Citation

Bryan CJ, Britton PC. Clin. Psychol. Sci. Pract. 2021; 28(4): 391-392.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1037/cps0000047

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In the years following the onset of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military suicide rate, which had historically been lower than the civilian suicide rate, started to rise, and in 2008 surpassed the age and gender-matched civilian rate (Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center, 2012). Nearly a decade and a half later, the military's suicide rate remains elevated despite the reduction of military personnel and combat operations in both locations, and is the second leading cause of death among military personnel. Researchers, hoping to identify effective strategies for reversing this trend, have been guided by a number of suicide theories, of which the interpersonal-psychological theory (Joiner, 2005) has been especially prominent. Despite the considerable influence of the interpersonal-psychological theory, however, studies guided by the model have provided only modest support for the theory's primary hypotheses (Chu et al., 2017). The eusocial perspective of military suicide, articulated by Ringer et al. (2021), thereby reflects a much-needed attempt to update and/or refine existing theories to account for these limitations © 2021. American Psychological Association

Language: en