University Research Report: Trauma and Marital Satisfaction Study

This research report analyzes a study by Weinberg et al. (2018) investigating the relationship between trauma and marital satisfaction among survivors of terror attacks and their spouses. The study aimed to understand the psychological effects of trauma, including PTSD, depression, and anxiety, on marital life. Researchers surveyed 105 married couples, finding that both survivors and their spouses experienced negative impacts, including hyper-arousal, numbing, and avoidance. The study revealed the 'actor effect,' where the survivor's stress affected the spouse, and vice versa, disrupting intimacy. The report discusses the study's findings, its alignment with hypotheses, and its limitations, emphasizing the need for a broader understanding of the psychosocial aspects of trauma's impact on relationships. The report also highlights the study's implications for future research and clinical practices.

RUNNING HEAD: RESEARCH REPORT
RESEARCH REPORT
Name of Student
Name of University
Author note

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Response to question 3
The overall aim of the study done by Michael Weinberg, Avi Besser, Virgil Zeigler-
Hill and Yuval Neria conducted the research in 2017, was to understand the study the
psychological relationships between trauma and its effect on the marital life of sufferers
which is interesting as because trauma leaves complex effect on rest of life. The researchers
aim to understand various relationships between trauma related symptoms as revealed by the
sufferers and as perceived by the spouses. The researchers aim to comprehend the effect of
terror attacks leave a long term impact on social lives of sufferers and effect of traumatic
situation on marital lives of sufferers (Weinberg et al., 2018). .
The authors explore the research questions by doing a background research on the
topic chosen. In the background – various sociocultural, psychosocial effects of post-
traumatic stress disorders in the victims has been explored deeply and how it results in
marital life disruptions has been studied intricately. After finding the literature gap, it recruits
the methods in order to analyze and explore the aforementioned research problem further.
Against all the odds, the 105 married couples from Israel who were victimized in the terrorist
attacks were included and they responded to the survey items. The mental health
consequences were then analyzed.
All these couples were intimate 3 years prior to the attack and were educated. The
study through the survey found out, these survivors has hyper-arousal, numbing and
avoidance due to re-experiencing of trauma through memories. The couples suffered from
depressive and anxiety symptoms after the terror and this disrupted their intimacy in marital
life. While most of the couples revealed extensive level of PTSD affection – the dyadic
associations in relation to marital satisfaction was found to be linked to trauma-related PTSD
symptoms as experienced by survivors and spouses (Jenness et al., 2016). The study found an

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interesting fact known as the ‘actor effect’. The stress and anxiety of the sufferer made the
spouse sad and vice versa.
The findings are in line with the hypotheses of the research.
Although the study set out to understand the negative relationship of trauma related
effects between the spouse and the sufferer but as it stands out, the partners were equally
affected by the anxiety and depression due to ‘actor effect’.
Response to question 4:
The study set out to understand the effect of the terror related trauma on the marital
relationship of the sufferer and their spouses. The findings of the study were broad as
compared to the research questions and research hypotheses the study framed in the
beginning. While the study succeeds in finding out the intricacies of the behavioral and mood
patterns of the sufferers and their wives through ‘actor effect’ and ‘partner effects’ – the
research understanding gets broader and details as the discussion proceeds. The effect of
terror has been revealed to have different effects in different individuals but the sufferer and
their spouse suffered as a ‘couple’ more than their individual symptoms of PTSD (Birkeland
& Heir, 2017). The findings has done justice to the hypotheses in a rational way.
As it seems from the introduction, background study and aim of the research that the
researchers focused more on the psychological aspects of PTSD in a marital scenario rather
than the psychosocial scenario (Glad et al., 2016). If the study researchers would have
attempted to understand the minute and intricate underpinnings of the social situations
existing between the couples and related to their background – could have taken the research
problem understanding to a very unique level but the researchers were very rigid in
understanding the results rather than being flexible to analyze the results from a multi
perspective manner.

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It is still very elusive that whether the participants were affected in a much
differentiated way from the trauma received in the past and does it affected their intimacy at
any level. While the dyads are mentioned but not explained well – hence it still remains a
question what whether male partners are more affected or the females and whichever the way
is – how did they try to cope with their PTSD symptoms as a couple.
The results can be transferred to future research settings for confirmation and higher
academic practices.

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References
Birkeland, M. S., & Heir, T. (2017). Making connections: exploring the centrality of
posttraumatic stress symptoms and covariates after a terrorist attack. European journal
of psychotraumatology, 8(sup3), 1333387.
Glad, K. A., Jensen, T. K., Hafstad, G. S., & Dyb, G. (2016). Posttraumatic stress disorder
and exposure to trauma reminders after a terrorist attack. Journal of Trauma &
Dissociation, 17(4), 435-447.
Jenness, J. L., Jager‐Hyman, S., Heleniak, C., Beck, A. T., Sheridan, M. A., & McLaughlin,
K. A. (2016). Catastrophizing, rumination, and reappraisal prospectively predict
adolescent PTSD symptom onset following a terrorist attack. Depression and
anxiety, 33(11), 1039-1047.
Weinberg, M., Besser, A., Zeigler-Hill, V., & Neria, Y. (2018). Marital satisfaction and
trauma-related symptoms among injured survivors of terror attacks and their
spouses. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 35(3), 395-407.