A new study suggests teens in military families whose relatives have been deployed to war zones are more likely to report depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts.
University of Southern California researchers focused their research on seventh, ninth and eleventh graders, and found that those with military connections experience more sadness or hopelessness.
Using data from the 2011 California Healthy Kids Survey, they looked at how often teenagers reported feeling sad or hopeless.
Of the respondents, more than 13 percent were children of military parents. Those students were more likely to report symptoms of depression than those whose parents were not deployed in the U.S. military.
Researchers say the findings show there needs to be improved depression screening for military kids, especially during wartime.