bt31.4

Introduction
Ileana Arias, University of Georgia

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health problem for Americans, with serious consequences and costs for individuals, families, communities, and society. In the United States, approximately 1.5 million women and 834,700 men are physically assaulted or raped by intimate partners. The differences between women's and men's rates of physical assault victimization become greater as the severity of assault increases and, as a consequence of severe IPV, women suffer more and greater physical and psychological consequences. Although women are the primary and direct victims of IPV, children of battered women are at risk for the development of acute and long-term physical and emotional health problems, and for being abused themselves. This special series is devoted to empirical work focusing on risk factors and consequences of IPV against women and their children. The authors present an array of creative empirical efforts that respond to the complexities of IPV and encourage such complexities to be considered in the design of prevention and intervention programs.

General and Spouse-Specific Anger and Hostility in Subtypes of Maritally Violent Men and Nonviolent Men
Amy Holtzworth-Munroe, Uzma Rehman, & Katherine Herron, Indiana University

The present study compared anger and hostility across subtypes of physically aggressive husbands (i.e., family only, FO; low-level antisocial, LLA; borderline/dysphoric, BD; generally violent/antisocial, GVA) and nonviolent comparison groups (i.e., maritally distressed, NVD; and nondistressed, NVND). Men completed self-report questionnaires of general and spouse-specific (i.e., directed at wife) anger; their level of anger in response to hypothetical nonmarital and marital conflict situations was coded, as were their angry and hostile behaviors during marital problem discussions. Wives reported on husbands' spouse-specific anger on questionnaires and reported anticipated husband responses to hypothetical marital conflict situations. BD and GVA men had the highest levels of anger and hostility. Among violent men, FO men had the lowest levels; on most measures, they did not differ significantly from NVD men. Thus, level of anger and hostility was related to level of perpetration of violence, with the most severely violent men having the most anger and hostility.

Co-occurrence of Partner and Parent Aggression: Research and Treatment Implications
K. Daniel O'Leary, Amy M. Smith Slep, and Susan G. O'Leary, State University of New York at Stony Brook

Physical aggression toward a child and a partner within the same family occurs more frequently than once thought. In community samples, the co-occurrence rate appears to be 5% to 6%; in clinical samples, it may be more than 50%. The possibility of causal connections between and common predictors of the two problems is real. Despite data demonstrating a consistent relation between aggression toward a child and aggression toward a partner, research and clinical services are not well coordinated. We discuss ways research could benefit from greater awareness of co-occurring aggression, comment on issues related to assessing families for presence of co-occurring aggression or abuse, and describe approaches to intervention that take advantage of what we know about common correlates of parent and partner aggression. Finally, we acknowledge fledgling collaborative efforts by service agencies to keep both children and parents safe and offer suggestions for training clinicians to address co-occurring aggression.

Husbands' Marital Violence and the Adjustment Problems of Clinic-Referred Children
Renee McDonald, Ernest N. Jouriles, William Norwood, Holly Shinn Ware, and Elizabeth Ezell, University of Houston

This research assessed the relation between husbands' marital violence and child problems in a sample of families seeking clinical services for their children's (4 to 7 years) oppositional, noncompliant behavior. We assessed whether husbands' marital violence was associated with increased levels of child problems after accounting for parental marital discord, parent-child aggression, and wives' acts of aggression toward husbands. We also assessed the contribution of data collected from fathers in evaluating the relation between husbands' marital violence and child problems. Ninety mothers and fathers each provided data on husbands' marital violence, their children's externalizing and internalizing problems, general marital discord, parental aggression toward children, and wives' aggression toward husbands. Husbands' marital violence was associated with child problems, even after accounting for general marital discord, parental aggression toward children, and wives' aggression toward husbands. The documented relations were more a function of fathers' than mothers' reports of child problems. In fact, relations between husbands' marital violence and child problems emerged only when fathers' data were included.

Family Hostility and Children's Cognitive Processes
Anna Marie Medina, Gayla Margolin, and Rand R. Wilcox, University of Southern California

This study examined cognitive processes of children exposed to two types of family hostility: parents' interpartner aggression and/or maternal child abuse potential. Forty-nine mother-child dyads from a community sample participated. Mothers completed the Domestic Conflict Inventory and the Child Abuse Potential Inventory, while children completed cognitive tasks before and after listening to audiotaped vignettes of marital conflict. Study findings revealed that, following presentation of conflict vignettes, children exposed to high versus low levels of family hostility demonstrated fewer intrusion errors on the verbal learning task and showed improved performance on the verbal attention task, yet also performed more poorly on a measure of short delay verbal recall. Discussion addresses the ways in which specific types of cognitive processes are differentially affected by exposure to family hostility.

Family Violence: A Challenge for Behavior Therapists
Frank D. Fincham, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

The field of family violence poses a challenge for professionals at the levels of both research and practice. Fundamental to this challenge is clarity regarding the nature and labeling of phenomena, where we seek to find the phenomena and how we view them, the role of gender and of context in understanding the phenomena, and the integration of work on family violence into broader literatures on basic psychological processes. The present article discusses each of these issues in turn.

Psychometric Properties and Reference Point Data for the Revised Edition of the School Observation Coding System
Jenifer R. Jacobs, Stephen R. Boggs, Sheila M. Eyberg, Daniel Edwards, Patricia Durning, and Jane G. Querido, University of Florida, Cheryl B. McNeil, West Virginia University, and Beverly W. Funderburk, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center

The psychometric properties of a new observation coding system for children's disruptive classroom behavior were evaluated. The Revised Edition of the School Observation Coding System (REDSOCS) was used to observe 51 young children clinic-referred for conduct-disordered behavior and 182 nonreferred children from the classrooms of the referred children. Reference point data for the REDSOCS categories with preschoolers were obtained from the sample of nonreferred children. Interobserver reliability and concurrent validity of the three REDSOCS categories with teacher rating scales of oppositional behavior and hyperactivity were demonstrated. Initial evidence of convergent and discriminant validity was established through correlations of the REDSOCS categories with the subscales of the Revised Conners Teacher Rating Scale. Differences in REDSOCS scores between the nonreferred children and children referred for school behavior problems provided evidence of discriminative validity for the REDSOCS categories. The REDSOCS was also found to classify correctly the majority of referred children according to the presence or absence of school behavior problems. The results suggest that the REDSOCS is a promising instrument for measuring disruptive classroom behavior in preschoolers.

Predictors of Outcome in Exposure-Based Cognitive and Behavioral Treatments for Phobic and Anxiety Disorders in Children
Steven L. Berman, Carl F. Weems, Wendy K. Silverman, and William M. Kurtines, Florida International University

This study examined predictors of exposure-based cognitive and behavioral treatments for phobic and anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. Children's sociodemographics, diagnostic characteristics (e.g., number of diagnoses), treatment format (i.e., individual, group), child symptoms assessed from the perspective of the child and parent (e.g., anxiety, fear), parent symptoms, and marital adjustment were examined. The best predictors of treatment outcome were depression and trait anxiety in the child, and several psychological symptoms in the parent (e.g., depression, hostility, paranoia). Parent symptoms were less effective predictors with older children and with group treatment. The results are discussed with respect to previous research findings as well as potential treatment implications.

Controlled Comparison of Computer-Aided Vicarious Exposure Versus Live Exposure in the Treatment of Spider Phobia
Lisa J. Gilroy, Kenneth C. Kirkby, & Brett A. Daniels, University of Tasmania, Ross G. Menzies, University of Sydney, and Iain M. Montgomery, University of Tasmania

Forty-five participants diagnosed as having specific phobia of spiders were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: (a) computer-aided vicarious exposure; (b) therapist-delivered live exposure; (c) relaxation placebo. Each group received three 45-minute sessions. Phobic symptom severity was measured at pretreatment, posttreatment, and at a 3-month follow-up assessment with the Spider Questionnaire, Fear Questionnaire, Phobic Targets and Work Adjustment Ratings Scale, and a Behavioral Assessment Test with Subjective Units of Distress Rating Scale. The results showed that the computer-aided vicarious exposure was an effective treatment for spider phobia and comparable to live exposure therapy in significantly reducing phobic symptoms. Both the computer and live exposure treatments were more effective than the relaxation placebo treatment.

Explicit Memory Bias for Threat Words in Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Bruce H. Friedman, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Julian F. Thayer, University of Missouri-Columbia, and Thomas D. Borkovec, The Pennsylvania State University

Although findings of an implicit memory bias for threat words in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are fairly robust, the data regarding an explicit bias in this disorder are less consistent. This issue was investigated in the context of two studies directed primarily at the examination of attentional and physiological underpinnings of GAD. In these experiments, GAD clients and nonanxious control participants (35 and 29 in Study 1, and 22 and 31 in Study 2, respectively) engaged in an S1-S2 conditioning procedure that involved the presentation of a series of neutral stimuli (colored dots) paired with threat and nonthreat words, followed by a free recall test. Instructions were to simply look at the dot and read the word silently. A free recall task was administered at the end of each experimental session. Contrary to previous trends in the literature, a marked bias in the GAD group toward recall of the threat words emerged in both studies. These results are considered in the light of methodological differences with previous research, information processing characteristics of GAD, and the role of physiological assessment in cognitive studies of anxiety.

Trait Differences in Affective and Attentional Responding to Threat Revealed by Emotional Stroop Interference and Startle Reflex Modulation
Mark W. Miller, Florida State University, and Christopher J. Patrick, University of Minnesota

This study utilized startle reflex and RT measures to examine the hypothesis that anxious individuals exhibit an attentional bias for threatening information. High and low trait-anxious (HTA; LTA) participants performed an emotional Stroop task in which pleasant, neutral, and threat words were presented under conditions of anticipation, or no anticipation, of electric shock. Acoustic startle probes were presented during the interval between word presentation and production of the color-naming response. HTA participants showed longer color-naming RT for threat words than pleasant words under both shock anticipation and safe conditions of the procedure. Under safe conditions, startle patterns paralleled these effects with HTA participants exhibiting smaller blink responses-indicating greater allocation of processing resources-for threat words than pleasant words. Under shock anticipation conditions, HTA individuals showed an opposite response pattern: startle blinks were potentiated for threat words relative to pleasant, indicating that the emotional impact of the threat words was enhanced by the aversive mood state. Despite evidence that the startle response effects were limited by habituation to the first half (180 trials) of the procedure, these findings support the hypothesis that HTA individuals possess an attentional bias for threatening information and exhibit greater defensive emotional reactivity to threat cues during states of heightened negative affectivity than low anxious individuals.

The Percieved Function of Eating for Bulimic, Subclinical Bulimic, and Non-Eating Disordered Women
Nancy E. Sherwood, University of Minnesota, and Janis H. Crowther, Lori Wills, and Yossef S. Ben-Porath, Kent State University

This study investigated the perceived function of eating for women with bulimia nervosa (BN) and subclinical (SC) BN. Although previous studies suggest that, independent of eating, BNs report using food as a way of coping, research has not assessed eating as a coping response in the naturalistic setting. Two hypotheses regarding the perceived function of eating were tested, an avoidant coping and a self-nurturance hypothesis. For 1 week, 20 women with BN, 32 women with subclinical BN, and 28 non-eating disordered women completed food diaries assessing the occurrence and severity of negative events, the use of self-nurturance and avoidance coping, and positive and negative affect before and after eating. Results suggest that women with BN were more likely to report the occurrence of negative events before eating episodes compared to SCs and controls. The affect analyses suggest that eating is associated with an increase in negative emotions for BNs. Taken together, the results suggest that eating for women with BN may be viewed as an avoidant coping response. This attempt by women with BN to cope, however, appears to be maladaptive in that it perpetuates their high level of distress.

Does Comorbid Major Depressive Disorder Influence Outcome of Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD?
Jonathan S. Abramowitz and Edna B. Foa, University of Pennsylvania

Studies that have examined the effects of comorbid depression on response to treatment in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have yielded inconsistent results. We examined treatment outcome for 15 OCD patients with comorbid major depressive disorder (MDD) and 33 OCD patients without MDD. All patients received intensive cognitive-behavioral therapy by exposure and response (ritual) prevention. Improvement in OCD symptoms was observed in both patient groups, and treatment gains were maintained at follow-up. Whereas the presence of a comorbid MDD diagnosis in OCD was not related to treatment failure, nondepressed patients had significantly lower posttreatment and follow-up OCD severity scores.