INTRODUCTION

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the American population's suicide rate has remained stable. Veteran suicide rates have remained stable. Active-duty servicemember suicide rates have increased.

This matters because:

1. Theoretical approaches to suicide have evolved rapidly over the past two decades -- how might the differential psychological effects of pandemic life impact theory?

2. Military suicide has long been a topic of anthropological, sociological, and psychological concern

3. American servicemembers and veterans are at increased risk of suicide even prior to pandemic

RESEARCH

The purpose of my work is to provide a scientific context for the inevitable qualitative and quantitative work to come across fields. Intense review of literature and one ethnographic interview revealed the following themes for scholars to bear in mind:

1. Characterizing military - suicide interactions​​​​

   1. Google Scholar search ("military" AND "suicide") yields over 20,000 academic results published since 2020​

   2. Servicemember suicide rates have risen consistently since 2003, peaking at a rate of 25.9 per 100,000 in 2019 -- significantly higher than demographic-adjusted civilian rates

   3. Deployment does not seem to affect suicide rates: veterans and servicemembers with and without combat experience exhibit similarly high suicide rates

2. The current state of psychological theory for suicide

   1. Joiner's interpersonal theory of suicide (ITS; 2005): suicide is the product of not only desire to die (caused by "thwarted belongingness" and "perceived burdensomeness") but also acquired capability for suicide (non-aversion to pain and death through habituation, e.g., to violence or self-injury)​

   2. Klonsky and May's ideation-to-action framework (2013): as Joiner's ITS gains notoriety and statistical validity, Klonsky and May propose a broader model that simply emphasizes that desire to die and ability to kill oneself are separate constructs, allowing for better distinction between who ideates and who among ideators dies by suicide

   3. Desire to die is considered to be malleable (a salient target for intervention) whereas capability to die is increasingly observed as a stable construct, especially in military samples (active-duty or veteran) who seem to be generally unafraid of pain and death irrespective of time or combat experience

   4. As military samples present with higher capacity for suicide, it seems possible that the servicemember psyche is categorically different from that of the civilian with regards to death

3. Soldier Psyche and Lifestyle in Pandemic

   1. Ethnographic analysis (March 2021): White female, early-20s, closing in on two years of experience in the Army, working at U.S. military base for several months prior​

      1. Servicemembers are in close quarters and are at consistent, increased risk of infection by COVID-19​

      2. Risk is not just to the servicemember, but to their loved ones: perceived burdensomeness

      3. Breakdown of social relations as tensions grow (concern vs. indifference to COVID-19, conspiracy of who brings in disease): thwarted belongingness

CONCLUSIONS

COVID-19 has illustrated how the servicemember is perhaps inherently at increased risk of suicide by virtue of the position. Active-duty servicemember rates being different from the general public's illustrates the effects of increased psychosocial stress when capacity for suicide is already present. Active-duty servicemember rates being different from veterans' illustrates the increased psychosocial stress that comes from military life.