has to do with Veterans who have been diagnose with mental health issues from serving - hit the link at the bottom of the report interesting to read some responses from the study.

OTTAWA -- Canadian soldiers appear to be more likely than their civilian counterparts to have experienced abuse, including corporal punishment, or to have witnessed domestic violence as children, new research aimed at exploring the incidence of depression and suicide in the military suggests.

The as-yet-unpublished findings by health researchers at the Department of National Defence are contained in an internal abstract -- an abridged sample of the results -- that was recently delivered as a presentation to mental health professionals.

The research was carried out by the department of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba and the Canadian Forces Directorate of Mental Health.

Although the data is still being studied, preliminary results suggest 39 per cent of military members had been slapped or spanked more than three times as children; comparable research on the general population indicates some 22 per cent of civilians had the same experience as kids.

Seventeen per cent of military members reported having been thrown, pushed or grabbed more than three times as children, compared with 11 per cent of civilians.

Among military respondents, 15 per cent reported being kicked, bitten, punched, choked, burned or attacked as youngsters, compared with 10 per cent of civilians, while 10 per cent of soldiers also reported witnessing "intimate partner violence" while growing up. In that category, the civilian figure was eight per cent.

The study relies on data in the mental health portion of the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey, which questioned more than 25,000 people, and the 2013 Canadian Forces Mental Health Survey, which is based on responses from more than 8,100 members of the military.

The Canadian Press was denied a request for additional information beyond the abstract because the research has yet to be officially published. But Dr. Mark Zamorski, one of the study's co-authors, did say the conclusions mirror similar research in the U.S.

They're important in understanding why members of the Canadian military have a higher than average rate of depression, which is linked to suicide, Zamorski said.

"For reasons no one understands ... the people that end up being attracted to or choose military service -- for whatever reason -- have higher rates of exposure to childhood adversity than civilians, or people who don't elect to be in the military," Zamorski said in an interview.

"And given that childhood adversity is such a powerful risk factor for depression, and for suicidal thinking, suicidal behaviour and many other adverse health outcomes -- that, I think, is an important piece of the picture."

Researchers "haven't dug deep enough yet" to fully understand the links, however, Zamorski cautioned.

"We'll know a lot more in a little bit of time," he said. "They were very preliminary numbers. If it didn't fit in with the larger narrative we saw elsewhere, we wouldn't have presented it."

In the U.S., a major 2013 study by the mental health research branch of the Veterans Administration, Duke University and the University of Alabama concluded that abuse, neglect and other childhood ordeals were major contributors to problems for soldiers later in life.

"These findings suggest that evaluation of childhood trauma is important in the clinical assessment and treatment of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation among military personnel and veterans," said the report by Dr. Nagy Youssef.

In 2014, there were 19 suicides in the Canadian military, according to recently released figures. That's one of the highest levels in the past decade, surpassed only by 22 suicides in 2009 and 25 in 2011 -- the final year of Canada's combat mission in Kandahar.

Much of the public attention in the aftermath of the Afghan war has been focused on post-traumatic stress, which counts depression among its constellation of symptoms.

Yet post-traumatic stress is thought to have played a role in only three of 10 suicides in the Canadian military last winter, according to a separate series of documents obtained by CP.

The military and the Harper government routinely underline the tens of millions of dollars in resources that have been poured into PTSD treatment and research. They're also quick to say the rate of military suicide is below the national average.

But underlying that is the extraordinarily high rate of depression within the ranks, estimated at approximately eight per cent in the last mental health survey.

The military's surgeon general, Brig.-Gen. Jean-Robert Bernier, told a Commons committee last year that the mental health of soldiers is an issue they're struggling to understand.

A lot more research is necessary, Bernier said.

"We haven't been able to pin it down to specific exposures in military life ... although there are all kinds of increased risk factors for depression because of military service."

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/soldiers-more-likely-to-have-experienced-childhood-abuse-study-1.2237375#ixzz3RubKvfZl