Half of Canadian soldiers faced childhood abuse, study indicates

About half of Canada's soldiers have a history ofchild abuse and/or exposure to it, which is significantly higher than for the general population, indicates a new study led by a Manitoba researcher.

"We thought it was really an important finding," says Tracie Afifi,associate professor in the department of psychiatry at theUniversity of Manitoba and lead author of the research released Wednesday by the Journal of theAmerican Medical Association (JAMA) Psychiatry.

Any child abuse exposurewas higherwith membersofthe regular forces (47.7 per cent) and even higher among reservists (49.4 per cent).

Adults who were abused as children make up33.1per cent in the general population, according to the study, which also involved the Canadian Forces Health Services Group Headquarters in Ottawa and the University of Ottawa.

The researchers note that child abuse exposure can take many forms,including physical abuse, sexual abuse"and exposure to intimate partner violence, and deployment-related trauma."

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The study examined data from twoCanadian surveys:

• The 2013 Canadian ForcesMental Health Survey, to which more than 8,000 military membersresponded.
• The 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey, which questionedabout 25,000 people.

The research backs up similar findings in the U.S. that showed a higherprevalence of childhood abuse (of various forms) among military personnelcompared withcivilians.

"What we know about people coming out of dysfunctional families isthey often gravitate towards environments where there is structure andsafety,"says Dr. Greg Passey, a Vancouver psychiatrist who served22 years in the Canadian military. He was not involved in the study.

Part of his deployment was inRwanda in 1994, where he was part of a mental health teamassessingstress in Canadian troops.

"What we know about the Canadian military environment, it is like avery large family. There's very clear boundaries and rules," saysPassey. "Overallit makes sense that individuals with childhood sexual abuse or justabuse in general would gravitate towards the military."

The militarymay be selecting more resilient individuals.Tracie Afifi, University of Manitoba researcher

But for the first time, researchers also compared the associationbetween childhood abuse and suicidal tendencies among the CanadianArmed Forces members and Canadians in general.

Perhaps surprisingly, they found that the link between childhoodabuse and suicide wasweaker for military personnel comparedwith the Canadian general population.

"It tells us perhaps there might be something going on that isprotective by being in the military," saysAfifi."That could be related to selection process where the militarymay be selecting more resilient individuals."

Passey agrees.

"In the military, we are taught to cope with verystressful situations," he says. "Our military members, despite a history ofchildhood abuse, would be better at coping with stressful situationsand therefore less likely to have suicidal ideations versus thegeneral population."

Col.RakeshJetly,chief psychiatrist with the Canadian Armed Forces,says it's important to get soldierswho were exposed to child abuseto come forward if they're struggling.

"Just because people say they suffered from corporal punishment as a child, to assume that they haven't dealt with it on their own or with friends is again the piece that's missing. The study just says, 'Have you been exposed to it?'It doesn't say, 'Are you still bothered by it?'"

An accompanying editorial in JAMA Psychiatry says the findings are important for how scientists and health-care professionals "tackle the issueof understanding health outcomes, including suicide risk, amongindividuals who have bravely served their countries."