Relationship Satisfaction and Mental Health Treatment Among Active-Duty Military

An association between relationship satisfaction and mental health symptoms has been well established in research. Specifically, mental health concerns, such as trauma symptoms and depression, have been related to lower relationship satisfaction. Research has explored the correlation between relationship satisfaction and mental health symptoms during treatment but not among active-duty military and not examining a between-person and within-person effect. Therefore, the present study investigates these variables among 178 married, active-duty service members undergoing individual outpatient treatment. A linear mixed-effects regression model estimated a linear growth curve for distress and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) outcomes, controlling for demographic, relationship, and military variables. Results indicated that participants with higher average relationship satisfaction had lower average distress and PTSD scores. Higher average relationship satisfaction was not associated with the rate of change in distress and PTSD across time. For individuals whose increases in relationship satisfaction were greater than expected, there was an associated within-person decrease in distress and PTSD scores, accounting for the between-person component of change in satisfaction. The identification of a within-person association separate from the between-person association suggests that there was a longitudinal correspondence between change in relationship satisfaction and change in distress and PTSD scores within individuals. Though limited by a lack of precise interventional data, this study provides preliminary evidence that individual treatments may help intrapersonal symptom improvement by attending to perceived relationship satisfaction. These findings are particularly relevant to military psychology.