An evaluation of the relationships between financial hardship, mental health, and service use among US military personnel.

Financial hardship has been shown to adversely affect the mental health of military personnel. Previous non-military studies have found that the relationship between financial hardship and mental health may be bidirectional, but this has not been established among military personnel. Further, we are unaware of any military studies that have examined potential moderators of these relationships. Using two waves of data collected 12 months apart (n = 2655 US soldiers), we examined the bidirectional relationship between financial hardship and mental health (depression and suicide risk) using cross-lagged panel models (CLPMs). Multigroup CLPMs were used to examine whether mental health service use and financial service use functioned as moderators. The interpretation of results was guided by the social selection and social drift hypotheses. Findings did not support a relationship between initial financial hardship and subsequent depression or suicide risk. However, both depression and suicide risk were significantly related to financial hardship over time. Moderation analyses revealed that whereas suicide risk was associated with more financial hardship among non-users of mental health services, mental health service use did not moderate the relationship between depression and financial hardship. However, use of financial services was not found to moderate any of the relationships. Our findings lend support to the social drift hypothesis, but not the social causation hypothesis and suggest that the use of mental health services may buffer against financial hardship. More research using longer timeframes, more detailed measures of financial service use, and other mental health measures is needed to confirm our findings.