Secondary traumatic stress (STS) has been studied in therapists, spouses, and mainly in children of traumatised individuals. To date, the relationship between children's posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and their parents' mental health outcomes have been understudied, and specifically, long term STS symptoms of parents of war veterans were not investigated. The current study examined PTSD symptoms among veterans of the 2014 Israel-Gaza war and STS among their parents, five years after the war. The control group consisted of veterans from combat military units who were on active duty at the time of the war but did not actively participate in the war (stand-by units) - providing a natural experiment condition. We found that PTSD symptoms were almost twice as high in the directly active war veterans (DAV, N = 32) group compared to the indirectly active war veterans (IAV, N = 26) group. Results showed that mothers had higher STS symptoms in general, and DAV PTSD symptoms correlated with their fathers STS symptoms. The current study provides novel evidence for: (a) subclinical PTSD symptoms in war veterans 5 years after the war, and (b) transmission of trauma from war veterans to their parents. The overall negative effect of sending a child to war on the parents are also discussed.
El estrés traumático secundario (STS por sus siglas en inglés) ha sido estudiado en los terapeutas, cónyuges y principalmente en hijos de individuos traumatizados. Hasta la fecha, la relación entre síntomas de trastorno de estrés postraumático (TEPT) en niños y las consecuencias de salud mental de sus padres han sido poco estudiadas y específicamente, los síntomas de STS a largo plazo de los padres de veteranos de guerra no se han investigado. El estudio actual examinó los síntomas de TEPT entre veteranos de la guerra Israel-Gaza del 2014 y STS entre sus padres, cinco años después de la guerra. El grupo control estaba formado por veteranos de unidades militares de combate que estaban en servicio activo en el momento de la guerra, pero no participaron activamente en la guerra (unidades de reserva) proporcionando una condición de experimento natural. Encontramos que los síntomas de TEPT eran casi el doble en el grupo de veteranos de guerra directamente activos (DAV, N = 32) comparado con el grupo de veteranos de guerra indirectamente activo (IAV, N = 26). Los resultados mostraron que las madres tenían síntomas de STS más elevados en general y síntomas de TEPT del DAV se correlacionaron con los síntomas de STS de sus padres. El estudio actual proporciona evidencia novedosa para: (a) síntomas de TEPT subclínicos en veteranos de guerra 5 años después de la guerra y (b) transmisión del trauma de los veteranos de guerra a sus padres. Se discute tambien el efecto negativo general de enviar un hijo a la guerra en los padres.
二次创伤应激（STS）已在治疗师、配偶以及主要是受创伤者子女中进行了研究。迄今为止，儿童创伤后应激障碍 (PTSD) 症状与其父母心理健康结果之间的关系尚未得到充分研究，特别是还没有对退伍军人父母的长期 STS 症状进行调查。目前的研究考查了 2014 年以色列-加沙战争退伍军人的PTSD症状以及战后五年后他们父母的 STS 症状。对照组由战时现役但未积极参战的作战部队退伍军人（待命部队）组成，这提供了天然的实验条件。我们发现直接现役退伍军人组 (DAV, N=32)的 PTSD 症状几乎是间接现役退伍军人 (IAV, N=26) 组的两倍。结果显示，母亲总体上有较高的 STS 症状，而 DAV PTSD 症状与父亲的 STS 症状相关。目前的研究为以下方面提供了新的证据：(a) 战后 5 年后退伍军人的亚临床 PTSD 症状，以及 (b) 退伍军人向其父母传播创伤。还讨论了将孩子送去战争对父母的总体负面影响。
Keywords: Ansiedad; Estrés traumático secundario (STS); Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Trastorno de Estrés Postraumático (TEPT); Veteranos de guerra; anxiety; secondary traumatic stress (STS); transmission of trauma; war veterans; 二次创伤应激（STS）; 创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）; 焦虑; 退伍军人。.
The current study examined post-traumatic stress symptoms among undiagnosed war veterans of the 2014–2014 Israel-Gaza Military Conflict compared to matched control who were on active military duty at the same time but did not actively participate in the war. We found higher post-traumatic stress symptoms in the veterans who actively participated in the war, roughly five years after the war.Parents of veterans who actively participated in the war exhibited higher secondary traumatic stress compared to parents of veterans who did not actively participate in the war. This is especially interesting given that parents of all veterans were not aware of their whereabouts during the war. Overall, mothers exhibited higher secondary traumatic stress compared to fathers. However, fathers were more ‘in-sync’ with their sons’ traumatic experience as evident by a significant correlation between the war veterans’ post-traumatic stress and the fathers’ secondary traumatic stress symptoms.