RECOVERING THE FATHER IN MIND AND FLESH: HISTORY,TRIADIC FUNCTIONING,AND DEVELOPMENTAL IMPLICATIONS

This paper aims to restore the father and paternal function to their rightful place alongside the mother and maternity in order to counter the prevailing matricentric, dyadic bias in psychoanalytic theory and technique. The author contends that both the symbolic and the actual, flesh‐and‐blood father are necessary to optimize his child's development. The paternal function inevitably operates in a triadic matrix; thirdness is always psychically in existence—with the father ever present in the mother's unconscious mind—and the paternal third is necessary to open up symbolic space. As an embodied other, the actual father, both as a separating agent and an attracting object, is called upon to recognize his child's otherness throughout the inescapable father–child rivalries, neglect, and desire.     

FAMILY CONFLICT MODERATES EARLY PARENT–CHILD BEHAVIORAL TRANSACTIONS

The reciprocal transactions that shape early parent–child relationships are influenced by contextual stress, such as family conflict. Although family conflict is a salient stressor to the family system, few studies have considered how parent–child transactions vary according to exposure to family conflict. The present study examined how family conflict alters early parent–child behavioral transactions. We utilized three waves of data from a multisite longitudinal study of low‐income families (N = 2, 876), child age 14 months, 24 months, and 36 months, to identify behavioral transactions of positive and negative maternal (supportiveness, negative regard) and child (engagement, negativity) behaviors. Results indicated that family conflict at 14 months diminished the positive association between maternal supportiveness and child engagement, and amplified the inverse association between maternal negativity and child engagement. Family conflict at 14 months also was associated with increased stability of child negativity and subsequent increased maternal negative regard at 36 months, in part via increases in 24‐month child negativity. In sum, family conflict occurring early in childhood predicted and moderated behavioral transactions between young children and their mothers.     

Usability of a Smartphone Application to Support the Prevention and Early Intervention of Anxiety in Youth

Mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders are common in youth with anxiety problems being among the most prevalent, typically failing to spontaneously remit, and placing some youth at risk for additional difficulties. Mobile health (mHealth) might be a novel avenue to strengthen prevention efforts for child anxiety, since program effects are generally small. However, although a significant number of mHealth tools have been developed, few have been evaluated in terms of usability (or even clinical effectiveness). Usability testing is the first level of evaluation in responsible mHealth efforts as it is one of the main barriers to usage and adoption. As such, the objective of this research was to evaluate the usability of a smartphone application (app) corresponding to an indicated prevention and early intervention targeting youth anxiety. To accomplish this, 132 children (M_age = 9.65, 63% girls) and 45 service providers (M_age = 29.13, 87% female) rated our app along five established dimensions of usability (ease of use, ease of learning, quality of support information, satisfaction, and stigma). Findings showed that the app was highly and positively rated by youth and providers, with some variations (lower ratings when errors occurred). Path analyses also showed that system understanding was significantly related to greater system satisfaction, but that such relation occurred through the quality of support information offered by the app. Together, this has research and clinical implications as it highlights avenues for advancing youth care via mHealth usability evaluation, including prior to establishing effectiveness.     

Development and Refinement of a Targeted Sexual Risk Reduction Intervention for Women With a History of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is associated with sexual risk behavior in adulthood. Traditional sexual risk reduction interventions do not meet the unique needs of women who have been sexually abused. In the current paper, we describe the four-stage process we followed to develop and refine a targeted sexual risk reduction intervention for this population. First, initial quantitative work revealed that the intervention should address how maladaptive thoughts related to traumatic sexualization, trust, powerlessness, and guilt/shame (traumagenic dynamics constructs) influence current sexual behavior. Second, qualitative interviews with 10 women who reported a history of CSA (M age = 34 years; 90% African American) as well as current sexual risk behavior provided support for targeting maladaptive thoughts associated with these traumagenic dynamics constructs. Third, based on the qualitative and quantitative results, we developed a 5-session, group-delivered intervention to address the maladaptive thoughts that occurred as a result of CSA, as well as the cognitive-behavioral determinants of sexual risk behavior. This intervention drew heavily on cognitive behavioral techniques to address cognitions associated with CSA and the links between these cognitions and current sexual risk behavior. Techniques from trauma-based therapies, as well as motivational techniques, were also incorporated into the intervention. Finally, we refined the intervention with 24 women (M age = 33 years; 79% African American), and assessed feasibility and acceptability. These women reported high levels of satisfaction with the intervention. The resultant intervention is currently being evaluated in a small, randomized controlled trial.     

Betrayed? That’s Me: Implicit and Explicit Betrayed Self-Concept in Young Adults Abused as Children

Attenuated awareness of betrayal, or “betrayal blindness,” is a proposed survival mechanism in relationships where awareness of betrayal will mobilize confront-or-withdraw responses that jeopardize a needed relationship. Empirical tests of betrayal blindness and its effects are hampered by the methodological conundrum of how to measure an absence of awareness. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity of a novel empirical method to measure implicit betrayed self-concept, the first step in a long-term research aim to operationalize “betrayal blindness.” Informed by betrayal trauma theory, we hypothesized that a history of betrayal within close childhood relationships (but not recent close relationships or “not-close” relationships) would predict implicit betrayed-self associations in young adulthood. An adaptation of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and measured implicit and explicit betrayed-self associations and self-reported history of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse in 529 university undergraduates was designed. Internal consistency reliability of the betrayed self IAT was low but adequate. Hierarchical regression modeling revealed that history of abuse within close childhood relationships (but not recent close relationships or “not-close” relationships) predicted betrayed-self IAT scores. The effect size was small, β = .12, p < .05, 95% CI [.01, .07], R² = .12. In addition, history of betrayal by someone close (but not someone “not close”) at any age predicted increased explicit evaluations of the self as betrayed versus respected, a small effect size, R² = .16. Findings indicate that implicit betrayed self-concept can be measured empirically.     

Predictors of Child Maltreatment Potential in a National Sample of Mothers of Young Children

Although previous studies have furthered our broad ability to predict child maltreatment potential, young children remain at the highest risk for experiencing maltreatment. Thus, several variables of relevance for this population were examined. A national community sample of 158 mothers with young children between ages 1.5 and 5 years rated their young children’s temperament as well as their own temperament, emotion regulation, stress, coping, and child maltreatment potential. Young children’s mood quality as well as mothers’ mood quality, flexibility/rigidity, emotion dysregulation, parenting stress, cumulated severity of stress, and emotion-focused coping added unique incremental variance to the prediction of child maltreatment potential, accounting for 67% of the variance overall. Further, mothers’ emotion dysregulation mediated the relationship between mothers’ flexibility/rigidity and child maltreatment potential. Consequently, emotion regulation skills represent an important point of intervention for mothers of young children who are at increased risk for child maltreatment due to difficult temperament characteristics.     

Religion as capital: Christianity in the lives of Anglo-Indian youth in India

Religion is an important marker of identity for India’s Anglo-Indians. It distinguishes them within the principally non-Christian context and is integral to socializing youth to their distinct Anglo-Indian culture and heritage. This can be observed in Anglo-Indian practice—attending Christian schools, church-going, celebrating religious festivals, making pilgrimages—which forms a significant part of a matrix through which young Anglo-Indians learn how to perform their Anglo-Indianness. Our recent research (2013–2014) looked at the role of religion in the lives of Anglo-Indians intergenerationally and transnationally, through a survey, interviews, and participant observation. The results suggest that the performed religiosity of Anglo-Indian youth in India yields certain benefits for this group. It constitutes a capital which has the potential to make an enormous difference to their lives—socially, culturally, and otherwise. For example, Christian practice provides them with access to élite Christian educational institutions and the career possibilities that follow from such education. This article describes our research, focusing upon the findings related to Anglo-Indian youth in India. In particular, it argues that in various ways, the practice of Christianity both acts and is recognized by young Anglo-Indians as a source of capital in their lives, which is not to say that religion is practised for the purpose of acquiring capital. Rather, religious practice is a part of being Anglo-Indian that in India accrues capital.     

‘They’ve invited me into their world’: a focus group with clinicians delivering a behaviour change intervention in a UK contraceptive service

Although teenage conceptions rates in the United Kingdom (UK) have seen a downward trend recently, it remains imperative that contraceptive services for young people continue to improve. To ensure that evidence-based interventions are sustained in clinical practice, it is useful to assess the experiences of those delivering them. This study explores the experiences of sexual health clinicians who were trained to deliver a one-to-one behaviour change intervention aiming to improve contraceptive use in young women. The intervention was set in a UK NHS contraceptive and sexual health service and involved clinicians’ facilitating (within one-to-one consultations) the formation of implementation intentions (or ‘if-then’ plans) that specified when, where and how young women would use contraception. A focus group was conducted with seven clinicians who had delivered the intervention. A thematic analysis of the focus group revealed three overall themes: (1) How the intervention worked in practice; (2) barriers and benefits to delivering the intervention; and (3) positive changes to individual consultation style and wider ‘best practice’ within the clinic. Our findings show that, with support, clinical staff would be in favour of incorporating if-then planning as a strategy to help promote contraceptive adherence in young women.