The Role of PTSD Symptom Severity and Relationship Functioning in Male and Female Veterans' Mental Health Service Use

Objective: Previous research has shown that difficulties in intimate relationships promote mental health treatment seeking for male veterans, but findings for female veterans have been mixed. The current study sought to further evaluate whether intimate relationship functioning is a motivator for mental health treatment seeking for male and female veterans and examine the impact of different types of trauma exposure on this association. Method: Using data from a longitudinal study, we examined whether intimate relationship functioning mediated the association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity and mental health service use (0 = no mental health services, 1 = any mental health services) in male and female veterans (N = 1,200). We used multiple groups path analysis to examine whether intimate relationship functioning mediated the association between PTSD symptom severity and mental health service use for male and female veterans. Results: For male veterans, greater PTSD symptom severity was related to poorer intimate relationship functioning, which in turn explained increased likelihood of mental health service use (R-2 = .18). This mediation effect was not significant for female veterans. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that targeting intimate relationship functioning in treatment for male veterans may be beneficial because difficulties in these relationships appear to be a motivating factor for treatment seeking. Clinical Impact Statement This study suggests that difficulties in intimate relationships promote mental health treatment seeking among male veterans who experience PTSD, but not among female veterans. These findings indicate that involving intimate relationship partners in health care may help encourage men to engage in mental health treatment.