Social problem solving and posttraumatic stress symptomatology in veterans

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that may develop following exposure to one or more traumatic events involving actual or threatened physical harm. It is often characterized by symptoms of hyperarousal and oversensitivity to threatening stimuli. One of the neurological factors maintaining these symptoms is thought to be an altered response to stress via disruptions in the fear conditioning circuit in the brain. For individuals with PTSD, incoming stimuli may initiate a fear response before the presence of real danger can be assessed. The current investigation proposed that social problem solving (SPS), or the ability to cope with stressful life problems, is one of the critical cortical processes that is bypassed in the fear conditioning pathway in individuals with PTSD. This study was designed to assess the ability of SPS to predict PTSD symptomatology in Veterans after controlling for relevant demographic covariates. The study sample consisted of 159 Veterans of the United States Military who completed a series of self-report questionnaires via an online survey. Participants were recruited via outreach to organizations serving Veterans in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as well as flyers, emails on list-servs, and word of mouth. In addition to demographic information, study variables were measured using the Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised Short Form to characterize problem-solving abilities and the PTSD Checklist-5 to evaluate PTSD symptomatology. Current tobacco use was found to be a significant bivariate predictor of PTSD symptomatology and was therefore included as a covariate in the final analysis. A hierarchical linear regression revealed that SPS significantly predicted PTSD symptomatology after controlling for the influence of tobacco use. The variance explained by the model as a whole was 22.6%, with SPS explaining 17.9% of the variance in PTSD symptomatology. Negative problem orientation was the strongest predictor of PTSD symptomatology among the five dimensions of SPS. This study is among the first to establish an association between SPS and PTSD symptomatology. Additional research is needed to better understand the neurological pathways that underlie this relationship. The current findings suggest that Problem-Solving Therapy (PST), which aims to increase adaptive adjustment to life stress by improving problem-solving attitudes and behaviors, may be an effective intervention to prevent or reduce PTSD symptomatology among Veterans. Future studies should develop PST-based interventions for Veterans and evaluate their impact on PTSD symptomatology.