Domestic Violence, Domestic Abuse, Family Conflict, Aggression
Conditions
Keywords
intimate partner violence, aggression, batterers intervention, mindfulness, communication skills, couples
Brief summary
This tests the immediate impact of two brief interventions on couples reporting intimate partner violence using the proximal change experimental design. Couples will be randomly assigned to a mindfulness conditions, a communication exercise or a placebo condition. Outcome measures include observed and experimentally assessed aggression.
Detailed description
This pilot study is designed to test the effects of two brief interventions on communication and emotional expression between intimate partners who have experienced recent domestic violence. In addition, it will provide some basic laboratory findings on differences in distress tolerance between perpetrators and victims of domestic abuse. Specifically, using the proximal change experimental design, couples will engaged in a 7.5 minute conflict discussion while being videotaped and having their autonomic responding monitored. Then they will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a communication skills training exercise, a mindfulness condition, or a placebo control. Next, ,couples will engaged in second 7.5 minute conflict discussion. It is hypothesized that those in both the communication skills training and mindfulness condition will display more positive and less aggressive behavior in their second conflict discussion as compared to their first. It is also expected that they will administer less aggression (as measured by delivery of a loud noise) to their partner after both of the active interventions. In addition, multiple measures of distress tolerance will be administered to both partners. It is expected that couples with a characterologically violent perpetrator, he or she will evidence decreased distress tolerance and the victimized partner will evidence increased distress tolerance
Interventions
BEHAVIORALCommunication Skills Training
Gentle start-up is one treatment technique in the Creating Healthy Relationship Program written by John Gottman, Ph.D.
BEHAVIORALMindfulness
Acceptance/willingness of unwanted emotions is treatment technique of Achieving Change through Value-Based Behavior (ACTV) written by Amie Zarling, Ph.D.
BEHAVIORALPlacebo
Couples randomly assigned to this condition listen to music on headphones. This may be considered an active placebo as it is similar to a Time Out technique taught in battering interventions.
Sponsors
University of Houston
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Masking description
couples are not informed as to what condition they are assigned
Intervention model description
random assignment to two active conditions vs. a placebo control
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 80 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Adult co-habituating couples Reporting some violence in the past year (score \> 0 on CTS2 physical abuse subscale)
Exclusion criteria
Homosexual couples Children under 18 non-English speakers
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| TAPS aggression paradigm | 10 minutes: Change in aggression from first to second conflict discussion | Overt aggression will be assessed using a modified version of the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP; Epstein & Taylor, 1967). The TAP is an established method to study aggression in the laboratory. It is a deceptive, competitive reaction time task in which the participant competes against an opponent which is actually the computer program. |
| Observed aggression | 10 minutes: Change in observed behavior/emotion from first to second conflict discussion | Specific Affect Coding System (SPAFF; Gottman, McCoy, Coan, Collier, 1996). SPAFF categorizes 16 emotions based on facial affect, vocal tone, body language, and content of speech. |
Contacts
Primary ContactAlicia Vargas
Outcome results
None listed