The U.S. government has recently spent several hundred million dollars to promote healthy relationships in new parents. The influx of money implies that relationships of new parents are at elevated ...risk for declining satisfaction and dissolution. This meta-analysis aggregates data from 37 studies that track couples from pregnancy to after the birth of the first child and 4 studies that track childless newlywed couples over time and compare couples who do and do not become parents. Results indicate significant, small declines in relationship satisfaction for both men and women from pregnancy to 11 months postbirth; 5 studies that followed couples for 12-14 months found moderate-sized declines. Seven variables moderated the decrease in relationship satisfaction from pregnancy to early parenthood. However, the decrease in satisfaction may not indicate anything unique about the transition to parenthood; the 4 studies following newlyweds indicated that those who do not become parents experience a decrease in relationship satisfaction similar to that of parents across a comparable span of time. Implications for prevention and future directions are discussed.
This study examined whether violations of partner expectations-and attributions and perceptions of these violations-are associated with relationship satisfaction across the transition to parenthood. ...First-time parents (N = 99) mixed-sex couples completed mail-in packets during pregnancy (Time 1; T1) and when their babies were 3-5 months old (Time 2; T2). Hypotheses were largely confirmed. Multilevel modeling results indicated a significant T1-to-T2 decrease in relationship satisfaction. Expectation violations significantly predicted change in satisfaction; undermet expectations are associated with decreased satisfaction. T2 perception of expectation confirmation predicted change in satisfaction at T2 and moderated the relationship between expectation violation and relationship satisfaction. Likewise, benign postnatal attributions were significantly associated with the change in satisfaction at T2 and moderated the relationship between expectation violation and relationship satisfaction. Clinical and research implications are discussed.
Two studies examined the impact of the implementation of the Field-tested Assessment, Intervention-planning, and Response (FAIR) system, a system-level intervention for determining whether ...allegations of family maltreatment meet threshold for abuse or neglect, on alleged recidivism. Data were collected at the 10 U.S. Army installations with the largest family maltreatment caseloads. Participants were family members who had an allegation of family maltreatment (i.e., child maltreatment or partner abuse) during one of the two study periods. Data were collected when Family Advocacy Program staff used the then-in-place system (Case Review Committee) and later the FAIR system. In Study 1, cases were followed for 6 months following the initial maltreatment allegation to measure the occurrence of subsequent allegations of any type. Additionally, at five installations, alleged victims of partner abuse were recruited into a study (Study 2) in which they anonymously reported on intimate partner violence via telephone. In Study 1, the advantage for the FAIR condition was concentrated in cases with unsubstantiated initial determinations; the mean relative risk reduction for recidivism was 0.48. In Study 2, FAIR extended median time to recidivism by approximately 170%. These results replicate and extend earlier findings that employing the FAIR system can result in decreased family maltreatment re-offense.
In a study of conflict recovery and adolescent dating aggression, 14‐ to 18‐year‐old couples (N = 209 dyads) participated in a 1‐hr observational assessment. Negative behavior was observed during ...conflict‐evoking “hot” tasks and in a “cooldown” task. Physical and psychological dating aggression were assessed via questionnaires. Negative behavior measured in the cooldown task was not associated with dating aggression after controlling for carryover effects of negativity from the hot to cooldown tasks. Moreover, cooldown negativity moderated the associations of hot task negativity and dating aggression. Actor and partner effects were disentangled via dyadic data analyses. Given the paucity of observational studies of dating aggression, our findings are an important contribution to the literature and in need of replication and extension.
We conducted an observational study of a collection of interactive processes known as “demand‐withdraw” in relation to adolescent dating aggression. Couples (N = 209) aged 14–18 years participated in ...a challenging observational laboratory assessment to measure demands (i.e., pressures for a change), as well as demand → partner withdraw and demand → partner avoid sequences. Actor and partner effects were disentangled via dyadic data analyses. The results indicated a fairly consistent pattern in which demand → withdraw and demand → avoid sequences led by either partner were positively associated with both partners' physical and psychological aggression (measured via a dual informant questionnaire method). Further, higher quality demands (i.e., pressures for change that were specific and encouraged both members of the dyad to increase a given behavior) were inversely associated with aggression. Yet, all of the above associations were attenuated to the point of statistical nonsignificance after controlling for hostility. These results suggest two primary possibilities. The associations of demand → withdraw and demand → avoid sequences with dating aggression may be spurious, with the sequences merely markers for hostility, a known correlate of dating aggression. Alternatively, hostility may mediate the relations of demand → withdraw and demand → avoid sequences with dating aggression. Further research is required to test these competing explanations. Implications for preventive intervention are discussed.
Reports an error in "Self-report measures of coercive process in couple and parent-child dyads" by Danielle M. Mitnick, Michael F. Lorber, Amy M. Smith Slep, Richard E. Heyman, Shu Xu, Lisanne J. ...Bulling, Sara R. Nichols and J. Mark Eddy (
, 2021Apr, Vol 353, 388-398). In the original article, the full acknowledgment of funding was missing in the author note and should have read "This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Science of Behavior Change Common Fund Program and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research through an award administered by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research 1UH2DE025980-01." The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2020-49926-001). One of the most influential behavioral models of family conflict is G. R. Patterson's (1982) coercive family process theory. Self-reports for behaviors related to coercion (e.g., hostility toward a family member) abound; however, there are no self-report measures for coercive process itself, which is, by definition, a dyadic process. Operationalizations of coercive process are measured with behavioral observation, typically including sequential analyzed, microcoded behaviors. Despite its objectivity and rigor, coding of behavior observation is not always feasible in research and applied settings because of the high training, personnel, and time costs the observation requires. Because coercive process has been shown to predict a host of maladaptive outcomes (e.g., parent-child conflict, aggression, negative health outcomes) and given the complete absence of self-report measures of coercive process, we recently designed brief questionnaires to assess coercive process in couple (Couple Coercive Process Scale CCPS) and parent-child interactions (Parent-Child Coercive Process Scale PCCPS) and tested them via Qualtrics participant panels in samples recruited to mirror socioeconomic generalizability to U.S. Census data. The CCPS and PCCPS exhibited initial evidence of psychometric quality in measuring coercive process in couple and parent-child dyads: Both measures are unifactorial; have evidence of reliability, especially at higher levels of coercive process; and demonstrate concurrent validity with constructs in their nomological networks, with medium to large effect sizes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
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. Maternal discipline and physiological responses, as well as child behavior, were observed in laboratory discipline encounters with 97 mother-toddler dyads. Mothers then rated the extent to which they experienced flooding in response to their children's behavior and emotion displays during the immediately preceding discipline encounters. Mothers' experience of negative emotion was assessed via video-mediated recall. Flooding was positively associated with both overreactive and lax discipline; this association did not reflect confounding by mothers' experience of negative emotion. Flooding was further associated with mothers' experienced negative emotion and heart rate reactivity, as well as child misbehavior and negative emotion displays. The flooding-overreactive discipline association was concentrated in those mothers who exhibited greater increases in heart rate and greater vagal withdrawal, and whose children misbehaved more during the discipline encounter. The present results suggest the incremental validity of flooding in predicting discipline practices, as well as the strong fit of flooding in its nomological network. Parents' self-recognition of flooding may ultimately prove useful in parenting interventions as a signal to trigger compensatory techniques.
One of the most influential behavioral models of family conflict is G. R. Patterson's (1982) coercive family process theory. Self-reports for behaviors related to coercion (e.g., hostility toward a ...family member) abound; however, there are no self-report measures for coercive process itself, which is, by definition, a dyadic process. Operationalizations of coercive process are measured with behavioral observation, typically including sequential analyzed, microcoded behaviors. Despite its objectivity and rigor, coding of behavior observation is not always feasible in research and applied settings because of the high training, personnel, and time costs the observation requires. Because coercive process has been shown to predict a host of maladaptive outcomes (e.g., parent-child conflict, aggression, negative health outcomes) and given the complete absence of self-report measures of coercive process, we recently designed brief questionnaires to assess coercive process in couple (Couple Coercive Process Scale CCPS) and parent-child interactions (Parent-Child Coercive Process Scale PCCPS) and tested them via Qualtrics participant panels in samples recruited to mirror socioeconomic generalizability to U.S. Census data. The CCPS and PCCPS exhibited initial evidence of psychometric quality in measuring coercive process in couple and parent-child dyads: Both measures are unifactorial; have evidence of reliability, especially at higher levels of coercive process; and demonstrate concurrent validity with constructs in their nomological networks, with medium to large effect sizes.
Effective, accessible prevention programs are needed for adults at heightened risk for intimate partner violence (IPV). This parallel group randomized controlled trial examines whether such couples ...receiving the American version of Couple CARE for Parents of Newborns (CCP; Halford et al.
2009
) following the birth of a child, compared with controls, report fewer first occurrences of clinically significant IPV, less frequent physical and psychological IPV, and improved relationship functioning. Further, we test whether intervention effects are moderated by level of risk for IPV. Couples at elevated risk for IPV (
N
= 368) recruited from maternity units were randomized to CCP (
n =
188) or a 24-month waitlist (
n
= 180) and completed measures of IPV and relationship functioning at baseline, post-program (when child was 8 months old), and two follow-ups (at 15 and 24 months). Intervention effects were tested using intent to treat (ITT) as well as complier average causal effect (CACE; Jo and Muthén
2001
) structural equation models. CCP did not significantly prevent clinically significant IPV nor were there significant main effects of CCP on clinically significant IPV, frequency of IPV, or most relationship outcomes in the CACE or ITT analyses. Risk moderated the effect of CCP on male-to-female physical IPV at post-program, with couples with a planned pregnancy declining, but those with unplanned pregnancies increasing. This study adds to previous findings that prevention programs for at-risk couples are not often effective and may even be iatrogenic for some couples.
This phase of the NIH Science of Behavior Change program emphasizes an “experimental medicine approach to behavior change,” that seeks to identify targets related to stress reactivity, ...self-regulation, and social processes for maximal effects on multiple health outcomes. Within this framework, our project focuses on interpersonal processes associated with health: coercive couple and parent-child conflict. Diabetes and poor oral health portend pain, distress, expense, loss of productivity, and even mortality. They share overlapping medical regimens, are driven by overlapping proximal health behaviors, and affect a wide developmental span, from early childhood to late adulthood. Coercive couple and parent-child conflict constitute potent and destructive influences on a wide range of adult and child health outcomes. Such interaction patterns give rise to disturbed environmental stress reactivity (e.g., disrupted sympathetic nervous and parasympathetic nervous systems) and a wide range of adverse health outcomes in children and adults, including dental caries, obesity, and diabetes-related metabolic markers. In this work, we seek to identify/develop/validate assays assessing coercion, identify/develop and test brief interventions to reduce coercion, and test whether changes in coercion trigger changes in health behaviors.
•A model for the effect of coercion on health behaviors and outcomes is proposed.•A multi-measure biopsychosocial strategy for assays of coercion is described.•An experimental medicine approach to testing the model is described.
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