William F. Hodges

Retrospective reports of parental partner abuse: Relationships to depression, trauma symptoms and self-esteem among college students

This study tested whether retrospective reports of childhood exposure to parental partner abuse were associated with internalizing aspects of adult adjustment. Participants were 550 men and women college students. Among women, childhood exposure to partner abuse was related to depression, trauma-related symptoms, and low self-esteem; among men, exposure was associated with trauma-related symptoms. These relationships were statistically independent of reported parental alcohol abuse and divorce. Relationships of parental partner abuse to low self-esteem and depression among women were also independent of variation in retrospective reports of child sexual and physical abuse. However, the relationship of partner abuse to trauma-related symptoms depended, in part, on the co-occurrence of child abuse. The discussion addressed implications of the findings for future research and for clinical practice.

A PREVENTIVE INTERVENTION PROGRAM FOR THE NEWLY SEPARATED: Final Evaluations

Results of 30-month and four-year follow-ups of a six-month preventive program for people recently separated were even more favorable than the positive follow-ups at six and 18 months. At 30 months, intervention group members scored significantly higher than control group members on dependent measures of adjustment, had significantly fewer separation-related problems, and reported significantly greater separation-related benefits. At four years, intervention group members continued to report significantly more satisfactory levels of adjustment and life quality, although the differences were not as great. Benefits did not all appear at the same time, or equally in men and women, and some benefits did not appear until well after the program ended. Data on marital status transitions during the four-year follow-up period are analyzed, and suggestions are offered for further enhancing program effectiveness.

A preventive program for the newly separated: Initial evaluation

A 6-month long preventive intervention program for newly separated persons was designed on the basis of an analysis of the literature that identified the major stressful elements in the separation experience. Following the implementation of the program, its impact was assessed by contrasting persons who were assigned to the program (n = 100) with newly separated persons who were randomly selected to serve as a no-treatment control group (n = 50). Of the nine dependent measures of adjustment used in this evaluation, five significant posttreatment differences were found, in each case favoring the intervention group. The nature of these significant differences is particularly encouraging in light of the preventively oriented objectives of the intervention program. Detailed analysis of program characteristics resulted in the identification of desirable program modifications that could be implemented when the program is reinstituted.

Stressful life events: Moderators of the relationships of gender and gender roles to self-reported depression and suicidality among college students

The present study examined whether relationships of self-reported depression and suicidality to gender roles or gender are moderated by the type of stressful life events that individuals experience. The focus was on events in stereotypic male (achievement) versus female (interpersonal) domains. This study of 290 women and 247 men undergraduates employed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Personal Attributes Questionnaire and a measure of recent negative life events. In the presence of high achievement stress, high masculinity was related to low suicidality for men. In the presence of high interpersonal stress, high femininity was related to low self-reported depression for women. These findings were interpreted as consistent with the androgyny model of adjustment. However, independent of gender roles, high interpersonal stress was related to high self-reported depression more strongly among women than among men. Suicidality was related to interpersonal events for women and achievement events for men. These findings were interpreted as consistent with the self-schema model of depression.

The predicament of the newly separated

This study examines early adjustment to marital separation as a function of sex and parent status in a sample of 153 persons separated an average of eight weeks from their spouses because of marital discord. Men were much more satisfied with the quality of their marriages prior to separation and much more opposed to its ending than were women. Women consistently reported more gains than men as a consequence of their separations and a greater readiness to divorce. Social support systems were stronger in the case of women than men and in the case of parents than nonparents. Formal and informal helpseeking was very common. There was considerable difficulty in the areas of job performance and career planning, and the presence of children appeared to add to the difficulties faced by divorcing parents. In general, while the preseparation period appeared to be more stressful for women, the early postseparation period was far more difficult for men.

Sex Differences in Separation and Divorce: A Longitudinal Perspective

One of the most significant changes in American society in the past two decades has been the dramatic increase in the number of separations and divorces. Between 1962 and 1981, the number of divorces in the United States tripled (National Center for Health Statistics, 1982). From 1970 to 1977, the divorce rate in the United States increased 79 percent (Camara et al., 1980). In the past several years, however, while the number of divorces has continued to increase, the divorce rate has stabilized. Nevertheless, there are currently over one million divorces granted annually in the United States. Since there is an average of one child per divorcing couple, these divorces represent a serious disruption in the lives of more than three million people every year (Bloom et al., in press). Current projections suggest that the near future will be little different from the recent past, and that about one-third of married persons between 25 and 35 years of age in 1975 will divorce (Camara et al., 1980).

Coping imagery, systematic desensitization, and self-concept change

The hypothesis was proposed that gains in self-concept as the result of systematic desensitization could be determined by active coping imagery. In a study of the effects of coping imagery on self-concept, subjects high in test anxiety were assigned to one of four groups: coping imagery, systematic desensitization, combined coping imagery and systematic desensitization, and no-treatment control. The three treatment groups were equally effective in reducing test anxiety. The coping imagery instructions produced significant reductions (with initial levels statistically controlled)in the discrepancy between perceived self- and ideal self-concept, and increased study behavior for minor exams and midterm exams. No difference between groups on the self-concept variable or ideal self-concept variable alone were obtained. Implications for treatment are discussed.

Behavior Modification — Self-Concept Self-Concept Change in Behavior Modification

arousal items exhibiting a strong reminiscence effect. Several other studies, al l using pairedassociate learning combined with withinsubjects comparisons based upon each subject‘s item galvanic skin responses (GSR), also obtained a significant interaction between arousal and retention interval. While Walker’s theory has been supported fairly consistently, there are methodological and interpretative problems with some of the studies. One general +problem i s that most studies have divided items into only two categories (high and low arousal). Little clarification of the arousal-memory relationship can be achieved when few points along the arousal continuum are sampled. Additionally, studies using free-recall frequently have found a direct relationship between arousal and immediate recall, a finding inconsistent with Walker’s original hypothesis. The similarities and differences between the processes involved in paired-associate learning and free recall are unclear, but it would appear that free recall

Digit Span: An Indicant of Trait or State Anxiety?.

considerably less affected by response competition than i s paired-associate learning. Any adequate theoretical account of the relationship between arousal and memory also ‘must explain the fact that the effects of arousal are partially determined by the nature of the task. High arousal i s more detrimental to the short-term retention of ”difficult,” inaccessible information, such as in tasks involving response competition, than to the short-term retention of “easy,” accessible information. On the basis of these findings, Eysenck has proposed a hypothesis which makes allowance for the importance of task difficulty. As a generalization, it appears to be the case that the optimal level of arousal (determined by both item and subject arousal) which i s required for successful performance on a retention tes t i s directly related to the accessibility, or “functional dominance,” of the appropriate response. More precisely, it i s assumed that high arousal has the effect of biasing the subject’s search process toward readily accessible, stored .information more than is the case with lower levels of arousal. Substantive evidence for this generalization has been obtained.