From Front Line to Home Front: A Study of Secondary Traumatization

Abstract

While the long-term effects of combat trauma on veterans have been studied extensively, its impact on veterans' wives has yet to be investigated. This study examined the implications of combat-induced psychopathology--wartime combat stress reaction (CSR) and current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)--in a sample of 205 wives of Israeli combat veterans of the 1982 Lebanon war. Results show that both CSR and PTSD were associated with increased psychiatric symptoms in the wives. In addition, current PTSD was particularly found to contribute to impaired social relations among veterans' wives in a broad range of contexts, from inner feelings of loneliness, through impaired marital and family relations, and extending to the wider social network. Implications of these findings for treatment and further research are discussed.

Long-Term Trajectories and Service Needs for Military Families

“…Compared to the spouses of veterans without PTSD, the spouses of American Vietnam veterans with PTSD reported lower educational attainment, more marital problems, more family violence, less happiness, lower life satisfaction, more demoralization, and more child behavioral problems (Jordan et al 1992). These findings have been replicated in the wives of Israeli war veterans (Solomon et al 1992), Dutch veterans who had deployed on peacekeeping missions (Dirkzwager et al 2005), and Croatian war veterans with PTSD (Zdjelarevic et al 2011). …”

The impact of individual trauma symptoms of deployed soldiers on relationship satisfaction.

“…Other literature has focused on the perspective of the female spouse or partner of war veterans. Solomon et al (1992) found combat stress reaction (CSR) and PTSD in husbands to be related to impaired marital, family, and social relations in wives. More recently, Dirkzwager et al (2005) reported more marital/relationship problems in partners of Dutch military peacekeepers with PTSD than the partners of non-PTSD peacekeepers.…”

Grupo de suporte para mulheres de veteranos de guerra: Um estudo qualitativo

“…De facto, os estudos têm vindo ao longo dos anos a referir que as mulheres dos veteranos de guerra vivem em isolamento (Coughlan & Parkin, 1987;Kulka et al, 1990), sofrem de uma grande solidão e possuem uma vida social pobre (Coughlan & Parkin, 1987;Jordan et al, 1992;Solomon et al, 1992). A literatura indica também que as mulheres de veteranos possuem estratégias de coping limitadas (Kulka et al, 1990;Verbosky & Ryan, 1988), tendo sido, por esse motivo, de grande importância abordar estratégias de resolução de problemas mais adaptativas e eficazes como estratégias de relaxamento e promoção do bem-estar para lidar com os seus próprios sintomas de stress.…”

“…Os resultados apontam para o facto das mulheres considerarem o relacionamento sexual como algo obrigatório e, este dado, vai de encontro à literatura que indica que as mulheres frequentemente apresentam problemas ao nível da intimidade (Coughlan & Parkin, 1987;Jordan et al, 1992;Solomon et al, 1992), pouco desejo sexual (Westerink & Giarratano, 1999) e problemas no funcionamento familiar (Pereira, 2003).…”

“…Koic, Franciskovic, Muzinic-Masle, Dordevic, Vondracek, & Prpic, 2002. Segundo Matsakis (1996), as mulheres são frequentemente sujeitas a violência muitas vezes associada à componente de flashbacks e aproximadamente 25% a 50% das mulheres que participaram em terapia de grupo, para esposas de veteranos com PTSD, foram alvo de violência física sendo este o motivo de 20% das visitas que faziam às urgências hospitalares (Matsakis, 1996;Solomon et al, 1992;Williams, 1980).…”