The Bidirectional Dyadic Association Between Tendency to Forgive, Self-Esteem, Social Support, and PTSD Symptoms Among Terror-Attack Survivors and Their Spouses

This study examined the dyadic association of terror attack survivors' and spouses' internal resources, tendency to forgive (self, others, and situational forgiveness), self-esteem, and the external resource of social support, as associated with victims' and spouses' posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, using the actor-partner interdependence model. Based on lists by the One Family organization in Israel, 108 couples participated in the study. The study results demonstrate that in the dyad relationship, survivors' tendency to forgive others and social support relate both to survivors' decreased levels of PTSD symptom severity (β = .20, p = 021; β = .55 p < 001) and spouses' decreased levels of PTSD symptom severity (β = .21, p = 015; β = .27, p = 004), whereas spouses' self-esteem relates to both spouses' and survivors' decreased levels of PTSD symptom severity (β = .57, p < 001; β = .14, p = 041). The findings underscore the role of the survivor-spouse unit by highlighting the dyad relationship of internal and external resources as associated with both survivors' and spouses' PTSD symptoms. Theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.