Supporting a partner after traumatic injury: Associations of relationship satisfaction and perceptions of partner PTSD symptoms on support experiences.

OBJECTIVE

Romantic partners are often primary support providers following traumatic injury, yet little work examines social support from their perspective. This study tested a moderated stress-support model of how partners' pretrauma relationship satisfaction and collateral perceptions of survivor posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) were related to their appraisals of how frequently they offered support and how difficult they found it to give.

METHOD: Romantic partners (N = 513) of recent traumatic injury survivors were surveyed using online crowdsourcing. A multivariate path model tested the main and interactive effects of collateral-reported PTSS and relationship satisfaction on support provider experiences.

RESULTS

Higher pretrauma relationship satisfaction predicted more support frequency (β = .48, p < .001) and less difficulty (β = -.30, p < .001). Higher collateral-reported PTSS predicted more support frequency (β = .14, p = .001) and difficulty (β = .29, p < .001). Partner relationship satisfaction moderated the association between collateral-reported PTSS and support frequency (β = -.13, p = .001), such that lower satisfaction strengthened the positive association between PTSS and support provision. Moderation effects were strongest among partners whose relationships to survivors had ended.

CONCLUSIONS

Partners who perceived survivor PTSS as more severe reported offering more support but also experiencing more strain. Pretrauma relationship satisfaction is related to more frequent and less taxing support provision appraisals. Findings underscore the importance of considering interpersonal risk and resilience factors for partners offering posttrauma support. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).