Social Disconnectedness, Family Support, and Suicidal Ideation Among Military Female Spouses in South Korea

Background

The Korean Peninsula is the only divided country in the world, and South Korea is a truce country that is constantly preparing for a war against North Korea. With its comprehensive military power ranked sixth in the world, the South Korean military has a strong military power of more than 600,000 active soldiers, 2.75 million reserve forces, and 8.7 million available military personnel in the war. As Korean soldiers move with their families every three to five years, military spouses are prone to experience social disconnectedness, which is reported to be closely related to suicidal ideation (SI). The workplace is mainly in a security area, suburban, and the infrastructure around the residential area is underdeveloped. While it takes two to three years to build a basic bond in a new residential area, military spouses are more likely to experience social isolation, loneliness, depression due to frequent migration. As most South Korean military families tend to move together to their workplaces, family support, which is known to have a buffering effect on suicide, is likely to continue. As few studies have looked at the link between social bonds and SI of military spouses, it is necessary to identify the relationship between the social disconnectedness and the SI of the military spouses, and to verify the moderating effect of family support.

Method

Data and Sample: A convenient sample of 400 military spouses of long-term officers with more than 5 years of service and non-commissioned officers (NCO) were surveyed. For this study, data from 326 female spouses excluding 74 male spouses, were used in the final analysis.

Measures: A revised version of Social Connectivity Scale (SCS-R, Jeon, 2009) was used to measure social connectedness. SI was measured by five items of Suicide Ideation Scale (SIS, Harlow, et al., 1986). Family support was assessed with a subscale of the Self-report Survey Social Support (SOSS)(Dubow & Ullman, 1989) on family support. The scale has been translated, and modified, and its feasibility has been tested.

Data Analysis: Multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the association between social disconnectedness and SI, and the moderating effect of family support on this relationship was investigated.

Results

The majority of the military rank of the spouses was NCO (70.6%), and more than half of the respondents were between 31 and 40 years old. Results showed that 13.6% of military spouses experienced SI during 2017. Results of the multiple regression showed that military spouses with higher levels of social disconnectedness had a significantly higher levels of SI. Finally, family support had a buffering effect in the relationship between social disconnectedness and SI.

Implication

The main results suggest that family support has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between social disconnectedness and SI. Therefore, the results of this study implies that the South Korean military itself should be involved in developing programs to improve family relations and increasing family support through networking with private institutions.