Psychological distress and communication quality in military couples after deployment to war

  • Zamir, O., Gewirtz, A. H., Cheng, C. H., Zhang, N., & Lavee, Y. (2020). Psychological distress and communication quality in military couples after deployment to war. Journal of Family Psychology, 34(4), 383-391. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000589
  • This study examined the association between psychological distress (i.e., posttraumatic stress, depressive, and anxiety symptoms) and constructive communication (e.g., verbal aggression, negative tone, empathy, humor, conflict) among military couples after the service member returned from deployment. 160 couples from the After Deployment Adaptive Parenting Tools (ADAPT) program completed surveys at two time points (baseline and one-year follow-up) and participated in a constructive communication assessment, which consisted of a conflict discussion and resolution task. Researchers postulated that higher levels of psychological distress in service members and their partners would be associated with lower levels of constructive communication over time for themselves and their partners. The results showed that higher levels of psychological distress predicted lower levels of constructive communication in service members one year later; this association was not found for their civilian spouses.

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Research summaries convey terminology used by the scientists who authored the original research article; some terminology may not align with the federal government's mandated language for certain constructs.

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