An advocacy intervention program for women with abusive partners: Six-month follow-up

Presented the 6-month follow-up findings of an experimental intervention designed to provide postshelter advocacy services to women with abusive partners. The intervention involved randomly assigning half the research participants to receive the free services of an advocate, 4 to 6 hours per week, for the first 10 weeks postshelter. One hundred forty-one battered women were interviewed about their experiences immediately upon their exit from a domestic violence shelter: 95% of the sample were interviewed 10 weeks thereafter (postintervention), and 93% were successfully tracked and interviewed 6 months later. At the 6-month follow-up, participants in both groups reported increased social support, increased quality of life, less depression, less emotional attachment to their assailants, and an increased sense of personal power. Although women in both groups reported some decrease in physical abuse over time, there were no statistically significant differences between those with and those without advocates, and abuse continued to be a problem for many women. Those who were still involved with their assailants continued to experience higher levels of abuse and had been more economically dependent upon the men prior to entering the shelter. Women who had worked with advocates continued to report being more satisfied with their overall quality of life than did the women in the control group. The authors thank the Editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Thanks also to all present and past staff of the Community Advocacy Project, who helped in data collection and analyses. This work was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant 1R01 MH 44849.     

The Incubator Treatment Development Model: The SAFETY Treatment for Suicidal/Self-Harming Youth

Youths who make suicide attempts or engage in repetitive self-harm are at risk for future suicide attempts and death by suicide or self-harm. This treatment development report focuses on the Safe Alternatives for Teens and Youth (SAFETY) treatment. SAFETY is a 12-week outpatient child and family-centered cognitive-behavioral treatment, informed by dialectical-behavior therapy, and designed to promote safety following a suicide attempt or repeated episodes of self-harm. Previous reports have described results of small open and randomized treatment development trials. Here, we describe our “incubator” treatment development model. Combining scientific rigor with attention to the community context in which treatment is delivered, the incubator model emphasizes laboratory-based treatment development trials and quantitative and qualitative data generated through partnerships with community treatment sites and youth and parent consumers of care. Aims of this approach are to: (1) integrate information from our partners throughout the treatment development process; (2) create a more feasible and easily transportable “youth” and “family” centered treatment; and (3) accelerate the pace with which laboratory-based treatment advances can be incorporated into improvements in community care. We describe our incubator treatment development model and how data generated through our treatment development process and interactions between the laboratory and community teams contributed to the development of the SAFETY treatment.     

Appearance commentary from romantic partners: Evaluation of an adapted measure

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Verbal Commentary on Physical Appearance Scale (VCOPAS; Herbozo & Thompson, 2006b) after modifying it to capture appearance feedback given by romantic partners (VCOPAS-P). Women participants (N = 248) completed the VCOPAS-P, as well as measures of disordered eating, body image dissatisfaction, relationship quality, and socially desirable responding. Exploratory factor analysis identified the best factor structure for the VCOPAS-P, which contained three factors similar to the VCOPAS. Correlations between the VCOPAS-P subscales and measures of disordered eating, body image dissatisfaction, relationship quality, and social desirability responding demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity of the VCOPAS-P. There was a significant positive correlation between the negative comments subscale of the VCOPAS-P and the measures of body dissatisfaction and weight concern (measured by the EDE-Q). Additionally, VCOPAS-P subscales reflecting positive comments about appearance and weight were associated with greater relationship satisfaction.     

Women with Physical Disabilities Who Want to Leave Their Partners

Abstract

Four domains of barriers for women with physical disabilities who are considering leaving a partner are outlined. These obstacles include (a) physical needs; (b) financial needs; (c) custody concerns; and (d) relationship issues. Disability policies can have direct bearing on the lives of women with disabilities, and hence on their freedom to choose to remain with or to leave a partner.     

Estimating One's Own and Others' Multiple Intelligence: A Cross-Cultural Study from Guinea Bissau and Portugal

This study examined the estimations of multiple intelligences for self, partner and parents. One hundred and fifty two students (males = 81, females = 68, and 3 have not indicated their sex; mean age = 24.02, SD = 3.08) from Guinea Bissau estimated their own, their partners', and their parents' IQ scores on each of Gardner's ten multiple intelligences: verbal (linguistic), logical (mathematical), spatial, musical, body-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, existential, spiritual and naturalistic. In contrast to previous results (A. Furnham, 2001) sex differences in self-estimates did not occur in this Guinean sample. Participants rated overall intelligence of their father higher than that of their mother. An existing data set on estimates of intelligence in a Portuguese sample was used for a cross-cultural comparison between Portuguese and Guinean participants. There were consistent and clear culture differences. Guinean gave higher self, partner and family ratings than Portuguese. Results are discussed in terms of the growing literature in the self-estimates of intelligence, as well as limitations of that approach.     

Romantic relationship commitment and the threat of alternatives on social media

Although previous findings suggest a link between adults' use of social networking sites (SNS) and relationship commitment, research has been lacking. This study of 427 emerging and young adults (aged 18–32 years, 71.20% female) indicated that exposure to alternative partners on SNS was indirectly related to relationship commitment through the pursuing of alternative partners on SNS. The more frequently they were exposed to alternative partners on SNS, the more they engaged in pursuing these alternative partners, which negatively affected their relationship commitment. Furthermore, a positive relation between exposure and romantic comparison to alternative partners was found. Gender did not moderate these relations. The discussion focuses on the implications of the findings for relationship development.     

Adjustment modes in the trajectory of progressive multiple sclerosis: a qualitative study and conceptual model

Objective: We examined cognitive and behavioural challenges and adaptations for people with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) and developed a preliminary conceptual model of changes in adjustment over time.

Design: Using theoretical sampling, 34 semi-structured interviews were conducted with people with MS. Participants were between 41 and 77 years of age. Thirteen were diagnosed with primary progressive MS and 21 with secondary progressive MS. Data were analysed using a grounded theory approach.

Results: Participants described initially bracketing the illness off and carrying on their usual activities but this became problematic as the condition progressed and they employed different adjustment modes to cope with increased disabilities. Some scaled back their activities to live a more comfortable life, others identified new activities or adapted old ones, whereas at times, people disengaged from the adjustment process altogether and resigned to their condition. Relationships with partners, emotional reactions, environment and perception of the environment influenced adjustment, while people were often flexible and shifted among modes.

Conclusions: Adjusting to a progressive condition is a fluid process. Future interventions can be tailored to address modifiable factors at different stages of the condition and may involve addressing emotional reactions concealing/revealing the condition and perceptions of the environment.     

Making the Parents as Partners Principle a Reality: The Role of the Alliance

We explore the dimensions of the Parents as Partners principle, the widely touted, but somewhat elusive construct in the literature on treating children with serious mental illness, whose poorly defined boundaries, lack of empirical grounding, and overemphasis on instrumental dimensions attenuates its usefulness as a guide for practice and research. Four major barriers to the realization of this principle are outlined, all of which may impede actualizing partnership in practice and may also inhibit the early formation of a positive clinician/parent alliance, a neglected, though key dimension of true partnership practice. The alliance, which has a long clinical and research history in psychotherapy and behavioral research, and more recently, in a variety of community-based interventions, is a precursor to active client partnership with helpers and to treatment participation, as well as therapeutic in its own right. After reviewing relevant alliance research, we close with a beginning research agenda to incorporate the alliance as an integral component of future conceptualization and research about the Parents as Partners principle.     

Loneliness: Lost in the Landscape of Meaning

The present study is an examination of sex differences in the sources of annoyance that partners in close relationships might experience as a result of each other's behavior. To test hypotheses derived from S. E. Cross and L. Madson's (1997) self-construal theory and from D. M. Buss's (1989) evolutionary psychology-based model, men and women of varying ages and educational levels were asked to rate how annoyed they would be with each of 13 potentially annoying behaviors of their intimate partner. Results were consistent with self-construal theory in that relationship-threatening behaviors were more annoying to women than to men and autonomy threatening behaviors were more annoying to men than to women. Results were also consistent with evolutionary psychology in that aggressive behaviors were more annoying to women than to men and sexual withholding was relatively more annoying to men than to women. Sex differences in annoyance with relationship-threatening, autonomy-threatening, and reproductive strategy behaviors were independent of age and education level, although these factors did affect respondents' annoyance when partners were unemotional, sloppy, or pleased with their own appearance. Results showed that sources of annoyance in intimate relationships should not only be studied from an evolutionary perspective but from the perspectives of social, personality, and developmental psychology as well.