PTSD Symptoms, Disclosure, and Relationship Distress: Explorations of Mediation and Associations Over Time

Emotional numbing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are negatively associated withrelationship satisfaction in combat veterans and their romantic partners. Many speculate that one mech-anism of this association may be decreased disclosure by veterans, but previous studies lacked appropriatedata to test this hypothesis. In a sample of 224 OIF/OEF-era National Guard service members (SMs) and214 of their romantic partners, we measured SMs’ PTSD symptoms. Four to six months later, we assessedboth partners’ reports of SMs’ emotional disclosure and both partners’ relationship satisfaction (83 SMsand 91 partners completed Time 2). In a path analysis, SMs’ emotional numbing was negatively asso-ciated with their later relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, SMs’ emotional numbing was negativelyassociated with both partners’ reports of SMs’ emotional disclosure. Finally, SMs’ emotional numbingexerted significant or nearly significant indirect effects on both partners’ relationship satisfaction viadecreased emotional disclosure. The findings demonstrated the importance of accounting for both part-ners’ perceptions when studying couple functioning in the context of PTSD or treating PTSD via conjointintervention.