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Relationships between soldiers' PTSD symptoms and spousal communication during deployment
Author(s) -
Carter Sarah,
Loew Benjamin,
Allen Elizabeth,
Stanley Scott,
Rhoades Galena,
Markman Howard
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of traumatic stress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.259
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1573-6598
pISSN - 0894-9867
DOI - 10.1002/jts.20649
Subject(s) - software deployment , psychology , instant messaging , posttraumatic stress , clinical psychology , social support , phone , military personnel , military deployment , psychiatry , modalities , medicine , social psychology , computer science , computer network , linguistics , philosophy , social science , sociology , political science , law , operating system
Social support, including support from spouses, may buffer against posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The current study assessed whether the frequency of spousal communication during a recent deployment, a potentially important source of support for soldiers, was related to postdeployment PTSD symptoms. Data came from 193 married male Army soldiers who returned from military deployment within the past year. For communication modalities conceptualized as delayed (i.e., letters, care packages, and e‐mails), greater spousal communication frequency during deployment was associated with lower postdeployment PTSD symptom scores, but only at higher levels of marital satisfaction ( p = .009). At lower marital satisfaction, more delayed spousal communication during deployment was associated with more PTSD symptoms ( p = .042). For communication modalities conceptualized as interactive (i.e., phone calls, instant messaging, instant messaging with video), the same general direction of effects was seen, but the interaction between communication frequency and marital satisfaction predicting PTSD symptoms did not reach significance.