Resilience Disrupted (Mental Health of Marines)

U.S. Naval Institute ^ | November 2025 | Abby L. Kienle

[Retain Mike]

Now that the older members of the Generation Z cohort have reached their mid-20s, stark differences in their mental health, resilience, and socioemotional development are evident when compared with their Millennial counterparts. Many troubling trends have been measured, including:

• A 188 percent increase in emergency room visits for self-harm by girls, and 48 percent for boys, since 2010.

• A 167 percent increase in suicide rates for adolescent girls, and a 91 percent increase for adolescent boys, since 2010, with no abatement,

• A rise in depression during the 2010s so significant that it could explain nearly all suicide mortality among those under 25. Major depression has risen 145 percent for girls and 161 percent for boys.

While these statistics describe the civilian population, they are closely matched by populations throughout the Department of Defense, including the Marine Corps. In 2022, 33.5 percent of hospitalizations in all active-duty components were attributed to mental health disorders.

Most Marines in a high-operational-tempo unit train on a consistent and rotating basis that causes chronic high stress, mental health turbulence, burnout, and low motivation. These issues may not be new, but young warfighters’ tolerance threshold seems substantially lower than that of their Millennial and Generation X counterparts. A study published in late 2021 found that, “The psychological well-being of adolescents around the world began to decline after 2012, in conjunction with the rise of smartphone access and increased internet use.”

In my line of work, it is not uncommon to see a Marine experience extreme mental distress in preparation for routine Marine Corps functions. Individual Marines often have overwhelming anxiety surrounding standard tasks. They also request mental health accommodations for reasons that seem trivial. This illustrates that this generation’s stress threshold seems much lower than that of generations past.

[Retain Mike]

An article by someone who reads the research and operates in the trenches. It seems they shouldn’t be able to get through basic. But as a corporal in the Desert Storm era my younger son wondered the same. He spent one evening on suicide watch.

I was Navy in Vietnam and never saw problems like this on our ship or among the guys who wore the greens and left the ship on patrol.