Partners’ Attributions for Service Members’ Symptoms of Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

The association of service members’ combat-related PTSD with partners’ distress is weaker when spouses/partners believe that service members experienced more traumatic events during deployment. Also, when simultaneously examining partners’ perceptions of all PTSD symptoms, perceptions of re-experiencing symptoms (the symptoms most obviously connected to traumatic events) are significantly, negatively related to distress in partners. These findings are consistent with the notion that partners may be less distressed if they make external, rather than internal, attributions for service members’ symptoms. The present study explicitly tests this possibility. Civilian wives of active duty service members completed measures regarding their own marital satisfaction, their perceptions of service members’ combat exposure during deployments, their perceptions of service members’ symptoms of PTSD, and their attributions for those symptoms. External attributions were significantly, positively associated with perceptions of combat exposure (rp = .31) and re-experiencing symptoms (β = .33) and significantly, negatively associated with perceptions of numbing/withdrawal symptoms (rp = −.22). In contrast, internal attributions were significantly, negatively associated with perceptions of re-experiencing symptoms (β = −.18) and significantly, positively associated with perceptions of numbing/withdrawal symptoms (β = .46). Internal attributions significantly moderated the negative association of PTSD symptoms with marital satisfaction, such that the association strengthened as internal attributions increased. These findings are the first explicit support for an attributional understanding of distress in partners of combat veterans. Interventions that alter partners’ attributions may improve marital functioning.

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

“…It is possible that support provision to someone in more distress may lead to a stronger sense of altruism and feeling needed (Post, ). Alternatively, partners of SM/Vs with higher level of symptoms may be more likely to attribute an SM/V's need for support to PTSD symptoms rather than more internal factors (e.g., an SM/V's personality), which has been linked to reduced distress in partners (e.g., Renshaw, Allen, Carter, Markman, & Stanley, ). Importantly, the effects of PTSD symptoms on support provision and partner affect may vary based on the SM/V's constellation of PTSD symptoms.…”

Partner accommodation in posttraumatic stress disorder: Initial testing of the Significant Others’ Responses to Trauma Scale (SORTS)

“…The finding that accommodation was uncorrelated with patients' perceptions of support from partners suggests that patients may perceive some behaviors as reflecting care and concern but others as unsupportive, particularly if they occur in tandem with partner resentment or relationship distress. Lastly, given the importance of partners' attributions for patients' PTSD-related behaviors (Renshaw, Allen, Carter, Markman, & Stanley, 2014), it would be useful to examine the role of partner cognitions in predicting accommodative behaviors and the resulting associations with partners' mental health.…”

PREP for Strong Bonds: A Review of Outcomes from a Randomized Clinical Trial

“…As part of the larger study, we have assessed several other constructs including: child and family functioning (e.g., parenting alliance), mental health functioning (e.g., PTSD, global distress), deployment variables (e.g., communication during deployment), and Army specific variables (e.g., use of services, exposure to combat). Analyses with these and other variables have been included in our basic science papers emerging from these data (e.g., Bergmann et al, 2014; Renshaw et al, 2014; Allen et al, 2011a), but have not yet been evaluated as program outcomes or moderators/predictors of program effects.…”