A Daily Diary Study of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Romantic Partner Accommodation

Abstract

Little is known about the role of romantic partner symptom accommodation in PTSD symptom maintenance. To explore the bidirectional associations of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and romantic partner symptom accommodation over time, military servicemen (n = 64) with symptoms of PTSD and their co-habiting heterosexual civilian romantic partners (n = 64) completed a 2-week daily diary study. Cross-lagged, autoregressive models assessed the stability of men’s PTSD symptoms and partners’ accommodation, as well as the prospective associations of earlier PTSD symptoms with later accommodation and vice versa. Analyses used Bayesian estimation to provide point estimates (b) and Credible Intervals (CIs). In all models, PTSD symptoms (total and individual clusters) were highly stable (b = 0.91; CI: 0.88–0.95), and accommodation was moderately stable (b = 0.48; CI: 0.40–0.54). In all models, earlier PTSD symptoms (total and clusters) were significantly, positively associated with later accommodation (b = 0.04; CI: 0.02–0.07). In contrast, earlier accommodation was significantly associated only with later situational avoidance (b = 0.02; CI: 0.00–0.07). Thus, PTSD symptoms may lead to subsequent accommodating behaviors in romantic partners, but partner accommodation seems to contribute only to survivors’ future situational avoidance symptoms. The findings reinforce the notion that PTSD symptoms have an impact on relationship behaviors, and that accommodation from partners may sustain avoidant behaviors in particular. Clinicians should attend to romantic partners’ accommodating behaviors when working with survivors.

Daily Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Accommodation and Relationship Functioning in Military Couples

“…Items selected for the abbreviated version and their individual item-means are shown in Table 1. As reported elsewhere, the daily SORTS shows good convergent validity with the baseline version of the SORTS (converted r = .57), good construct validity regarding associations with veterans' PTSD symptoms, and excellent within-person (R C = .90) and between-person reliability (R 1F = .88) (Campbell et al, 2017). Of note, the ICC for the daily SORTS was .41, suggesting that 41% of daily accommodating behaviors are attributable to differences between partners (Bolger & Laurenceau, 2013).…”

“…Of course, any PTSD‐focused treatments would focus primarily on PTSD symptoms. Accommodation has been shown to have negative effects on such symptoms, as well (Campbell et al., ). Our current findings add another layer of potential effects to consider when addressing accommodation in couples in which one member suffers from PTSD.…”

“…Indeed, prior research has demonstrated that short‐term recall is more accurate than long‐term recall (Robinson & Clore, ). To date, only one other study has assessed accommodation on a daily basis (Campbell et al., ), and this study did not explore the association of accommodation with relationship outcomes.…”

“…Accommodation is defined as modifying activities, emotional responses, or behaviors in response to another's PTSD symptoms, to alleviate or prevent PTSD-related or relationship distress (Fredman, Vorstenbosch, Wagner, Macdonald, & Monson, 2014). It is hypothesized to have the potential to maintain PTSD symptoms, with recent evidence that it is associated with maintenance of situational avoidance over time (Campbell, Renshaw, Kashdan, Curby, & Carter, 2017). Accommodation has other likely effects, as well.…”

Supporting a Spouse With Military Posttraumatic Stress: Daily Associations With Partners’ Affect

“…A detailed description of recruitment and procedures can be found in Campbell, Renshaw, Kashdan, Curby, and Carter (). From April 2014 to February 2015, SM/Vs and partners were recruited via online postings on military forums, social media groups, and listservs.…”