Predictors of Crosscutting Patterns of Psychological Health and Family Maltreatment.

Introduction: Psychological problems and family maltreatment are significant public health problems. Although research focuses almost exclusively on either individual psychological problems or family maltreatment, there is substantial co-occurrence of these problems. Similarly, intervention services are often "siloed": individuals with mental health needs are referred for mental health services, individuals with family conflict are referred for family-based treatment, etc.

Couples' Anger Dynamics during Conflict: Interpersonal Anger Regulation, Relationship Satisfaction, and Intimate Partner Violence.

We tested hypotheses about moment-to-moment interpersonal influences on anger during couples' conflict, and the association of those anger dynamics with relationship satisfaction and intimate partner violence (IPV). Displayed anger was coded from laboratory observations of cohabiting couples (N = 197); experienced anger was assessed via a video-recall procedure. Credible, but variable, associations were found in which a person's anger display at one moment was linked to change in the partner's anger display and experience in the next moment.

Dental Fear and Avoidance in Treatment Seekers at a Large, Urban Dental Clinic.

Purpose: The prevalence and correlates of dental fear have been studied in representative population studies, but not in patients presenting for dental treatment. We hypothesized that dental fear among patients presenting at a large, urban college of dentistry would be similar to that of the population (e.g.

Help-seeking among airmen in distressed relationships: Promoting relationship well-being.

Although a substantial proportion of service members returning from a combat deployment report individual emotional and behavioral disorders as well as intimate relationship difficulties, previous studies indicate that only a minority actually seek mental health services. Little is known about factors that predict help-seeking in this population. We first review key findings from the literature on help-seeking in military and veteran populations, including mixed findings regarding the role of perceived stigma and attitudes toward mental health treatment.

Parental Flooding During Conflict: A Psychometric Evaluation of a New Scale.

Parents who are overwhelmed by the intensity and aversive nature of child negative affect - those who are experiencing flooding - may be less likely to react effectively and instead may focus on escaping the aversive situation, disciplining either overly permissively or punitively to escape quickly from child negative affect. However, there are no validated self-report measures of the degree to which parents experience flooding, impeding the exploration of these relations. Thus, we created and evaluated the Parent Flooding scale (PFS), assessing the extent to which parents believe their children's negative affect during parent-child conflicts is unexpected, overwhelming and distressing.

Parents' experience of flooding in discipline encounters: Associations with discipline and interplay with related factors.

In family psychology, the term flooding refers to the feeling of being overwhelmed by a family member's behavior in a manner that undermines an organized response. In the present investigation we first aimed to clarify the role of flooding in overreactive and lax discipline. The second study aim was to more fully establish the position of parental flooding in its nomological network given the relative paucity of research on parental flooding.

Coming home: A prospective study of family reintegration following deployment to a war zone.

The consequences of deployment extend beyond the service member to impact the entire family. The current investigation evaluated the unique challenges of family reintegration for partnered service members using a prospective design. In total, 76 partnered service members who deployed on a year-long, high-risk mission to Iraq were assessed across the entirety of the deployment cycle, i.

Are persistent early onset child conduct problems predicted by the trajectories and initial levels of discipline practices?

In the present investigation we focused on 2 broad sets of questions: Do parental overreactivity, laxness, and corporal punishment show evidence of normative change in early to middle childhood? Are persistently elevated child conduct problems (CPs) associated with deviations from normative changes in, as well as high initial levels of, discipline practices? Four hundred fifty-three couples with 3- to 7-year-old children were recruited via random digit dialing and studied at 3 annual assessments. Parents completed questionnaire measures of all study constructs. Normative declines were found in maternal corporal punishment and laxness.

Identifying unique and shared risk factors for physical intimate partner violence and clinically-significant physical intimate partner violence.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health concern. To date, risk factor research has not differentiated physical violence that leads to injury and/or fear (i.e.

Enhanced definitions of intimate partner violence for DSM-5 and ICD-11 may promote improved screening and treatment.

Nuanced, multifaceted, and content valid diagnostic criteria for intimate partner violence (IPV) have been created and can be used reliably in the field even by those with little-to-no clinical training/background. The use of such criteria such as these would likely lead to more reliable decision making in the field and more consistency across studies. Further, interrater agreement was higher than that usually reported for individual mental disorders.

Child maltreatment in DSM-5 and ICD-11.

Child maltreatment is widespread and has a tremendous impact on child victims and their families. Over the past decade, definitions of child maltreatment have been developed that are operationalized, face valid, and can be reliably applied in clinical settings. These definitions have informed the revised Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) and are being considered for the International Classification of Disease-11 (World Health Organization).

The emergence and evolution of infant externalizing behavior.

In the present investigation, we examined the developmental viability of the externalizing behavior construct spanning the period from 8 to 24 months of age. A sample of 274 psychologically aggressive couples was recruited from hospital maternity wards and followed from childbirth through 24 months of age. Mothers and fathers completed questionnaire measures of infant physical aggression, defiance, activity level, and distress to limitations at 8, 15, and 24 months.

Noxious family environments in relation to adult and childhood caries.

Background: The authors tested hypotheses that more noxious family environments are associated with poorer adult and child oral health.

Methods: A community sample of married or cohabiting couples (N = 135) and their elementary school-aged children participated. Dental hygienists determined the number of decayed, missing and filled surfaces via oral examination.

Infant externalizing behavior as a self-organizing construct.

We evaluated the extent to which the externalizing behavior construct is self-organizing in the first 2 years of life. Based on dynamic systems theory, we hypothesized that changes in physical aggression, defiance, activity level, and distress to limitations would each be predicted by earlier manifestations of one another. These hypotheses were evaluated via mothers' and fathers' reports of 274 infants' externalizing behaviors at 8, 15, and 24 months of child age.

A new look at the psychometrics of the parenting scale through the lens of item response theory.

The psychometrics of the Parenting Scale's Overreactivity and Laxness subscales were evaluated using item response theory (IRT) techniques. The IRT analyses were based on 2 community samples of cohabiting parents of 3- to 8-year-old children, combined to yield a total sample size of 852 families. The results supported the utility of the Overreactivity and Laxness subscales, particularly in discriminating among parents in the mid to upper reaches of each construct.

Biological sensitivity to context in couples: why partner aggression hurts some more than others.

Objective: Cardiovascular reactivity to laboratory stressors was investigated as (a) a moderator of associations of partner aggression with affective functioning, alcohol problems, and parenting; and (b) a consequence of partner aggression.

Method: Cohabiting adult couples (N = 453) with 3- to 7-year-old children were recruited by random digit dialing and completed questionnaires assessing couple physical aggression, discipline practices, anger, stress, depressive symptoms, and problem alcohol use. Heart rate and blood pressure were measured at rest and in response to laboratory stressors (mental arithmetic and video presentations of family conflict).

The effect of praise, positive nonverbal response, reprimand, and negative nonverbal response on child compliance: a systematic review.

Lack of compliance has both short- and long-term costs and is a leading reason why parents seek mental health services for children. What parents do to help children comply with directives or rules is an important part of child socialization. The current review examines the relationship between a variety of parenting discipline behaviors (i.

Preventive impacts of reliable family maltreatment criteria.

Objective: The U.S. Air Force recently implemented system-wide changes that both (a) clarified the criteria used to determine when family maltreatment has occurred and (b) made the process by which these decisions are made more consistent.

Child emotional aggression and abuse: definitions and prevalence.

Objective: Research on and intervention for child emotional abuse and emotional aggression toward children have been severely hampered because there have been no agreed-upon, clinically usable definitions.

Methods: We have (a) proposed and field-tested a set of criteria to operationally define child emotional abuse for clinical settings and (b) used these criteria to design a parent-report measure of parental emotional aggression and child emotional abuse that could be used in research. In this paper, we review the development and field trials of these criteria for making substantiation decisions.

An initial evaluation of the role of emotion and impulsivity in explaining racial/ethnic differences in the use of corporal punishment.

The authors sought to provide an initial evaluation of the hypothesis that corporal punishment is less strongly associated with parental emotion and impulsivity among African American ("Black") in contrast to European American ("White") parents. White-Latino and Black-Latino differences in corporal punishment, emotion, and impulsivity were explored, given the lack of existing theory predicting group differences. Couples with 3- to 7-year-old children were recruited via random digit dialing, and the parents completed questionnaires and an analog parent-child conflict task in the laboratory.

Prevention of partner violence by focusing on behaviors of both young males and females.

Historically, the political context of partner physical aggression policy and research has focused on protection of physically victimized women and mandated interventions for male batterers. This emphasis is understandable when one considers the injuries and deaths of women by men. However, physical aggression against partners among teens is a very different phenomenon than battering.

Prevalences of intimate partner violence in a representative U.S. Air Force sample.

Objective: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious health concern, but little is known about prevalence of IPV in the armed forces, as military members cope with the pressures of long-standing operations. Furthermore, previous prevalence studies have been plagued by definitional issues; most studies have focused on acts of aggression without consideration of impact (clinically significant [CS] IPV). This is the first large-scale study to examine prevalences of IPV, CS-IPV, and clinically significant emotional abuse (CS-EA) for men and women.