The Prevalence and Psychosocial Correlates of Suicide Attempts Among Inpatient Adolescent Offspring of Croatian PTSD Male War Veterans

Abstract

Despite evidence that children of male war veterans with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at particularly high risk for behavior problems, very little is currently known about suicidal behaviors in this population of youth. This study aimed to examine the prevalence and psychosocial correlates of suicide attempts among psychiatrically hospitalized adolescent offspring of Croatian male PTSD veterans. Participants were psychiatric inpatients, ages 12-18 years. Self-report questionnaires assessed demographics, suicide attempts, psychopathology, parenting style, and family functioning. The prevalence of suicide attempts was 61.5% (65.2% for girls and 58.0% for boys). Internalizing symptoms, family dysfunction, lower levels of maternal and paternal care, and paternal overcontrol were significantly associated with suicide attempts. Our findings suggest that suicide attempts are common among inpatient adolescent offspring of male PTSD veterans and that interventions targeting both adolescent psychopathology and family relationships are needed for adolescents who have attempted suicide.

The Impact of Parental Operational Stress Injury on Child Mental Health and Well-Being: A Scoping Review

“…Understanding the impact of parental OSI across childhood in terms of age, gender, school functioning, duration of exposure to parental OSI, military branch, caregiver mental health, resilience, and vulnerability to mental health issues, among others, requires longitudinal developmental cohort research (Boricevic Mar sanic, Aukst Margetic, Jukic, et al, 2014;Boricevic Mar sanic, Aukst Margetic, Zecevic, et al, 2014;Chandra, Burns, Tanielian, Jaycox, & Scott, 2008;Cozza, 2011;Cozza, Haskins, et al, 2013;Cozza, Holmes, et al, 2013;Gorman et al, 2010;Lambert et al, 2014;Lester & Flake, 2013;Milburn & Lightfoot, 2013;Pedras & Pereira, 2014;Ray & Heaslip, 2011;Schick et al, 2013;Seamone, 2012;Walsh et al, 2014). Research is needed to determine whether veterans with children are more likely to receive a diagnosis of PTSD because of family support to seek treatment (Seamone, 2012), and whether there is higher incidence among veterans with children (Janke-Stedronsky et al, 2016).…”

“…Secondary traumatization in children and youth As such, a child growing up with parental OSI is likely to experience secondary traumatization through persistent environmental exposure to the parent's dysregulated emotional and/or behavioral state that leads to the child's experiences of alienation or abandonment (Boricevic Mar sanic, Aukst Margetic, Jukic, et al, 2014;Boricevic Mar sanic, Aukst Margetic, Zecevic, & Herceg, 2014;Dekel & Goldblatt, 2008;Dinshtein et al, 2011;Gorman et al, 2010;Herzog, Everson, & Whitworth, 2011;Pedras & Pereira, 2014;Seamone, 2012). Parental OSI can create conditions which in and of themselves can be traumatizing and may socialize a child to somatic symptoms experienced by the parent with OSI (Boricevic Mar sanic, Aukst Margetic, Jukic, et al, 2014) and identify with and emulate the parental emotions (Dekel & Goldblatt, 2008;Johnson & Ling, 2013;Maholmes, 2012).…”

“…Adolescent children of male PTSD veterans admitted to inpatient psychiatry experienced higher rates of suicide attempts (Boricevic Mar sanic, Aukst Margetic, Zecevic, et al, 2014), with double the rate of reported internalizing and externalizing problems and significantly higher rates of emotional dysregulation, substance use, anger, aggression, and depression than adolescents of veterans without PTSD (Boricevic Mar sanic, Aukst Margetic, Jukic, et al, 2014). If children have been exposed to family violence as either victim or witness, this can also lead to psychosomatic disorders, anxiety, sleep disruption, excessive crying, and school problems (Gorman et al, 2010).…”

“…It is critical that the focus shift toward a familycentered service delivery system (Cohen et al, 2011;Cozza, 2011;Cozza, Holmes, et al, 2013;Danish & Antonides, 2013;Dinshtein et al, 2011;Gorman et al, 2010;Lambert et al, 2014;Lester et al, 2010;McFarlane, 2009;Walsh et al, 2014) that can provide parallel services to individuals, spouses, couples, and children (Boricevic Mar sanic, Aukst Margetic, Jukic, et al, 2014;Boricevic Mar sanic, Aukst Margetic, Zecevic, et al, 2014;Cozza, 2011;Esposito-Smythers et al, 2011;Guzman, 2014;Holmes et al, 2013;Pearrow & Cosgrove, 2009;Pedras & Pereira, 2014;Sammons & Batten, 2008). No singular strategy for addressing the needs is recommended; instead, optimally, there would be a spectrum of services with a variety of access and interface options (Cozza, Haskins, et al, 2013;Dinshtein et al, 2011;Kudler & Porter, 2013;Smith-Osborne & Felderhoff, 2014).…”

Parenting and Children's Resilience in Military Families

“…The traumatic experience of the parent and his PTSD can be transmitted to the child in one or more of the following ways (Boričević Maršanić, Margetić, Zečević, & Herceg, 2013 ;Dekel & Goldblatt, 2008 ;. First, the child can be directly traumatized by the parent's behavior (such as through witnessing and/or experiencing violence).…”