What is it about?
This study looks at how symptoms of PTSD in service members are related to parenting in both the service members *AND* the service members' partners after a deployment. We were able to look at data from both members of the couple, collected across 4 separate times. More PTSD symptoms in service members were related to greater problems in "parenting alliance" (how much the couple felt like they were "on the same page" in parenting) and more reports of inconsistent discipline from both service members and partners. More PTSD was also related to more harsh parenting in service members. We also found that most of the association between PTSD and parenting outcomes was explained by the overall couples' relationship - how satisfied they were with each other and how much conflict they had.
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Why is it important?
This work shows that PTSD symptoms in service members don't only affect their own parenting - they affect the parenting of their partners, too. In addition, the study also shows that it might really be that PTSD symptoms affect the couple's relationship, and the couple's relationship then affects each person's parenting. We can't conclude that firmly, though, because we aren't able to distinguish which thing (PTSD, couple problems, or parenting problems) started first, and which followed after that.
Perspectives
I think the most important things that this study show are: 1. PTSD symptoms don't only affect the person who has it - they affect their family members, too. 2. Not everything can be explained by PTSD. In fact, how well the couple was getting along was much more clearly related to parenting than PTSD symptoms were. One thing I think is also important to keep in mind is that these were just PTSD symptoms, not a full-blown diagnosis of PTSD. We also found that service members' depression explained some of their parenting problems (even more so than PTSD in some cases). It's important to realize that service members experience a range of problems, not just PTSD. Finally, most of these families overall reported HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS, with each other AND with their children. We are often quick to highlight the problems that military families experience, but we need to remember that military families, on the whole, are often very resilient. We need more research that helps us understand how they can function so well under conditions that most of us would find extremely stressful.
Keith Renshaw
George Mason University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Post-deployment parenting in military couples: Associations with service members’ PTSD symptoms., Journal of Family Psychology, November 2018, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/fam0000477.
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