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The height of the COVID-19 pandemic was an exceptionally stressful time for families that offered a unique opportunity to understand how stressful experiences occurring outside the relationship shape behavior occurring inside the relationship. Given the social distancing requirements of the pandemic, however, most research addressing this issue has relied on self-reports of behavior, which are susceptible to bias. In the summer of 2020, we asked a sample of married individuals living in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom to complete online questionnaires assessing neuroticism and attachment insecurity, their levels of chronic stress, and their levels of acute stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We then asked participants to submit a 10-min video of themselves and their spouse attempting to solve an important marital problem that they recorded on their smartphone or other device and uploaded to a secure server. Coders were able to reliably code the behavior of both partners using an established coding system, and the distribution of codes was similar to prior research. Consistent with predictions, participants' COVID-19 stress interacted with their neuroticism and attachment avoidance to predict their levels of oppositional behavior, controlling for their levels of chronic stress and their partner's behavior; neuroticism and attachment avoidance were associated with behaving in a more oppositional manner among participants who reported high but not low COVID-19 stress. Attachment anxiety trended toward predicting more oppositional behavior regardless of stress. These results shed light on how stress affects behavior and introduce a novel way to observe family behavior remotely. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and military sexual trauma (MST) are prevalent among veterans. Such exposures are associated with adverse mental-health sequelae, including elevated risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Nonetheless, prior studies have largely focused upon discrete experiences of CSA or MST in circumscribed samples. In the current study, we analyzed data from a large, nationally representative sample of 4,069 US military veterans to examine main and interactive effects of CSA and MST in relation to suicidal thoughts and behaviors. After accounting for sociodemographics, psychiatric comorbidity, and trauma-related characteristics, we detected a significant interaction between MST and CSA as it related to report of past-year suicidal ideation, lifetime suicide attempt, and risk for future suicide attempt. These findings underscore the impact of sexual trauma throughout the lifespan, highlighting the continued importance of screening for trauma exposure and connecting veterans to appropriate, evidence-based treatment to decrease their risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Although military sexual trauma (MST) is associated with an increased risk of suicide, suicide attempts, and suicidal ideation among service members and veterans, there is limited knowledge regarding the mechanisms of MST and suicidality among men. The current study examined whether MST was associated with sexual compulsivity and/or erectile dysfunction and if these, in turn, explained elevated suicidal thoughts and the likelihood of engaging in future suicidal behavior after accounting for mental health, military, and demographic characteristics. Service members and veterans who reported their gender as male (N = 508) were recruited via social media and completed online self-report measures assessing MST, erectile dysfunction, sexual compulsivity, suicidal ideation frequency, and the likelihood of engaging in future suicidal behavior. Path analysis was used to examine the study hypotheses. In total, 67 participants (13.2%) reported a history of MST; of these individuals, 27 (40.3%) reported suicidal ideation in the past 12 months, and 29 (43.9%) reported an increased likelihood of engaging in future suicidal behavior. MST was associated with increased sexual compulsivity, which, in turn, predicted more frequent suicidal ideation as well as a higher self-reported likelihood of engaging in future suicidal behavior. MST was associated with higher levels of erectile dysfunction, but erectile dysfunction was not associated with suicidal ideation in the adjusted model. Although the data were cross-sectional, precluding determinations of causality, the results support assessing and intervening with regard to sexual compulsivity to mitigate the risk for suicide-related outcomes among men who experience MST.