Bedroom Sharing, Retention, and Mental Health Among Soldiers Living in U.S. Army Barracks

Little is known about the potential impact of shared versus private bedroom barracks configurations on the quality of life, retention, and mental health of enlisted Soldiers in the U.S. Army. The objective of the present study was to use a sample of enlisted U.S. Army Soldiers from five different installations to assess the differences in behavioral and social health outcomes between respondents in shared versus private bedroom configurations.

The unaccompanied housing survey was administered to unaccompanied housing (UH) barracks residents at 5 different U.S. Army installations from July to November 2022 (n = 8,703). The main risk factor of interest was bedroom sharing (shared versus private), and the main outcomes of interest were intentions to leave the military after the current enlistment period (intent to leave), quality of life, issues experienced with others while living in the barracks, insufficient sleep, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Seven separate multivariable logistic regression models were used to evaluate the associations between bedroom sharing and the outcomes.

Sixty percent of UH respondents reported residing in a private bedroom and 40% reported sharing a bedroom. UH respondents who lived in shared bedrooms had higher adjusted odds of poorer quality of life (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 1.67; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.54-1.82) when compared to respondents in private bedrooms. Respondents who lived in shared bedrooms also had a higher adjusted odds of reporting issues with others while living in the barracks (AOR: 1.47; 95% CI: 1.33-1.63) compared to respondents in private bedrooms. The models analyzing the association between bedroom sharing and intentions to leave, sleep, anxiety, and loneliness were statistically significant, but the lower level of the CI demonstrated that the associations were not clinically meaningful. There was no statistically significant association between bedroom sharing and depression (AOR: 1.09; 95% CI: 0.98-1.22). There were no meaningful differences in the types of issues reported between those who lived in shared and private bedrooms.

Bedroom sharing was associated with greater adverse behavioral and social health outcomes when compared to private bedrooms for a large sample of UH residents in the U.S. Army. Findings indicated private bedrooms may be more beneficial for quality of life, readiness, and reenlistment rates among Army Soldiers residing in the barracks. These findings should be used in the development of future studies aimed at assessing Soldier quality of life, as well as to inform Army Senior Leaders and decision makers during development of prevention and risk mitigation strategies and policies on barracks configurations.