Kyle D. Killian

Development and Validation of the Emotional Self‐Awareness Questionnaire: A Measure of Emotional Intelligence

This study examined the psychometric characteristics of the Emotional Self-Awareness Questionnaire (ESQ), a self-report measure of emotional intelligence. The ESQ, Emotional Intelligence Scale, and measures of alexithymia, positive negative affect, personality, cognitive ability, life satisfaction, and leadership aspirations were administered to 1,406 undergraduate psychology students. The ESQ was reduced from 118 to 60 items via factor and reliability analyses, retaining 11 subscales and a normal score distribution with a reliability of .92. The ESQ had significant positive correlations with the Emotional Intelligence Test and positive affect, significant negative correlations with alexithymia and negative affect, and an insignificant correlation with cognitive ability. The ESQ accounted for 35% of the variance in life satisfaction over and above the Big Five, cognitive ability, and self-esteem, and demonstrated incremental validity in explaining GPA and leadership aspirations. The significance of emotional intelligence as a unique contributor to psychological well-being and performance, and applications for the ESQ in assessment and outcome research in couple and family therapy are discussed.

Vicarious Resilience, Vicarious Trauma, and Awareness of Equity in Trauma Work:

This qualitative study examines the coexistence of vicarious resilience and vicarious trauma and explores the inclusion of intersectional identities in trauma work with torture survivors in specialized programs across the United States. A constructionist framework and a method of constant comparison discovered themes that speak about the effects of witnessing how clients cope constructively with adversity, and intersectional identities in social context. The data suggest that trauma therapists can be potentially transformed by their clients’ resilience in positive, but not painless, ways. Choosing to work in the trauma field with survivors of torture and politically motivated violence involves immersion in profound ongoing experiences of intertwined pain, joy, and hope, and expanding the boundaries of self—personally and professionally.

Development of the Vicarious Resilience Scale (VRS): A measure of positive effects of working with trauma survivors.

Objective: Attending to the potential impacts, both positive and negative, of clinical work with trauma survivors on professionals themselves is a crucial aspect of clinical training and supervision. Vicarious resilience refers to unique, positive effects that transform therapists in response to witnessing trauma survivors’ resilience and recovery process. This study describes the development and exploratory factor analysis of the first instrument to assess vicarious resilience. Method: The Vicarious Resilience Scale (VRS) was developed and administered via electronic survey to 190 helping professionals from around the globe working with survivors of severe traumas, such as torture. Results: Exploratory factor analysis yielded 7 factors: Changes in life goals and perspective, client-inspired hope, increased recognition of clients’ spirituality as a therapeutic resource, increased capacity for resourcefulness, increased self-awareness and self-care practices, increased consciousness about power and privilege relative to clients’ social location, and increased capacity for remaining present while listening to trauma narratives. The Cronbach’s alpha reliability of the VRS was .92 and, as hypothesized, the VRS was moderately and positively correlated with posttraumatic growth and compassion satisfaction, indicating convergent validity. The VRS was not significantly correlated with compassion fatigue (CF) or burnout, indicating discriminant validity and that vicarious resilience is a unique construct that is not merely “the opposite” of CF or burnout. Conclusion: The VRS possesses sound psychometric properties and can be utilized in supervision and training contexts and for self-assessment by professionals working with trauma survivors to aid the recognition and cultivation of vicarious resilience.

Epistemologies of Peace: Poetics, Globalization, and the Social Justice Movement

Abstract Poetics, as an epistemological approach, articulates alternative imaginaries to those proffered by the neoliberal world order. With a long history of drawing upon various sites to further its aims (e.g. the academy, the international studies association, political parties, the state), the neoliberal world order has used its epistemologies to constitute a hegemony emphasizing the state as the primary actor of political life. Feminists and scholars in postcolonial IR, black studies, and ethnic studies have challenged this idea, arguing that there are differential epistemological economies in world politics. Larger questions at stake in these different sites/cites include self and collective knowledge of marginal peoples and the envisioning of alternative, oppositional histories of decolonization, struggle and contestation. Traditional disciplinary boundaries become sites/cites of contestation about the forging and making of alternatives as academics, grassroots organizers, and activists, through poetics, work together to creatively engage questions of economies, power, history, and subject-formations.

Emotion Regulation and Key Change Events in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

In emotionally focused couple therapy (EFT), the completion of a blamer-softening event has been related to deeper emotional experiencing and relationship repair. However, the characteristics of those who are able to complete this event are unknown. The authors examined emotion regulation at intake in relation to key change processes in EFT. Results indicated that emotional control and emotional self-awareness, two emotion regulation strategies, at intake did not predict in-session emotional experiencing or the completion of a blamer-softening event. Results also indicated that gender was a significant predictor of emotional experiencing in the best session. Results attest to the efficacy and generalizability of EFT.

Resisting and complying with homogamy: Interracial couples’ narratives about partner differences

This paper discusses how interracial couples both resist and comply with the prevailing ideology and racial logic of homogamy through their use of dominant and subordinate discourses around (1) hypersensitivity of the partner of color and (2) historys insignificance. Qualitative interviews with interracial couples reveal their strategic responses to racism in the public context and to racial and ethnic differences in the relationship context. The narratives highlight marginalized “truths” crucial to effective clinical work with interracial couples. Implications for intervention with interracial and intercultural couples are discussed.

(Neo) Zones of Violence: Reconstructing Empire on the Bodies of Militarized Youth

When does childhood begin, and how and why does it end? The temporal boundaries for childhood and adolescence vary considerably across and within cultures, as well as across fields of study. Loosely defined, adolescence represents a complex, difficult, even challenging transition from child to adult status, accompanying a requirement for the accepted social behavior of a specific adult culture. However, a lack of consensus persists around two issues: (1) the precise duration of adolescence, whose onset cannot be determined simply on a physiological basis; and, (2) whether “youths” should be protected from certain activities or roles in their particular communities and sociocultural contexts. Is it permissible for a youth, however defined, to smoke, or to drink alcohol? Should children be recipients of formal or informal education? Under the conditions of armed conflict, is it acceptable for youths to experience the roles of military target or even active participant?

Time, Trauma, and Ambiguous Loss: Working with Families with Missing Members in Postconflict Cyprus

War rips the social fabric of refugees’ lives, disrupting physical, psychological, and emotional structures that may have been in place for generations and leaving persons without a home and without a sense of belonging. This chapter engages a crucial dimension of trauma—the disruption of the unifying thread of temporality—and the unique challenges presented by ambiguous loss in internally displaced Greek Cypriot refugee families with a missing member. A clinical vignette highlights the different ways family members respond or recalibrate to identification of remains of a loved one. Therapeutic work with refugee families erodes the Western dichotomy between public and private, and involves modalities that move beyond the “talking cure” of traditional psychotherapy. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the discourse of refugee trauma and the positionality of systemic practitioners who seek to be helpful with refugee families.

The Resettlement Blues: The Role of Social Support in Newcomer Women’s Mental Health

Introduction: Adequate social support is associated with well-being and mental health, whereas disruptions to social support have been linked to elevated risk of psychological distress (e.g. anxiety, depression), especially in immigrant women, a population particularly vulnerable to distress during the process of resettlement. Immigration and resettlement entail opportunities and challenges for newcomers, and for most newcomers, a common challenge is change in availability of social support and the absence of social networks, resulting in significant decreases in perceived and experienced social support during the initial years in the host country. This study examined the relationship between social support and newcomer women’s mental health in a sample of 96 female newcomers living in the greater Toronto area.

The Wake of War: Relationships Among Gender, Trauma, Resources, and Traumatic Stress in Refugee Families

ABSTRACT Armed conflicts disrupt families worldwide. This study examines the adaptation process of Greek Cypriot refugee families who suffered the traumas of displacement and death of family members in 1974. Members of 30 refugee and 12 non-refugee families (N = 118) completed 10 self-report inventories measuring their resources, coping styles, well-being, and traumatic stress symptoms. Results indicate that the resources of social support, income, and adaptability, gender, and seeking support predicted adaptation to war trauma. Twenty-two percent of the refugee family sample and none of the non-refugee family sample could be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Of those diagnosed with PTSD, 94% were women. Families with a PTSD-afflicted member reported lower well-being and more support seeking behaviors. Implications for working with refugee families are discussed.