Traumatization, Marital Adjustment, and Parenting among Veterans and Their Spouses: A Longitudinal Study of Reciprocal Relations.

Despite considerable research on secondary traumatization, the ramifications of veterans' and their wives' posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) for the family system remain largely uninvestigated. Beginning to fill this gap, the current study aims to investigate the reciprocal relations between both spouses' PTSS and marital adjustment, and the implications these bear for their parental functioning. Two hundred and twenty-five Israeli veterans (mean age = 58.62, SD = 7.6) from the 1973 Yom Kippur War and their wives (mean age = 58.28, SD = 5.79) were examined at two points in time: 30 (T1) and 35-37 years after the war (T2). Analysis included longitudinal actor-partner interdependence modeling and sequential mediation analyses. The results show that higher PTSS among the wives at T1 predicted higher PTSS among husbands at T2, and vice versa, and predicted their husbands' marital adjustment at T2. Moreover, wives' PTSS at T1 had a significant effect on parental overinvolvement of both parents at T2, but neither their PTSS nor their husbands' PTSS had an impact on positive parenting. In the intrapersonal domain, better marital adjustment at T1 predicted positive parenting among both spouses in subsequent measurement. Interpersonally, wives' lower marital adjustment at T1 predicted husbands' higher parental functioning, but not vice versa. Furthermore, marital adjustment mediated the association between PTSS and positive parenting for both spouses. The results emphasize the detrimental ramifications of war trauma on the interpersonal domains in veterans' families. Hence, both marital and parental consequences of trauma should be considered in clinical family interventions.

In the face of horror - secondary traumatisation and mental distress in employees and volunteers at national socialism related memorial sites.

Background: Employees and volunteers at national socialism related memorial sites in Germany (MemoS) are confronted with severely aversive documents of German history on a regular basis.Objective: Enhance knowledge on mental health in MemoS.Method: In an online study, mental distress, secondary traumatisation as well as potential risk and protective factors were assessed in MemoS and a control group.Results: 40.9% of MemoS reported at least one kind of secondary traumatic event experienced in the context of their work. Depression and general mental distress were higher in the MemoS than in controls, and symptoms of secondary traumatisation were significantly more common.Conclusions: Our results give clear evidence for mental distress and symptoms of secondary traumatisation in the MemoS group. This finding shows secondary traumatisation symptoms based on documents of atrocities that happened more than 70 years ago. Further, the high mental burden in the MemoS suggests the necessity of supervision for people dedicating their work life to assuring remembrance of the crimes of the Nazi era.

first systematic examination of mental health and trauma in employees and volunteers at national socialism related memorial sites in Germany.mental distress and secondary traumatisation symptom load significantly higher in people working at the memorial sites than in controls.findings indicate a need for support of the people working at the memorial sites.