Family of Origin Stress, Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, and Resource Loss for Couples During COVID-19: A Longitudinal Analysis

Abstract

Few studies have addressed the influence of mass stressors in the context of couple relationships; therefore, understanding how unique constraints and stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic influenced mental health distress and, in turn, loss in couple relationships is valuable. Because resource loss has been defined as the primary agent of stress, examining factors that may have shaped the degree of resource loss incurred during the pandemic will be vital. Previous research implies that early life adversity may be a form of resource loss and is linked to poorer mental health and relational outcomes in adulthood. Additionally, the stress sensitization hypothesis posits that childhood adversity may prime individuals to have a lower threshold for later life stress. As such, this study was designed to examine how family of origin stress (reported at the outset of pandemic related shutdowns in the US in April 2020) associated with posttraumatic stress (PTSS) 3 months later (July 2020) to, in turn, predict variation in resource losses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic reported 3 months later (October 2020) in 535 cisgender, heterosexual couples. Findings showed that individual’s higher family of origin stress predicted higher levels of their own PTSS at wave 2, and higher PTSS at wave 2 predicted higher levels of couples’ shared resource loss at wave 3. Additionally, family of origin stress is associated with higher levels of couples’ shared experience of loss via higher levels of their own PTSS.

Keywords:

• COVID
• posttraumatic stress
• childhood adversity
• resource loss
• stress sensitization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author [B.H.B.] upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Betsy Hughes Barrow

Hughes Barrow is a marriage and family therapy doctoral student in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University. Her research interest is childhood adversity in adult relationships and systemic intervention with couples and families.

Alyssa Banford Witting

Alyssa Banford Witting is an associate professor of marriage and family therapy at Brigham Young University. Her research focuses on mass trauma and the maintenance of trauma symptoms in contexts such as the COVID-19 pandemic and other large scale traumatic events.

Roy A. Bean

Roy A. Bean is an associate professor of marriage and family therapy at Brigham Young University. His research focuses on parent-adolescent interactions and multicultural and minority representation in psychotherapy research.

Angela B. Bradford

Angela B. Bradford is an associate professor of marriage and family therapy at Brigham Young University. Her research focuses on mechanisms of change in couple therapy –including insession psychophysiology and therapist behaviors, therapist factors and processes in session, and emotional regulation in therapy.