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The contribution of captivity and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to marital adjustment of Israeli couples

Bar Ilan University, dekell{at}mail.biu.ac.il

Guy Enoch

University of Haifa

Zahava Solomon

Tel Aviv University

This study examined marital adjustment and relations among couples where husbands had been a prisoner-of-war (i.e., POW) and couples where husbands were veterans, but not POWs. The study also examined the relative contribution of the husband's post-traumatic stress disorder (i.e., PTSD) and POW experience to both spouses' marital adjustment. Results from 157 couples (85 former POWs and spouses as well as 72 veterans but not POWs and their spouses as controls) indicated that former POW couples had lower marital adjustment, sexual satisfaction, and self-disclosure, and higher verbal abuse than the control couples. Captivity indirectly influenced the husband's marital adjustment through his PTSD. In turn, PTSD had an indirect effect on both spouses' marital adjustment, fully mediated through marital relations variables.

Key Words: marital adjustment • POWs • PTSD • self-disclosure • sexual satisfaction • verbal and physical aggression

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