Perceived childhood family cohesiveness prior to deployment prospectively moderates risk for war-zone psychopathology in theater among deployed U.S. soldiers.

Abstract

Objective: Several studies have demonstrated robust protective effects of childhood family support and cohesiveness on adult stress-related psychopathology. However, there is little evidence regarding the prospective relationship between the perceived childhood family environment and the in-theater emergence of war-zone stress-related psychological symptoms. The present report is from data collected from the Texas Combat PTSD Risk Project, which aims to identify risk and resilience factors at predeployment that predict the subsequent impact of war-zone stressors in terms of psychological symptom emergence in U.S. soldiers deployed to Iraq.

Method: Soldiers (N = 150) completed a battery of standardized interview and self-report assessments at predeployment, including a measure of perceived childhood family cohesion. Once deployed, soldiers completed monthly web-based self-report assessments of war-zone stressors, posttraumatic stress symptoms, depression, and anxiety.

Results: Consistent with predictions, greater perceived childhood family cohesiveness prior to deployment robustly mitigated subsequent in-theater symptoms. However, contrary to predictions, childhood family cohesiveness did not reliably moderate the linkage between war-zone stressors and in-theater symptoms.

Conclusions: Consistent with a wealth of other evidence demonstrating protective stress resilience effects of childhood family cohesion that extend across the lifespan, the present findings suggest they also extend to the war-zone environment among deployed soldiers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).