Marital interactions.
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Adaptation, Psychological↗
Biomedical subjects
K D O'Leary
Publications and source records attributed to K D O'Leary.
Longitudinal prediction of marital discord from premarital expressions of affect.
Theoretical and empirical analyses suggest that affective features of dyadic communication bear importantly on relationship satisfaction. A circumplex model that originated in research on the structure of affect was first replicated using data from premarital problem-solving discussions. Negativity, Positivity, and Disengagement emerged as the three primary factors. Multiple regression analyses, controlling for premarital relationship satisfaction, showed affective Disengagement at premarriage to be negatively associated with marital satisfaction at 18 (n = 84) and 30 (n = 72) months after marriage. Negativity of premarital affective expression correlated negatively with premarital satisfaction (n = 88) but not with postmarital satisfaction. Two variables formed by combining affect factors contributed to the prediction of 30-month marital satisfaction. Elements associated with current marital satisfaction appear to differ from those associated with later marital satisfaction.
Adult↗
Marital therapy: a viable treatment for depression and marital discord.
Thirty-six maritally discordant couples with depressed wives were randomly assigned to marital therapy, cognitive therapy, or a waiting-list control condition. The women given marital or cognitive therapy showed significant and clinically meaningful reductions in their depression. The women given marital therapy showed greater increases in marital satisfaction than did those given cognitive therapy or no therapy; these differences were maintained at 1-year follow-up. These findings suggest that marital therapy may be the most effective and appropriate treatment for clinically significant marital discord with coexisting clinically significant depression.
Adult↗
Effects of maternal mood on mother-son interaction patterns.
This study evaluated the impact of maternal mood on mother-son interaction patterns. Forty boys between the ages of 46 and 72 months and their mothers participated. A within-subject experimental design was employed so that all mothers participated in both a positive and a negative mood induction. Observations of mother-son interactions were conducted immediately following the mood inductions. During the negative mood condition, mothers issued fewer positive statements toward their children and engaged in less general verbal interaction. In addition, children were less complaint with maternal commands during the negative mood condition. Implications of the effects of mood on mother-child interaction patterns are discussed.
Adult↗
Prevalence and stability of physical aggression between spouses: a longitudinal analysis.
Community couples (N = 272) were assessed in a longitudinal study of early marriage. More women than men reported physically aggressing against their partners at premarriage (44% vs. 31%) and 18 months (36% vs. 27%). At 30 months, men and women did not report significantly different rates of aggression (32% vs. 25%). However, using either the self-report or the partner's report, the prevalence of aggression was higher for women than men at each assessment period. Modal forms of physical aggression for both men and women were pushing, shoving, and slapping. Conditional probability analyses indicated that the likelihood of physically aggressing at 30 months given that one had engaged in such aggression before marriage and at 18 months after marriage was .72 for women and .59 for men. Furthermore, 25-30% of the recipients of physical aggression at all three assessment periods were seriously maritally discordant at 30 months.
Adult↗
Interspousal aggression, marital discord, and child problems.
The association between interspousal aggression and child problems was assessed after controlling for parents' general marital discord. Participants were 87 couples requesting marital therapy who had children between 5 and 12 years old. Spouses completed measures of marital aggression, marital discord, child problems, and family demographics. Marital aggression contributed unique variance to the prediction of conduct disorder, personality disorder, inadequacy-immaturity, and clinical levels of problematic child behavior after marital discord, child's age, child's sex, and Marital Discord X Child's sex interaction were controlled. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
Adult↗
Psychological aggression predicts physical aggression in early marriage.
Psychological aggression by self and partner, physical aggression by the partner, and marital dissatisfaction were examined as longitudinal predictors of first instances of physical aggression during marriage. Subjects who were not physically aggressive at a premarital assessment were selected from a sample of 393 engaged couples. Couples participated in three subsequent assessments over the first 30 months of marriage. As hypothesized, individuals' own psychological aggression predicted their initial incidents of physical aggression in marriage. Psychological aggression by their partners also predicted initial incidents of physical aggression. Prior physical aggression by their partners was inconsistently associated with first instances of physical aggression. Contrary to our hypothesis, previous levels of marital dissatisfaction did not predict initial incidents of physical aggression. These findings were consistent across sexes. The results underscore the progression from psychological to physical abuse and have clear implications for understanding the development and prevention of interspousal aggression.
Adult↗
Predicting child behavior problems in maritally violent families.
Previous research indicates that children from violent marriages are more likely to suffer from conduct problems and/or anxiety disorders than children from nonviolent, satisfactory marriages. However, knowledge regarding specific factors present in violent marriages relating to child problems is limited. The present study examined the relationships involving interspousal aggression, parent-child aggression, and child behavior problems in a sample of 45 children from maritally violent families. Mothers indicated how often their children witnessed interspousal aggression and were victims of parent-child aggression. Mothers also rated their children's problem behaviors while children reported on their own depressive symptoms. The witnessing of interspousal aggression was highly associated with parental aggression directed toward children. Parent-child aggression related to attention problems, anxiety-withdrawal, motor excess, and conduct problems in children. However, the witnessing of interspousal aggression was not significantly related to child behavior problems. These results are consistent with theoretical predictions linking marital problems to child behavior by virtue of their association with parenting.
Anxiety Disorders↗
Parental behavior patterns and conduct disorders in girls.
Conduct-disordered (CD) girls, 9 to 11 years old, were compared to nonconduct-disordered (NCD) girls of the same age using parental reports about themselves and their children and child reports of themselves and their parents. Correlations were obtained between parental behavior patterns and the behavior patterns of the girls as perceived by three family members: mother, father, and the target child. The results indicated that (1) parents of CD girls were more hostile in some contexts than parents of NCD girls, (2) relationships between parental behavioral characteristics and children's behavioral characteristics were stronger and more numerous for mothers than for fathers, and (3) the children's perception of their own behaviors and the parents' marriages tended to correspond with their parents' perceptions. In general, the pattern of results suggests that, in terms of aggressive behavior patterns, female children may be modeling the behavior of their parents, particularly that of their mothers.
Aggression↗
Contributions of affect, attitudes, and behavior to marital satisfaction.
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Affect↗
Hyperactivity in Italy.
Prevalence rates of hyperactivity in Italy using commonly accepted cutoff scores in the United States were 20% for boys and 3% for girls; the combined prevalence rate was 12%. Italian children exhibited rates of hyperactive behaviors similar to those of children in New Zealand, Spain, and portions of the United States. Nevertheless, rates of hyperactivity are influenced by ethnic and cultural factors, and differences in prevalence rates may be expected in many situations. Factor structures of the Conners' Teacher Rating Scale for boys and girls were different. The need for separate factor analyses for males and females is stressed; hyperactivity and conduct problems, in fact, were separate factors for girls whereas such behaviors were subsumed under one factor for boys. There were also important similarities and differences with the factor structures for boys and girls in Italy and Spain. Methodological issues such as complete specification of the sample and assuring representativeness of samples are discussed.
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗
Interspousal reliability of reports of marital violence.
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Adult↗
Extramarital sex: impact on depression and commitment in couples seeking marital therapy.
The effects of extramarital sex on depression and commitment were examined in couples seeking marital therapy. One hundred and twenty couples completed a standard assessment battery which assessed level of depression, level of commitment and demographic variables. Couples presenting extramarital sex as an issue reported higher rates of depression and lower levels of commitment to their marriages. In fact, all couples presenting extramarital sex indicated either lowered commitment, elevated depression, or both. Interestingly, it was the spouse engaging in extramarital sex who was most likely to show higher levels of depression and/or lower levels of commitment than other same sex spouses presenting for marital therapy. The need for individual sessions with the spouse engaging in extramarital sex as a preliminary step in marital therapy is discussed.
Adult↗
Marital discord and child behavior problems in a nonclinic sample.
Mothers' evaluations of their marital relationship and of their children's behavior at home and teachers' ratings of the children's behavior in school were obtained using well-established measures. While an association was found between ratings of marital discord and children's problematic behavior, the relation was a fairly weak one. The present findings are discussed in comparison to the results of other research that has relied upon clinic samples and nonindependent ratings in examining the relation between marital and child problems. In general, it appears that different methodological procedures lead to quite different conclusions about the strength of the association between interparental conflict and child behavior problems.
Adult↗
The influence of marital therapy on sexual satisfaction.
The influence of behavioral marital therapy on sexual satisfaction was assessed in 44 consecutive cases for which pre and post data were obtained. There were significant increases in both marital and sexual satisfaction associated with marital therapy. Sexual problems were presented in approximately 40% of the cases, but whether sex was presented as a problem or not generally did not affect therapy outcome. Positive feelings toward spouse or caring for one's spouse improved significantly from pre- to posttherapy.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
Assessment of positive feelings toward spouse.
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Female↗
Multivariate assessment of conflict in distressed and nondistressed mother-adolescent dyads.
A battery of measures was used to assess conflict between mothers and young adolescents (females and males, 11 to 15 years of age). Two groups of families, one composed of a distressed clinical sample (N = 38), the other a nondistressed normative sample (N = 40), participated. The assessment battery included retrospective judgments, frequency estimates, self-monitored home recording, and tape-recorded discussion of a home problem. Content of assessment measures tapped aspects of parental control, decision-making, self-reported interaction behavior, arguments, interaction behavior rated by independent "blind" observers, frequency and anger-intensity of specific problematic issues, and perceptions of positive and negative behaviors of the other family member. Based on univariate analyses, 21 of the 26 defined variables discriminated significantly in the predicted direction. Maternal and adolescent reports of behavior and independent ratings of tape-recorded interaction emerged as strong and consistent discriminators. Stepwise multivariate discriminant analysis provided successful classification of 100% of the families based on the inclusion of nine variables. In a cross-validation sample, 84% of the families were correctly classified. Implications for systematic outcome research as well as clinical application are discussed.
Adolescent↗
Formal and informal classroom settings: effects on hyperactivity.
The behavior of hyperactive children was compared to controls in two different classroom settings. One setting (Informal) involved choice and variety of tasks; the other setting (Formal) involved teacher specification of a small number of tasks. As assessed by a composite observational measure of hyperactivity, there were significant differences between the hyperactive and control groups in the Formal but not in the Informal setting. Analyses of five individual categories of hyperactive behavior showed that, with one exception, the hyperactive group tended to display higher frequencies of behavior than did controls in both settings. For two of the categories, the difference between the groups was significantly larger in the Formal than in the Informal setting. Finally, a modified observational code was suggested that differentiated hyperactives from controls equally in the two settings.
Aggression↗