Parental Reflectiveness,Posttraumatic Symptoms and Alcohol Use Disorder among Israeli Combat-Veteran Fathers

Combat veterans are highly prone to develop Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) following their release from duty, presumably due to high prevalence of prolonged aversive emotional symptoms such as Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms (PTSS). Parental Reflective Functions (PRF) and Parental Sense of Competence (PSOC) have been identified as key protective factors in predicting maternal functioning and well-being, yet little is known of its role among fathers, let alone combat veteran fathers. In this study we explored whether PRF and PSOC moderated the association between PTSS and AUD among 189 Israel Defense Forces (IDF) male combat veterans. Participants filled out validated measures assessing PTSS, PRF, PSOC and AUD. Results indicated that PTSS, as well as PRF’s “interest and curiosity regarding the child’s mental states” subscale, were positively correlated to AUD. In addition, PRF’s “certainty about child mental states” subscale moderated the association between PTSS and AUD, so that PTSS and AUD were significantly correlated for participants who reported average or high levels of certainty about their child’s mental states. This finding may imply that intrusive mentalizing (“hypermentalizing”) by veteran fathers may facilitate the association between PTSS and AUD, presumably by constituting a maladaptive mechanism for coping with the stressful uncertainty embedded in the parent–child relationship.

     

Gender differences in posttraumatic stress symptoms among former prisoners of wars’ adult offspring

Objectives: The lifetime risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and PTSD symptoms (PTSS) among primary and secondary female victims is known to be higher than for male. This study assessed gender differences in PTSS among former prisoners of war’s (ex-POWs) adult offspring and the associations with their fathers’ and mothers’ PTSS and the parental bonding with them.

Design: A correlative study.

Methods: A sample of 79 Israeli father–mother-offspring ex-POW triads from the 1973 Yom Kippur War completed self-report measures. Fathers were assessed in 2008, mothers were assessed in 2011 and their adult offspring took part in 2014.

Results: Sons of ex-POWs reported higher levels of PTSS as compared to daughters of ex-POWs. However, fathers’ PTSS was positively related to daughters’ PTSS, but not significantly related to sons’ PTSS. Daughters’ PTSS were also associated with both parents’ lower care and higher overprotection, while sons’ PTSS were associated only with fathers’ lower care and higher overprotection.

Conclusions: Among adult offspring of ex-POWs, sons are at greater risk for psychological distress in the form of PTSS. Nevertheless, the intergenerational transmission of captivity-related PTSS from both fathers and spouses to their offspring is more prominent among daughters of ex-POWs.     

Coping strategies of former prisoners of war mediate the intergenerational transmission of posttraumatic stress symptoms

Objectives: Certain coping strategies, characterized by emotional coping or disengagement/ avoidance, have been linked to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and PTSD symptoms (PTSS). However, the role of primary trauma victims’ coping strategies in the intergenerational transmission of PTSS is still lacking. This prospective study assessed the mediating role of former prisoners of war’s (ex-POWs) coping strategies in the associations between ex-POWs’ PTSS and their adult offspring’s secondary PTSS in relation to their fathers’ captivity and psychiatric symptomatology.

Design: A correlational, prospective study.

Method: A sample from the 1973 Yom Kippur War composed of 79 Israeli ex-POW father-offspring dyads completed self-report measures. Fathers were assessed in 2001 and 2008, and their adult offspring participated in 2014.

Results: ex-POWs’ problem-focused coping strategies of active coping and planning, as well as disengagement-oriented coping strategies of alcohol and substance use and venting of emotions, were negatively associated with offspring’s PTSS and psychiatric symptomatology. Importantly, ex-POWs’ venting of emotions mediated the link between ex-POWs’ PTSS and their offspring’s secondary PTSS.

Conclusions: Ex-POWs with PTSS might expose their offspring to dysregulated mood, behaviors, and cognitions. Special awareness should be given to the venting of emotions coping style as possible mechanism for the intergenerational transmission of captivity-related PTSS.     

Functional connectivity dynamics during film viewing reveal common networks for different emotional experiences

Recent theoretical and empirical work has highlighted the role of domain-general, large-scale brain networks in generating emotional experiences. These networks are hypothesized to process aspects of emotional experiences that are not unique to a specific emotional category (e.g., “sadness,” “happiness”), but rather that generalize across categories. In this article, we examined the dynamic interactions (i.e., changing cohesiveness) between specific domain-general networks across time while participants experienced various instances of sadness, fear, and anger. We used a novel method for probing the network connectivity dynamics between two salience networks and three amygdala-based networks. We hypothesized, and found, that the functional connectivity between these networks covaried with the intensity of different emotional experiences. Stronger connectivity between the dorsal salience network and the medial amygdala network was associated with more intense ratings of emotional experience across six different instances of the three emotion categories examined. Also, stronger connectivity between the dorsal salience network and the ventrolateral amygdala network was associated with more intense ratings of emotional experience across five out of the six different instances. Our findings demonstrate that a variety of emotional experiences are associated with dynamic interactions of domain-general neural systems.     

Threat perception in the chameleon (Chamaeleo chameleon): evidence for lateralized eye use

Chameleons are arboreal lizards with highly independent, large amplitude eye movements. In response to an approaching threat, a chameleon on a vertical pole moves so as to keep itself away from the threat. In so doing, it shifts between monocular and binocular scanning of the threat and of the environment. We analyzed eye movements in the Common chameleon, Chamaeleo chameleon, during avoidance response for lateralization, that is, asymmetry at the functional/behavioral levels. The chameleons were exposed to a threat, approaching horizontally from clockwise or anti-clockwise directions, and that could be viewed monocularly or binocularly. Our results show three broad patterns of eye use, as determined by durations spent viewing the threat and by frequency of eye shifts. Under binocular viewing, two of the patterns were found to be both side dependent, that is, lateralized and role dependent ("leading" or "following"). However, under monocular viewing, no such lateralization was detected. We discuss these findings in light of the situation not uncommon in vertebrates, of independent eye movements and a high degree of optic nerve decussation and that lateralization may well occur in organisms that are regularly exposed to critical stimuli from all spatial directions. We point to the need of further investigating lateralization at fine behavioral levels.     

Secondary traumatization among former prisoners of wars' adult children: the mediating role of parental bonding

Background and Objectives: The aversive impact of combat and parents' combat-induced posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on young children has been examined in a few studies. However, the long-term toll of war captivity on secondary traumatization (ST) and the parental bonding of adult children remain unknown. This study examined ST symptoms and parental bonding among adult children of former prisoners of war (ex-POWs' children) that were compared to adult children of comparable veterans (controls' children). Furthermore, we examined the mediating role of parental bonding and exposure to stress in the association between group and ST symptoms. Design: A correlative, cross-sectional study. Methods: Participants were Israeli ex-POWs' children (N = 98) and controls' children (N = 90), whose fathers fought in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. All participants completed a battery of self-reported questionnaires. Results: Ex-POWs' children reported a higher number of ST symptoms and lower levels of fathers' care, as compared to controls' children. Importantly, exposure to stress stemming from fathers' behaviors and fathers' care was found to mediate the association between research group and ST. Conclusions: Forty years after the war ended, the experience of living with ex-POWs is associated with ex-POWs' children psychological outcome.     

Coping,mastery, stress appraisals,mental preparation,and unit cohesion predicting distress and performance: a longitudinal study of soldiers undertaking evacuation tasks

Abstract

The study aimed to assess the associations of psychological and military variables with distress and performance evaluation among 168 Israeli soldiers who took part in evacuating fellow Israeli civilians in the summer of 2005 during the disengagement from Gaza. Coping, mastery, stress appraisals, mental preparation, unit cohesion, and psychological distress were assessed at T1, one to two weeks before the disengagement. A sub-sample of 68 of the 168 soldiers completed the distress measure again at T2, eight to nine weeks after T1, together with performance evaluation of the disengagement task. The main findings indicated positive associations of T1 distress with high T1 emotion-focused coping, and negative associations with education and T1 mastery. Emotion-focused coping at T1 predicted low performance evaluation at T2, while mental preparation at T1 predicted high performance evaluation at T2. Stress appraisals at T1 were found to be an important mediator of the associations of T1 coping, mastery, unit cohesion, and mental preparation with T1 distress. Similar mediator results were found for T2 performance evaluation.     

Convincing Yourself to Care About Others: An Intervention for Enhancing Benevolence Values

To study value change, this research presents an intervention with multiple exercises designed to instigate change through both effortful and automatic routes. Aiming to increase the importance attributed to benevolence values, which reflect the motivation to help and care for others, the intervention combines three mechanisms for value change (self‐persuasion, consistency‐maintenance, and priming). In three experiments, 142 undergraduates (67% male, ages 19–26) participated in an intervention emphasizing the importance of either helping others (benevolence condition) or recognizing flexibility in personality (control condition). We measured the importance of benevolence values before and after the task. In Experiment 1, the intervention increased U.S. participants' benevolence values. In Experiment 2, we replicated these effects in a different culture (Israel) and also showed that by enhancing benevolence values, the intervention increased participants' willingness to volunteer to help others. Experiment 3 showed that the increases in the importance of benevolence values lasted at least 4 weeks. Our results provide evidence that value change does not require fictitious feedback or information about social norms, but can occur through a 30‐min intervention that evokes both effortful and automatic processes.     

Integrating Content and Structure Aspects of the Self: Traits,Values, and Self‐Improvement

Research on the structure of the self has mostly developed separately from research on its content. Taking an integrative approach, we studied two structural aspects of the self associated with self‐improvement—self‐discrepancies and perceived mutability—by focusing on two content areas, traits and values. In Studies 1A–C, 337 students (61% female) reported self‐discrepancies in values and traits, with the finding that self‐discrepancies in values are smaller than in traits. In Study 2 (80 students, 41% female), we experimentally induced either high or low mutability and measured perceived mutability of traits and values. We found that values are perceived as less mutable than traits. In Study 3, 99 high school students (60% female) reported their values, traits, and the extent to which they wish to change them. We found that values predict the wish to change traits, whereas traits do not predict the wish to change values. In Study 4, 172 students (47.7% female) were assigned to one of four experimental conditions in which they received feedback denoting either uniqueness or similarity to others, on either their values or their traits. The results indicated that feedback that one's values (but not traits) are unique affected self‐esteem. Integrating between theories of content and structure of the self can contribute to the development of both.     

Overriding “Doing Wrong” and “Not Doing Right”: Validation of the Dispositional Self-Control Scale (DSC)

We present the Dispositional Self-Control (DSC) Scale, which reflects individuals’ tendency to override 2 types of temptations, termed doing wrong and not doing right. We report a series of 5 studies designed to test the reliability and validity of the scale. As hypothesized, high DSC predicts distant future orientation and low DSC predicts deviant behaviors such as aggression, alcohol misuse, and aberrant driving. DSC also predicts task performance among resource-depleted participants. Taken together, these findings suggest that the DSC Scale could be a useful tool toward further understanding the role of personality in overcoming self-control challenges.