Violence within the American family is a significant and pervasive problem. With rare exceptions, however, the empirical literature on partner abuse is distinct and separate from research on child abuse. Clinical services for these two forms of family violence are similarly non-overlapping. Even so, parent and partner aggression co-occur more often than predicted by base rates, and many of the risk factors identified in one dyadic domain have documented parallels in the other. The parallels suggest the possibility of common predictors for the two types of family violence, predictors which, because of their generality, could be potentially important targets for intervention. The overarching purpose of the current project is to bring to bear both the spouse and child abuse literatures in exploring family violence at the level of the family and in evaluation predictors of the full range of partner and parent aggression as exhibited by both men and women in the same families. We have identified variables likely to function as common risk factors for family aggression, in that they may simultaneously predict both partner and parent aggression. Further, we hypothesize that some risk factors are role-specific and predict only one form of aggression (e.g., jealously should predict partner, but not parent, aggression). Using established measures where possible and conducting parallel analyses for husbands/fathers and wives/mothers throughout, our goals are to (1) establish the predictive utility of a multivariate model for partner aggression; (2) establish the predictive utility of a multivariate model of parent aggression; (3) determine whether common variables simultaneously predict both partner and parent aggression; (4) determine whether role-specific variables predict within, but not across, domains of aggression; (5) assess the generalizability of the separate and common models to aggressive samples and to the prediction of injury; (6) determine the occurrence and co-occurrence of the four forms of dyadic aggression and the associations between different constellations of family violence and overall family adjustment; (7) explore the relation between the extent of aggression in one dyad and the extent of aggression in the others; and (8) explore the aggressive participants' views of the relations between episodes of partner and parent aggression. The study uses random digit dialing to solicit a representative sample of 400 couples who parent a 3-7 year-old child. Additional couples who meet the same criteria and in which one partner reports some level of mild partner and parent aggression will be solicited with the same procedure and will be combined with dually aggressive individuals from the representative sample to permit validation of the models within aggressive samples.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH057985-05
Application #
6625396
Study Section
Violence and Traumatic Stress Review Committee (VTS)
Program Officer
Breiling, James P
Project Start
1998-12-15
Project End
2004-11-30
Budget Start
2002-12-01
Budget End
2004-11-30
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$461,988
Indirect Cost
Name
State University New York Stony Brook
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
804878247
City
Stony Brook
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
11794
Del Vecchio, Tamara; Lorber, Michael F; Slep, Amy M Smith et al. (2016) Parental Flooding During Conflict: A Psychometric Evaluation of a New Scale. J Abnorm Child Psychol 44:1587-1597
Lorber, Michael F; Erlanger, Ann C Eckardt; Slep, Amy M Smith (2013) Biological sensitivity to context in couples: why partner aggression hurts some more than others. J Consult Clin Psychol 81:166-76
Woodin, Erica M; Sotskova, Alina; O'Leary, K Daniel (2012) Do motivational interviewing behaviors predict reductions in partner aggression for men and women? Behav Res Ther 50:79-84
Jose, Anita; Olino, Thomas M; O'Leary, K Daniel (2012) Item response theory analysis of intimate-partner violence in a community sample. J Fam Psychol 26:198-205
Lorber, Michael F; O'Leary, Susan G; Slep, Amy M Smith (2011) An initial evaluation of the role of emotion and impulsivity in explaining racial/ethnic differences in the use of corporal punishment. Dev Psychol 47:1744-9
Woodin, Erica M; O'Leary, K Daniel (2010) A brief motivational intervention for physically aggressive dating couples. Prev Sci 11:371-83
Heyman, Richard E; Hunt-Martorano, Ashley N; Malik, Jill et al. (2009) Desired change in couples: gender differences and effects on communication. J Fam Psychol 23:474-84
Slep, Amy M Smith; O'Leary, Susan G (2009) Distinguishing risk profiles among parent-only, partner-only, and dually perpetrating physical aggressors. J Fam Psychol 23:705-16
Mitnick, Danielle M; Heyman, Richard E; Malik, Jill et al. (2009) The differential association between change request qualities and resistance, problem resolution, and relationship satisfaction. J Fam Psychol 23:464-73
Snarr, Jeffery D; Slep, Amy M Smith; Grande, Vincent P (2009) Validation of a new self-report measure of parental attributions. Psychol Assess 21:390-401

Showing the most recent 10 out of 27 publications