Military Family Advocacy in the U.S. Army: Program Service Outcomes and Family Participation

Violence in military families remains a vexing problem. Since the advent of the Global War on Terror, there is inconsistent evidence that the prevalence of family violence is increasing, particularly during and after military deployments. However, child neglect appears to increase significantly during military deployments. The military has developed family advocacy programs designed to keep families safe and intervene to reduce the deleterious effects of exposure to family violence. This is one of the first studies to examine the quality with which a family advocacy program is implemented and the degree to which families engage with the program. To conduct this study, the case files of 226 families who came in contact with the Army Family Advocacy Program (FAP) and whose cases were closed in 2013 were reviewed and coded across several implementation and service outcomes. These included involvement of qualified staff, whether or not appropriate victim and offender assessments were completed, degree of inter-agency communication, and appropriateness of referrals, among others. Soldier and family member participation in FAP and other Army-sponsored programs designed to reduce violence was also assessed. Generally speaking, the Army Family Advocacy Program was implemented with high quality, established processes and procedures for handling cases were largely followed, and FAP staff responded rapidly and thoroughly to reported abuse. However, family engagement with Army services and supports was low. Developing robust approaches to engaging families in family programming must be a high priority going forward.     

Anticipatory anxiety and avoidance in panic disorder with agoraphobia

The present study utilized the responses of 34 patients with panic disorder with agoraphobia to investigate the occurrence and anticipation of panic attacks in relation to the avoidance of specific situations from the Fear Questionnaire [Marks & Mathews (1979) Behaviour Research and Therapy, 17, 263-267]. Results indicated that self-reports of avoidance of specific situations were often significantly correlated with the anticipation of panic but rarely with the occurrence of panic. The occurrence and anticipation of panic were also frequently associated with social phobic situations in addition to agoraphobic situations.     

Extended contact through cross‐group romantic relationships

Cross‐group romantic relationships are an extremely intimate and often maligned form of intergroup contact. Yet, according to intergroup contact theory, these relationships have the potential to improve the intergroup attitudes of others via extended contact. This study combines the interpersonal and intergroup literatures to examine the outcomes associated with knowing a partner in a cross‐group romantic relationship. Results suggest that cross‐group romantic partners encounter greater disapproval toward their relationships than same‐group partners and, as a result, their relationships are perceived more negatively. Nevertheless, extended contact with cross‐group partners, controlling for participants' cross‐group friendships and romantic relationships, predicts more positive attitudes toward cross‐group dating and positive intergroup attitudes in general, mediated by perceived ingroup norms toward cross‐group relationships.     

Children's Use of Mnemonic Strategies: Variability in Response to Metamemory Training

In this study, 8- to 12-year-old children were tested to determine their level of use of a strategy for organizing lists of low-associated words into semantic groups. Then, on the basis of their scores in the strategy tests, the children were placed in either a strategic or nonstrategic group. The groups were divided into a sort-instruction training condition, in which they were told to group words so that they “go together” in some way, and a metamemory training condition, in which these instructions were supplemented by feedback, strategy reminders, and opportunities to self-test. One week later, each child's strategy use was reassessed. Children in the strategic group sorted semantically throughout training and transfer, and they showed high recall, regardless of condition. Children in the nonstrategic group showed high strategy use and recall during training, but they showed significantly more variability in recall than did the children in the strategic group. Children in the nonstrategicmetamemory condition who benefited from training were also more likely to transfer the use of the strategy than were children trained in the sort-instruction condition.     

Personality profiles of women attending an artificial insemination by donor clinic

The EPQ was administered to 43 women attending an artificial insemination by donor (AID) clinic. The results indicated that relative to age-norms, the women were significantly lower on Psychoticism and Neuroticism, and significantly higher on the Lie scale. There were no differences between those women who did, and those who did not, become pregnant over a 6-month period. On the basis of the personality scores obtained, we would describe women attending AID clinics as calm, controlled individuals who have chosen, in conjunction with their partner, what is a socially-acceptable solution to the problem.