Parenting Behaviors and PTSD Symptoms Predict Child Psychosocial Problems and Parenting Satisfaction in a Sample of U.S. Veterans and Service Members

Abstract: With the relatively recent emphasis on providing family-centered care at the Veterans HealthAdministration (VHA), there is growing interest in understanding how mental health disorders suchas posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may impact and be impacted by parent-child functioning inveteran families. However, basic and intervention research on the impact of PTSD and parentingbehaviors on parent-child functioning among recent veterans is lacking. Utilizing the responses of111 veterans with children ages 3–18 to a Web-based survey, the current study used hierarchicallinear regression to examine whether it is PTSD symptoms, parenting behaviors, or both that bestexplain two components of parent-child functioning: parenting satisfaction and parent-reportedchild psychosocial problems. Results indicated that parenting behaviors uniquely and significantlyexplained variance in parenting satisfaction and child psychosocial problems above and beyond thecontributions of PTSD symptoms and demographics. PTSD symptoms explained greater variance inchild psychosocial problems and less variance in parenting satisfaction relative to positive parentingbehaviors. In light of interest in scaling up parenting resources for veterans, results indicate thatoffering resources to improve positive parenting and address the influence of PTSD on parent-childfunctioning throughout several levels of the VHA spectrum of care may be advantageous.