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Parent–child relationship quality and family transmission of parent posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and child externalizing and internalizing symptoms following fathers' exposure to combat trauma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2016

James Snyder ,
Abigail Gewirtz ,
Lynn Schrepferman ,
Suzanne R. Gird ,
Jamie Quattlebaum ,
Michael R. Pauldine ,
Katie Elish ,
Osnat Zamir  and
Charles Hayes
James Snyder
Affiliation:
Wichita State University
Abigail Gewirtz*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Lynn Schrepferman
Affiliation:
Wichita State University
Suzanne R. Gird
Affiliation:
Wichita State University
Jamie Quattlebaum
Affiliation:
Wichita State University
Michael R. Pauldine
Affiliation:
Wichita State University
Katie Elish
Affiliation:
Wichita State University
Osnat Zamir
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Charles Hayes
Affiliation:
Wichita State University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Abigail Gewirtz, Department of Family Social Science, Institute of Child Development, and Institute of Translational Research in Children's Mental Health, University of Minnesota, 290 McNeal Hall, 1985 Buford Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108; E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

Transactional cascades among child internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and fathers’ and mothers’ posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms were examined in a sample of families with a male parent who had been deployed to recent military conflicts in the Middle East. The role of parents’ positive engagement and coercive interaction with their child, and family members’ emotion regulation were tested as processes linking cascades of parent and child symptoms. A subsample of 183 families with deployed fathers and nondeployed mothers and their 4- to 13-year-old children who participated in a randomized control trial intervention (After Deployment: Adaptive Parenting Tools) were assessed at baseline prior to intervention, and at 12 and 24 months after baseline, using parent reports of their own and their child's symptoms. Parents’ observed behavior during interaction with their children was coded using a multimethod approach at each assessment point. Reciprocal cascades among fathers’ and mothers’ PTSD symptoms, and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms, were observed. Fathers’ and mothers’ positive engagement during parent–child interaction linked their PTSD symptoms and their child's internalizing symptoms. Fathers’ and mothers’ coercive behavior toward their child linked their PTSD symptoms and their child's externalizing symptoms. Each family member's capacity for emotion regulation was associated with his or her adjustment problems at baseline. Implications for intervention, and for research using longitudinal models and a family-systems perspective of co-occurrence and cascades of symptoms across family members are described.

Type
Special Issue Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 28 , Special Issue 4pt1: Mechanisms of Comorbidity, Continuity, and Discontinuity in Psychopathology , November 2016 , pp. 947 - 969
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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