Child-Parent Intervention with Marital Violence Sequelae

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Investigator: Alicia Lieberman, PhD
Sponsor: NIH National Institute of Mental Health

Location(s): United States

Description

We seek to develop and test a manual for a relationship-based intervention for preschoolers exposed to marital violence (MV) and to compare the efficacy of this specialized intervention to a community-referred comparison group in a randomized trial. Thirty, 3-5 year-old children and their mothers would be assigned to each condition. The intervention is scheduled to run for 50 joint mother-child sessions focusing on affect regulation and self-control methods, punitive discipline, and maternal affect dysregulation. Evaluation will consist of baseline, mid-point, outcome, and 6-month follow-up assessments. Noteworthy aspects of this application include the development of measures of treatment adherence and competency measure, and evaluation of multiple outcomes relating to attachment and child adjustment.