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Previous studies show that short men are more likely to experience depression after joining the military. However, new findings suggest something different. Researchers found that both short and tall men in the military are more likely to suffer depression than their average-height counterparts.

Researchers Valery Krupnik and Mariya Cherkasova discovered that shorter and taller men were one standard deviation more likely to experience depression.

The latest study involved 196 men who had been diagnosed with depression. All participants were active duty personnel and were diagnosed by health providers from mental health clinics.

Researchers divided the participants into three groups based on height. They found that participants in the average height group were least likely to suffer depressive symptoms.

However, researchers did not find a correlation between height and anxiety diagnoses.

"To our knowledge, there are no preventive programs specifically targeting shorter or taller boys," researchers wrote in the study. "We believe that such programs implemented in school could be beneficial for them in developing higher resilience to the pressure of low social status based on body height."

The findings were published Wednesday in the journal SAGE Open.