Child Regulation and Exposure to Marital Violence

描述(由申请人提供)：需要进行研究，以确定婚姻暴力、儿童情绪和生理调节以及儿童功能之间的联系中的途径、脆弱性和保护因素。如果更好地了解促进儿童功能障碍的条件和中介变量，就可以有效地针对处于危险中的儿童和家庭进行预防和补救。长期计划包括：(A)阐明与婚姻暴力有关的发展轨迹，儿童的情绪和生理调节，以及他们在情绪反应和调节框架内的适应、认知功能和学习表现；以及(B)发展和完善启发式理论模型，以指导这一领域的研究、预防和干预。其具体目的是考察儿童的情绪和生理反应和调节，作为婚姻心理攻击和身体暴力(统称为婚姻攻击)与儿童结果(包括横向和纵向的适应、认知功能和学习表现)之间关系的途径和调节因素。这些联系是在一个完整的概念模型中被考察的，即情绪安全框架(Cummings&Davies，1996)。360名7-8岁的儿童将从学校招募，并将参加既定的实验室程序，以检查他们的认知过程，以及情绪和生理反应和调节。对婚姻心理虐待和身体暴力、情绪和生理反应和调节，以及儿童功能的多方法/维度评估被提出，以考察发展途径。在纵向设计中，家庭还将参与第二波(T2)和第三波(T3)的数据收集，每次数据收集波之间有一年的滞后。一般假设是：(1)较高水平的儿童情绪反应和调节失调，以及交感神经系统活动，将与婚姻攻击有关，解释在控制婚姻攻击的影响后儿童结局的独特差异，并调解儿童问题；以及(2)更大的迷走调节将缓和婚姻攻击与儿童的适应、学习和认知表现之间的关系，并表现出保护功能。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Research is needed to identify pathways and vulnerability and protective factors in the associations between marital violence, children's emotional and physiological regulation, and child functioning. If conditions and mediating variables that foster child dysfunction were better understood, prevention and remediation could be efficiently targeted at children and families at risk. Long range plans include: (a) explication of developmental trajectories associated with marital violence, children's emotional and physiological regulation, and their adjustment, cognitive functioning, and academic performance within an emotional reactivity and regulation framework; and (b) development and refinement of heuristic theoretical models to guide research, prevention, and intervention in this area. The specific aim is to examine children's emotional and physiological reactivity and regulation as pathways and moderators in the associations between marital psychological aggression and physical violence (collectively referred to as marital aggression) and child outcomes including adjustment, cognitive functioning, and academic performance cross-sectionally and longitudinally. These associations are examined within an integrated conceptual model, namely the emotional security framework (Cummings & Davies, 1996). Three hundred and sixty children, 7-8 years at T1, will be recruited from schools, and will participate in well-established laboratory procedures to examine their cognitive processing, and emotional and physiological reactivity and regulation. Multi-method/dimension assessment of marital psychological abuse and physical violence, emotional and physiological reactivity and regulation, as well as child functioning, are proposed to examine developmental pathways. In a longitudinal design, families will also participate in second (T2), and third (T3) waves of data collection, with a 1-year lag between each data collection wave. General hypotheses are: (1) higher levels of both child emotional reactivity and dysregulation, as well as sympathetic nervous system activity, will be associated with marital aggression, explain unique variance in child outcomes after controlling for the effects of marital aggression, and mediate child problems; and (2) greater vagal regulation will moderate relations between marital aggression and children's adjustment, academic and cognitive performance, and demonstrate a protective function.