Suicide in the United States Air Force: Relationship among Marital Status and Life Stressors, Communication of Distress, and Helping Services Utilization by

Title of Thesis: Suicide in the United States Air Force: Relationship among Marital Status and Life Stressors, Communication of Distress, and Helping Services Utilization Author: Jeffery S. Martin Thesis Director: Marjan Ghahramanlou-Holloway, PhD. Using a retrospective psychological autopsy design, we systematically reviewed 100 suicide death investigations conducted by the United States Air Force (USAF) Office of Special Investigations from 1996-2006. The aim of the study was to advance our understanding of the relationship between marital status, life stressors, distress communication, and help seeking prior to suicide. Married decedents were over 2 times more likely to experience interpersonal conflict as compared to unmarried decedents who were more likely to have no documented life stressor precipitants. While married and unmarried decedents did not differ on the number of distress communications, romantic partners were the most common recipient of suicide intent communications for both groups. Marital status was not a predictor of health care service utilization. In general, health care services prior to suicide were more often utilized by African American service members and less often by officers and those with a history of alcohol problems.