Childhood Trauma and Marital Discord: Indirect Pathways Through Problematic Partner Behaviors

This study examined associations between eight childhood traumatic experiences and three relationship outcomes: marital discord and two problematic partner behaviors (i.e., nonviolent negative behavior and intimate partner violence [IPV]). We also examined the indirect effect of childhood trauma on marital discord through the pathways of problematic partner behaviors. We conducted a secondary analysis of data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. All participants were married (N = 1,370) and completed self-report assessments of trauma, problematic partner behaviors, and marital discord. Several traumas were associated with one or two outcomes; notably, rape, sexual molestation, non-parental physical abuse, and the total number of assaultive traumas were associated with all three outcomes. In simple mediator models, rape, sexual molestation, and the total number of assaultive traumas showed indirect associations with marital discord through both nonviolent negative behavior and IPV, whereas non-parental physical abuse showed an indirect association through nonviolent negative behavior only. In parallel multiple mediator models, the indirect pathway via nonviolent negative behavior remained significant when controlling for IPV. The results emphasize a rarely studied relationship outcome in the trauma literature - being partnered to someone who engages in nonviolent negative behavior - that was associated with various childhood traumas and marital discord, and may help explain the association between early adverse life experiences and relationship discord over and above the variance accounted for by IPV.