Jessica J. Rack

Comparing physically abusive, neglectful, and non-maltreating parents during interactions with their children: A meta-analysis of observational studies

OBJECTIVE To clarify the nature and extent of differences in the ways that physically abusive, neglectful, and non-maltreating parents communicate during interactions with their children. METHOD A meta-analysis was conducted of 33 observational studies comparing parent-child interactions in families where parents have a documented history of physical abuse or neglect vs. where parents have no history of child maltreatment. Parental behaviors were grouped into three clusters (positivity, aversiveness, and involvement) for comparison across studies. RESULTS When comparing maltreating (physically abusive or neglectful) vs. non-maltreating parents, mean weighted effect sizes for the three behavioral clusters range from d=.46 to .62. Physically abusive parents are distinguished from non-maltreating parents more so than neglectful parents in terms of aversive behavior, whereas the reverse is true for involvement. Publication date, parent and child age, and task structure moderate the magnitude, though not direction, of differences. CONCLUSION Parents with a documented history of child physical abuse or child neglect also are distinguished from non-maltreating parents by the levels of aversiveness, positivity, and involvement they display during interactions that constitute the parent-child relationship. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Researchers and practitioners need to carefully consider sample size, length and setting of observation, and interaction tasks when using observational methods.

Bereaved adults' evaluations of grief management messages: Effects of message person centeredness, recipient individual differences, and contextual factors

This study identifies grief management strategies that bereaved adults evaluate as more and less helpful, assesses whether the person centeredness of these strategies explains their helpfulness, and determines whether strategy helpfulness varies as a function of demographic, personality, and situational factors. Participants (105 bereaved young adults) assessed the helpfulness of 16 grief management strategies; these strategies were coded for their degree of person centeredness. Strategy person centeredness was strongly correlated with helpfulness. Strategy helpfulness varied as a function of participant gender and the disruptiveness of the decedents death, but not as a function of need for cognition or decedent closeness.

Explaining the Impact of Attachment Style on Evaluations of Supportive Messages: A Dual-Process Framework

This article reports tests of hypotheses derived from a theory of supportive message outcomes that maintains that the effects of supportive messages are moderated by factors influencing the motivation and ability to process these messages. Participants (N = 331) completed measures of attachment style, which provided individual-level assessments of processing motivation, and responded to either a mildly or moderately severe problem, which manipulated situational motivation.They subsequently evaluated the helpfulness of comforting messages that varied in person centeredness and were attributed to either an acquaintance or a close friend. Although message evaluations were strongly influenced by person centeredness, this effect, as expected, was also moderated by attachment style and problem severity. Results are discussed in terms of the dual-process theory of supportive message outcomes.

Are Gender Differences in Responses to Supportive Communication a Matter of Ability, Motivation, or Both? Reading Patterns of Situation Effects Through the Lens of a Dual-Process Theory

Women process information about support situations and messages more extensively than men, but little is known about whether these gender differences reflect underlying differences in processing ability, motivation, or both. Two studies examined information processing by men and women in both relatively less serious and more serious situations. Participants in Study 1 responded to more and less serious experimental scenarios, whereas participants in Study 2 reported on a recent bereavement situation. In both studies, the pattern of observed gender differences was most consistent with women possessing both greater ability and greater motivation to process information about support situations and messages.

Mothers' Trait Verbal Aggressiveness and Child Abuse Potential

Child physical abuse is a serious societal problem that communication scholars have been slow to address. This study explores whether a mothers trait verbal aggressiveness (VA) is associated with her risk for child physical abuse. Participants were 42 women in predominately low-income families recruited from two social service agencies in a major metropolitan area. Participants completed Infante and Wigleys (1986) Verbal Aggressiveness Scale (VAS) and Milners (1994) Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI) as part of a larger data collection. Mothers with higher trait VA scored higher on the total CAPI, as well as on the distress, rigidity, and problems with others subdimensions. Discussion centers on implications for future research on communication and child maltreatment, as well as for treatment and prevention efforts.

Comparing Physically Abused, Neglected, and Nonmaltreated Children During Interactions with their Parents: A Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies

A meta-analysis of 30 observational studies compares abused, neglected, and nonmaltreated childrens behavior during interactions with their parents. Drawing on the relational communication literature, childrens behaviors from various coding schemes were grouped into those communicating positivity (e.g., affection, approval), aversiveness (e.g., anger, resistance), and involvement (e.g., attention, interest). Results reveal that abused and neglected children are distinguished from nonmaltreated children on all three behavioral clusters, with overall mean weighted effect sizes ranging from d=.29 to .55. Several moderators qualify the magnitude though not the direction of these differences, including maltreatment type, child/parent age, and observation length and setting. These findings have implications for understanding the etiology and outcomes of child maltreatment as well as for intervention and prevention efforts.

Explaining Gender Differences in the Perception of Support Availability: The Mediating Effects of Construct Availability and Accessibility

Perceived support availability (PSA), a general belief about the likelihood that social support will be available when needed, is associated with numerous processes and outcomes of supportive communication. Currently, however, there is little understanding of the factors that contribute to this belief. Numerous studies have reported gender differences in PSA, with women generally indicating that they see support as more available than do men; in turn, gender differences in PSA have been cited to explain gender differences in the production and interpretation of supportive messages. In an effort to explain gender differences in PSA and, more broadly, understand the social-cognitive factors that contribute to individual differences in PSA, this article proposes and reports a test of a theoretical model that treats PSA as the outcome of the availability and accessibility of cognitive schemata for construing social situations. Participants (150 men and 271 women) completed instruments providing assessments of PSA, construct availability (cognitive complexity), and construct accessibility (expressive and instrumental orientations). Bootstrap procedures for the simultaneous assessment of multiple mediators found that construct accessibility generally was a stronger mediator of gender differences in PSA than construct availability. However, a cooperative suppression effect was found for 1 index of construct accessibility, complicating the interpretation of mediation effects.