Gender based harms (GBH) are prevalent on college campuses, with first year students at heightened risk for victimization. Such experiences carry significant and lasting physical and psychological consequences, underscoring the need for sustained, comprehensive prevention strategies. This paper presents an innovative curricular model: a 3-credit, multidisciplinary first-year course integrating a 12-session experiential prevention program with 15-sessions of academic content on the types, causes, and consequences of GBH, and the social factors that facilitate it. Grounded in the social-ecological model, it combines theory and practice to promote changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Implementation lessons offer guidance for replication.

Objective: Experiential avoidance (EA) refers to the unwillingness to stay in contact with present experiences in order to avoid distressing private events, including distressing thoughts and emotions. Although EA may provide short-term relief, chronic reliance on these strategies can exacerbate distress by inhibiting individuals from coping and responding adaptively to stressful situations. The present study examined ways in which EA may be involved in abusive behavior in intimate adult relationships. Method: Using vignettes depicting emotionally charged relationship scenarios, 74 men enrolled in an intervention program for partner violence reported on their anticipated negative emotional reactions, their motivation to end those emotional states, their likelihood of enacting specific aggressive/abusive and nonaggressive/nonabusive responses, and the anticipated success of those responses in reducing their negative emotions. Results: The relationship scenarios and behavioral response options were perceived as realistic and produced measurement scales that were internally consistent and correlated with a previously validated measure of EA. The intensity of negative emotions that participants anticipated and their motivation to reduce those emotions significantly predicted their reported likelihood of engaging in aggressive/abusive responses. The extent to which participants anticipated that aggressive/abusive actions would repair their negative emotion state was strongly and uniquely predictive of aggressive/abusive behavioral intentions. Conclusions: Experiential avoidance appears to be associated with partner abuse through both motivation to reduce or end negative emotion states and through the expectation that abusive responses will alleviate those emotions.

Communication technologies, including cell phones, social media, and location tracking services, can be used to perpetrate abuse against current or former intimate partners. A growing literature examines these behaviors in adolescent and college samples, yet very little research has investigated cyber abuse prevalence and risk factors in broader samples of adults. The present study examines whether in-person forms of intimate partner aggression (IPA) and important IPA risk factors are associated with cyber psychological abuse (CPA) in a sample of adults (N = 243; Mean age = 33.49, SD = 11.31) who reported being in a romantic relationship within the last 12 months and were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants completed assessments of CPA, physical assault, emotional abuse, maltreatment history, attachment insecurity, jealousy, emotion dysregulation, substance abuse, and relationship functioning. The Cyber Psychological Abuse scales significantly and positively correlated with physical assault and emotional abuse. Multivariate risk factor analyses accounted for 40% and 30% of the variance in CPA perpetration and victimization, respectively. Behavioral jealousy, relationship discord, and extent of daily cell phone use had significant unique associations with both CPA perpetration and victimization. The results indicate that CPA is highly prevalent among adults, strongly associated with other forms of IPA, and correlated with both IPA risk factors and extent of technology use. Findings support the further development of efforts to prevent CPA, to educate potential CPA victims, and to assess and address CPA among adults who engage in or experience in-person forms of partner abuse.

Purpose Few studies have examined coparenting characteristics and experiences of fathers who use substances and are aggressive with their partners. The purpose of this paper is to use quantitative and qualitative measures to increase knowledge of coparenting of fathers with co-occurring substance use disorders and histories of intimate partner violence (IPV) to inform intervention efforts with this population. Design/methodology/approach Baseline interviews were used from 62 fathers in a residential treatment center who participated in a longitudinal research study about interventions for substance-misusing fathers. Coparenting-related themes were identified through qualitatively analyzing transcripts of fathers' responses to the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations (ATSS) task. Fathers completed the Coparenting Relationship Scale (CRS), Conflict Tactics Scale Revised and the Child Trauma Questionnaire. Correlations were examined to determine if themes generated from the ATSS task were associated with IPV severity or coparenting relationship. Findings Qualitative analysis of transcripts revealed six themes: hostility, dismissiveness, non-confrontational, child-focused, feeling undermined and being active or non-active in the ATSS task. Qualitative themes were not significantly correlated with self-reported coparenting on the CRS except coded dismissive responses were positively associated with self-reported undermining by their coparent. Self-reported physical and psychological aggression were significantly positively associated with self-reported coparent undermining but were not significantly associated with qualitative themes. Originality/value This study is the first to use qualitative analysis of responses to coparenting situations to understand ways fathers in substance misuse treatment with histories of IPV think about coparenting to guide interventions.