The Contribution of Empathy to the Adjustment of Military Veterans and Their Female Partners

• Published date: 01 April 2021
• Author: Alana Siegel,Rachel Dekel,Vlad Svetlitzky
• Date: 01 April 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12523

A S, R D,  V SBar-Ilan University

The Contribution of Empathy to the Adjustment

of Military Veterans and Their Female Partners

Objective: Empathy plays an important role

in romantic relationships; and thus, this study

examined the contribution of both Israeli male

military veterans’ and their female partners’

cognitive and emotional empathy to both part-

ners’ adjustment dened as posttraumatic stress

symptoms (PTSS) and functioning, comparing

veterans who asked for mental health help and

a comparison group of veterans who did not.

Method: Participantswere 300 Israeli male vet-

erans of the 2006 Israel–Lebanon War and

their female partners, all of whom completed

self-report questionnaires.

Results: Results demonstrated signicant dif-

ferences between the models in the groups.

Among the male veterans in the research group,

higher levels of veterans’ own emotional and

cognitive empathy were associated with higher

levels of their PTSS and lower levels of func-

tioning. In the comparison group, females’

Personal Distressand Fantasy subscales of the

Interpersonal Reactivity Index were positively

associated with their own PTSS, whereas the

Empathic Concern subscale was negatively

associated. Females’ Perspective-Taking served

as a protective factor only for those in the

research group and was negatively associated

with females’ PTSS. In each of the models, the

cross effects (from one partner to the other)

were limited.

The Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social

Work, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel

(dralanasiegel@gmail.com).

Key Words: Dyadic, empathy, functioning, PTSS, secondary

trauma, veterans.

Conclusion: The various facets of empathy and

its dyadic nature appear to play a different role

in the adjustment of each partner in military cou-

ples. The associations among the researchgroup

were stronger than in the comparison group.

Rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

diagnoses have been found to be between 4%

and 20% for Israeli male military veterans.

PTSD comprises symptoms of intrusion, hyper-

arousal, avoidance, and persistent negative

alterations in cognitions and mood (American

Psychiatric Association, 2013). Similar rates of

PTSD have been found among male veterans

in the U.S. Armed Forces who served in Oper-

ation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring

Freedom and subsequently experienced PTSD

as a result of their military service (Institute of

Medicine, 2013; Solomon et al., 1994; Zohar &

Fostick, 2013). In both armies, the majority of

combatants were men (Blum, 2016).

Although limited, research has demonstrated

how the military veteran’s PTSD can nega-

tively affect his wife or partner (e.g., Beck-

ham et al., 1996), a phenomenon known as sec-

ondary traumatization (e.g., Figley, 1986). Sec-

ondary traumatization can occur when those

who are in close contact with a traumatized

person begin to experience emotional distress

and display PTSD-like responses, similar to

the primary trauma survivor’s exhibited PTSD

symptoms (Figley, 1995). Approximately 10%

of the female spouses of veterans who suf-

fer from PTSD have been found to experi-

ence symptoms of secondary traumatization,

otherwise known as secondary traumatic stress

Family Relations 70 (April 2021): 437–451437

DOI:10.1111/fare.12523