Gender Differences in Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, Marital Satisfaction, and Parenting Behaviors in Adults Following Typhoon Lekima

Objective: Belsky's parenting model provides insight into the relationship between parental psychological status and parenting behaviors. However, little is known about the unique associations of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms with specific parenting behaviors. This study aimed to assess the associations of PTSD symptoms and three types of parenting behaviors (rejection, emotional warmth, and overprotection) with marital satisfaction, and to examine gender differences in these associations. Method: Self-report questionnaires were used to survey 4,570 parents 3 months after Typhoon Lekima in China. Results: The results showed that intrusion and avoidance symptoms had positively indirect associations with emotional warmth and negatively indirect associations with rejection and overprotection via marital satisfaction. However, negative cognitive and emotional alterations (NCEA) and hyperarousal symptoms had opposite relationships with three types of parenting behavior. A gender-moderated mediation relationship was found in the associations of PTSD symptoms and parenting behaviors via marital satisfaction. Marital satisfaction played a mediating role in the relationships between four PTSD symptom clusters and three types of parenting behavior in mothers, whereas in fathers, marital satisfaction mediated only the relationships of NCEA and hyperarousal symptoms with three types of parenting behavior. Conclusions: Marital satisfaction mediated the associations between four distinct PTSD symptom clusters and three types of parenting behavior, and a gender difference was found to be in these indirect relationships. Clinical Impact Statement This study suggests that negative cognitive and emotional alterations (NCEA) and hyperarousal symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder show a negative influence on parenting behaviors by low marital satisfaction in parents, but a protective role of intrusion and avoidance symptoms in adaptive parenting behaviors via marital satisfaction is found for mothers but not for fathers. Therefore, interventions should pay more attention to NCEA and hyperarousal symptoms for both mothers and fathers. However, more attention should be paid to improve mothers' marital satisfaction, to promote their adaptive parenting behaviors.