Azubuike Camara A T, Crenshaw Alexander O, Monson Candice M
Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada.
Department of Psychological Science, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA 30144, USA.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 May 23;15(6):719. doi: 10.3390/bs15060719.
Although there has been substantial research on post-traumatic stress disorder and its commonly comorbid conditions, the unique associations among these mental health symptoms and relationship adjustment have not been investigated. The purpose of this paper is to extend understanding of the associations among PTSD and relationship adjustment for female and male veterans, as well as to account for the impact of comorbid symptoms of depression and problematic alcohol use in a large sample.
Participants were 2325 ( = 1122 men and 1203 women) veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from a larger study exploring wartime experiences and post-deployment adjustment. Chi-square analyses and regressions tested the associations among mental health symptoms (PTSD symptom severity, depressive symptoms, and problematic alcohol use) and relationship status and adjustment.
For both men and women, those with probable PTSD were less likely to be in an intimate relationship than those without probable PTSD, and those in intimate relationships had lower PTSD symptom severity compared with those not in intimate relationships. However, when accounting for PTSD, depression, and problematic alcohol use simultaneously, only depression emerged as a significant negative predictor of relationship adjustment.
Shared variance among these common post-traumatic mental health conditions comorbidities may be most responsible for PTSD's negative association with relationship adjustment. Unique remaining variance of depression is also negatively associated with relationship adjustment. Treatment implications of these findings for individual and couple therapy post-trauma are provided.
尽管对创伤后应激障碍及其常见的共病情况已有大量研究，但这些心理健康症状与关系调适之间的独特关联尚未得到探讨。本文旨在加深对创伤后应激障碍与男女退伍军人关系调适之间关联的理解，并在一个大样本中考察抑郁共病症状和问题饮酒的影响。
参与者是来自一项探索战时经历和部署后调适情况的更大规模研究中的2325名伊拉克和阿富汗战争退伍军人（男性1122名，女性1203名）。卡方分析和回归分析检验了心理健康症状（创伤后应激障碍症状严重程度、抑郁症状和问题饮酒）与关系状况及调适之间的关联。
对于男性和女性而言，患有创伤后应激障碍的人比未患创伤后应激障碍的人处于亲密关系中的可能性更低，并且处于亲密关系中的人相比未处于亲密关系中的人创伤后应激障碍症状严重程度更低。然而，当同时考虑创伤后应激障碍、抑郁和问题饮酒时，只有抑郁成为关系调适的显著负向预测因素。
这些常见的创伤后心理健康状况共病之间的共同方差可能是创伤后应激障碍与关系调适负向关联的主要原因。抑郁独特的剩余方差也与关系调适呈负相关。本文提供了这些研究结果对创伤后个体和夫妻治疗的启示。
