Childhood physical and sexual abuse and failure to complete military basic training

Forty percent of a group of 25 military basic trainees discharged from training for mental health reasons admitted histories of childhood physical and/or sexual abuse. In a control group of 25 successful trainees, only 1 gave a history of abuse. Consistent with published studies of childhood abuse in psychiatric patient samples, women in our discharge group were more likely to report abuse histories than men. Perpetrators were usually reported as non-biological male family members of the respective victims. The authors conclude that adult survivors of childhood abuse appear to be less able to tolerate the stresses of military basic training, and discuss the need for identifying and therapeutically assisting these individuals during their training.