An Innovative Approach to Assessing Implicit Processes in Physical Abuse Risk

描述（由申请人提供）：本R15区域提案旨在通过以下方式推进儿童身体虐待（CPA）犯罪的研究：1)开发一种创新的方法来研究与攻击行为相关的内隐信息加工；2)贡献新的发现，阐明有CPA风险的父母的挑衅、模糊和失去影响的信息加工和攻击行为是如何发生的；3)促进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有CPA风险的父母的信息处理。澄清与CPA犯罪风险相关的近端认知因素对于寻求制定更有效的干预和预防方案至关重要。然而，缺乏评估亲子互动过程中“在线”认知加工的方法。为了满足这一需求，我们开发了一种新的创新方法，即文字游戏，用于评估父母在竞争性任务中允许攻击性行为时的内隐认知过程。文字游戏将评估内隐信息过程（例如，词汇决策任务）的成熟技术整合到用于研究攻击的现有范式中（例如，泰勒攻击范式）。文字游戏的参与者被引导相信他们正在与另一个玩家（例如，一个孩子）进行竞争性的反应时间任务。反应时间任务包括一系列词汇决策试验，词汇决策试验的延迟用于检查整个游戏过程中所选图式（如敌意、控制）的可及性。初步数据表明，文字游戏：1)在互动过程中对内隐过程的变化（即图式可及性的变化）很敏感；2)尽管实验室环境是受控的，但仍有可能引发有CPA风险的父母的攻击倾向。鉴于我们的初步研究结果，我们建议进行两项研究，利用文字游戏来检查有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CPA风险的父母相比，高CPA风险的父母会：1)表现出更高的攻击性；2)在玩耍时表现出更大的消极和控制相关图式；3)对模棱两可和失败的反应更强烈；4)将更多的敌意动机归因于模棱两可的孩子和他们经常失去的孩子；5)在与孩子互动时，他们自己也会报告更多的敌意动机。

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.