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

The effects of parent combat exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms can impact families long after deployment. Relationships between family members' emotion regulation, parents' PTSD symptoms, child internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and family interaction behaviors were examined. Parents and children reciprocally impact one another's trajectories of well-being and adjustment, both positively and negatively, across time during the years following parent deployment.