title: Traumatization, Marital Adjustment, and Parenting among Veterans and Their Spouses: A Longitudinal Study of Reciprocal Relations.
abstract: Despite considerable research on secondary traumatization, the ramifications of veterans' and their wives' posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) for the family system remain largely uninvestigated. Beginning to fill this gap, the current study aims to investigate the reciprocal relations between both spouses' PTSS and marital adjustment, and the implications these bear for their parental functioning. Two hundred and twenty-five Israeli veterans (mean age = 58.62, SD = 7.6) from the 1973 Yom Kippur War and their wives (mean age = 58.28, SD = 5.79) were examined at two points in time: 30 (T1) and 35-37 years after the war (T2). Analysis included longitudinal actor-partner interdependence modeling and sequential mediation analyses. The results show that higher PTSS among the wives at T1 predicted higher PTSS among husbands at T2, and vice versa, and predicted their husbands' marital adjustment at T2. Moreover, wives' PTSS at T1 had a significant effect on parental overinvolvement of both parents at T2, but neither their PTSS nor their husbands' PTSS had an impact on positive parenting. In the intrapersonal domain, better marital adjustment at T1 predicted positive parenting among both spouses in subsequent measurement. Interpersonally, wives' lower marital adjustment at T1 predicted husbands' higher parental functioning, but not vice versa. Furthermore, marital adjustment mediated the association between PTSS and positive parenting for both spouses. The results emphasize the detrimental ramifications of war trauma on the interpersonal domains in veterans' families. Hence, both marital and parental consequences of trauma should be considered in clinical family interventions.
authors: Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.|I Core Research Center for Mass Trauma, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors: Yafit
authors: Y
authors: Levin
authors: Psychopathology and Clinical Intervention Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors: Rahel
authors: R
authors: Bachem
authors: Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.|I Core Research Center for Mass Trauma, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors: Zahava
authors: Z
authors: Solomon
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D066067:Military Family / Q000523:psychology*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000523:psychology; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: 
  APIM
  ; APIM; Actor-Partner Interdependence Model; Marital Adjustment; Parenting; Posttraumatic Stress; Secondary Traumatization; War Trauma; adaptación conyugal; crianza; estrés postraumático; trauma producido por la guerra; traumatización secundaria; 二度创伤; 亲职; 创伤后压力; 婚姻调整; 战争创伤