Richard E. Heyman

Risk factors for male-to-female partner physical abuse

We review the risk and protective factors for male-to-female partner physical abuse and present effect sizes. We distinguish among the various operationalizations of physical aggression (e.g., men in court mandated abuse programs, men identified through a single item on the CTS). Overall, however, several risk factors showed moderate to strong effect sizes. Perpetrator factors include SES, education, history of child sexual victimization, exposure to parental physical and/or verbal aggression, violent adult models in childhood, non-family aggression by parent, elevated levels of state and trait anger and hostility; various personality disorders; various Axis I psychopathology, particularly depression alcohol and drug abuse; deficits in spouse-specific assertiveness; and attitudes that condone abuse. Risk factors for women being victimized included less education, unemployment, and history of child emotional/verbal victimization.

Observation of Couple Conflicts: Clinical Assessment Applications, Stubborn Truths, and Shaky Foundations

The purpose of this review is to provide a balanced examination of the published research involving the observation of couples, with special attention toward the use of observation for clinical assessment. All published articles that (a) used an observational coding system and (b) relate to the validity of the coding system are summarized in a table. The psychometric properties of observational systems and the use of observation in clinical practice are discussed. Although advances have been made in understanding couple conflict through the use of observation, the review concludes with an appeal to the field to develop constructs in a psychometrically and theoretically sound manner.

Couples' support-related communication, psychological distress, and relationship satisfaction among women with early stage breast cancer

This study examined associations between couple communication about cancer and psychological distress and relationship satisfaction of women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. One hundred forty-eight couples completed a videotaped discussion of a cancer-related issue and a general issue. Patients completed measures of psychological distress and relationship satisfaction. Videotapes were coded with the Rapid Marital Interaction Coding System. Analyses focused on partner responses to patient self-disclosures. During cancer-issue discussions, patients reported less distress when partners responded to disclosures with reciprocal self-disclosure and humor and when partners were less likely to propose solutions. Fewer links between partner responses to patient self-disclosures and distress were found in general-issue discussions. Results suggest partner responses play a role in womens adaptation to breast cancer.

Changes in relationship satisfaction across the transition to parenthood: a meta-analysis.

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.

Risk factors for child neglect

Child neglect is the most prevalent form of child maltreatment in the US, yet it has received comparatively little research attention. This is no doubt in part due to difficulty defining and operationalizing the construct of neglect. Despite these challenges, a small body of literature investigating risk factors for child neglect has accumulated. This paper reviews this literature, providing effect sizes when possible. Parental demographic, psychological, and behavioral characteristics as well as child, family, and neighborhood factors are reviewed. Although few factors have been examined in more than one study, when taken together, the findings suggest that parental behavioral and psychological characteristics may have the largest relations to neglect, and that limited socioeconomic resources are the most consistently documented risk factor for neglect.

Child abuse in the context of domestic violence: prevalence, explanations, and practice implications.

This article addresses the following questions: (a) How common is child abuse among domestically violent families? (b) Are there specific patterns of child abuse among domestically violent families? (c) What may explain occurrences of child abuse in domestically violent families? (d) How might domestic violence affect treatment for child abuse? We review research on child abuse in the context of domestic violence. We discuss implications of this research for service-delivery programs for domestically violent families.

A comparison of spousal aggression prevalence rates in U.S. Army and civilian representative samples

This study compared prevalence rates from reasonably representative U.S. Army (N = 33,762) and civilian (N = 3,044) samples. Age and race were controlled by weighting each sample to 1990 U.S. Census characteristics for married, full-time employed persons. Mens reports of moderate husband-to-wife spousal aggression were not significantly higher, but reports of severe aggression were significantly higher in the standardized Army sample than in the comparable civilian sample (adjusted rates of 2.5% vs. 0.7%, respectively). Thus, controlling for age and race results in reasonably similar prevalence rates. Future studies that more carefully control for any background differences in military and civilian respondents could discern whether military service adds any increased risk for partner violence.

Evidence-Based Approaches to Assessing Couple Distress.

This article describes a conceptual framework for couple-based assessment strategies grounded in empirical findings linking couple distress to a broad range of both individual and relationship characteristics. These characteristics can contribute to, exacerbate, or result from relationship problems. On the basis of these findings, the authors articulate specific targets of clinical inquiry reflecting relationship behaviors, cognitions, and affect as well as features of individual distress. Guided by this framework, empirically supported assessment strategies and techniques emphasizing relationship functioning across diverse methods are proposed, including the clinical interview, analog behavioral observation, and both self- and other-report measures. Discussion concludes with specific recommendations regarding clinical assessment of couple distress and directions for further research.

Risk factors for child psychological abuse

We review the risk and protective factors for child emotional abuse. Two main directions can be derived from this review. First and foremost, definitional issues must be resolved. Second, some clues as to important future research directions emerged from the current risk factor literature. Distal historical variables (e.g., relationships with fathers perceived as less caring, and being yelled at daily as a child), current enduring personality factors (e.g., aggression and hostility, neuroticism), environmental stressors (e.g., very low income) and proximal variables (verbal and physical aggression between parents) all appear to be related to child psychological abuse. Once definitional issues are resolved, models beginning with these risk factors should be developed and tested.

Risk factors for child sexual abuse

We review the risk and protective factors for child sexual abuse. Overall, characteristics of perpetrators, victims, and families of victims were moderate to strong risk factors for child sexual abuse. However, it is difficult to distinguish between risk factors for extra-familial and intra-familial child sexual victimization because most of the studies combined these two types of child sexual abuse, although the risk factors for these two types of child sexual abuse most likely differ. Research in this area is difficult because etiological and prevention models of victimization would differ substantially from those of perpetration. Given the low yearly prevalence of child sexual victimization, very large samples would be necessary to obtain sufficient power. Thus, most studies have used lifetime prevalence, which may provide much useful information but which add substantial time confounds. Finally, child sexual victimization is probably a misnomer, as the nature, impact, and etiology of sexual victimization most likely differs over the large age span of childhood and gender. Because improved models and prevention programs require improved etiological models (based on knowledge of risk and protective factors), we hope that this review will focus stakeholders on the need for continued research in this area.