An Innovative Approach to Assessing Implicit Processes in Physical Abuse Risk

描述(由申请人提供)：这个R15领域的提案旨在通过以下方式推进儿童身体虐待(CPA)的研究：1)开发一种研究与攻击行为相关的内隐信息过程的创新方法，2)提供新的发现，澄清挑衅、模棱两可和丢失如何影响有CPA风险的父母的信息处理和攻击行为，以及3)促进对北伊利诺伊大学研究生和本科生的程序性研究培训，利用最先进的技术来检查CPA风险父母的信息处理。澄清与CPA实施风险相关的近端认知因素对于寻求开发更有效的干预和预防计划至关重要。然而，缺乏在亲子互动过程中“在线”评估认知过程的方法。为了满足这种需求，我们开发了一种新的创新方法，Word Game，用于在父母参与允许攻击性行为的竞争性任务时评估内隐认知过程。单词游戏将评估隐含信息过程的成熟技术(例如词汇决策任务)整合到用于研究攻击性的现有范式(例如泰勒攻击范式)中。单词游戏中的参与者被引导相信他们正在与另一位玩家(例如，儿童)进行竞争性反应时间任务。反应时间任务包括一系列词汇决策试验，词汇决策试验的潜伏期用于检查整个游戏中选定图式(如敌意、控制)的可及性。初步数据表明，单词Game是：1)在互动过程中对内隐过程的变化(即图式可及性的变化)敏感，2)尽管实验室环境的受控性质，但能够在有CPA风险的父母中引发攻击性倾向。鉴于我们初步发现的前景，我们建议进行两项研究，利用单词游戏来考察有CPA风险的父母在与虚拟儿童玩家互动时的内隐信息加工和攻击行为。我们假设，与低风险相比，高CPA风险的父母将：1)表现出更高水平的攻击性，2)在游戏中更容易获得消极和控制相关的图式，3)更容易对模棱两可和失落做出反应，4)将更多的敌意动机归因于模棱两可的儿童和他们经常失去的儿童，5)当他们与儿童互动时，他们自己会报告更多的敌意动机。 与公共卫生相关：儿童身体虐待是一个重大的公共卫生问题，具有广泛的后果，给个人、家庭和社会带来巨大代价。这项拟议的研究旨在促进人们对父母攻击儿童的根本原因的理解。解释导致父母攻击性的隐性信息过程有望提高我们防止儿童身体虐待的能力，并促进非侵略性的育儿做法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This R15 AREA proposal seeks to advance the study of child physical abuse (CPA) perpetration by: 1) developing an innovative methodology for studying implicit information processes associated with aggressive behavior, 2) contributing new findings that clarify how provocation, ambiguity, and losing influence information processing and aggressive behavior in parents at risk for CPA, and 3) promoting training of graduate and undergraduate students at Northern Illinois University in programmatic research that utilizes state-of-the art techniques to examine information processing in parents at risk for CPA. Clarification of the proximal cognitive factors associated with risk for CPA perpetration is essential to efforts that seek to develop more effective intervention and prevention programs. However, methods for assessing cognitive processing "on-line" during parent-child interactions are lacking. To address this need, we developed a new and innovative methodology, the Word Game, for assessing implicit cognitive processes while parents are engaged in a competitive task that allows for aggressive behavior. The Word Game integrates well-established techniques for assessing implicit information processes (e.g., lexical decision making tasks) into an existing paradigm used to study aggression (e.g., Taylor Aggression Paradigm). Participants in the Word Game are led to believe that they are engaged in a competitive reaction time task with another player (e.g., a child). The reaction time task involves a series of lexical decision making trials, with the latencies on the lexical decision making trials used to examine accessibility of selected schema (e.g., hostility, control) throughout the game. Preliminary data indicate that the Word Game is: 1) sensitive to changes in implicit processes (i.e., shifts in schema accessibility) over the course of an interaction, and 2) capable of eliciting aggressive propensities in parents at risk for CPA despite the controlled nature of the laboratory setting. Given the promise of our preliminary findings, we propose to conduct two studies utilizing the Word Game to examine implicit information processes and aggressive behavior in parents at risk for CPA as they interact with a fictitious child player. We hypothesize that high, compared to low, CPA risk parents will: 1) display higher levels of aggression, 2) evince greater accessibility of negative and control-related schema as they play, 3) will be more reactive to ambiguity and losing, 4) will attribute more hostile motives to ambiguous children and children to whom they lose often, and 5) will report more hostile motives themselves as they interact with children. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Child physical abuse represents a public health concern of major scope, with far ranging consequences and significant costs to individuals, families, and society. The proposed research aims to advance understanding of the underlying causes of parental aggression toward children. Explication of the implicit information processes that give rise to parental aggression holds the promise of advancing our ability to prevent child physical abuse and promote non-aggressive parenting practices.