This chapter examines the origins of physical aggression and violence from a developmental perspective. It focuses on how anger regulation and social contingencies in parent–child and peer interaction contribute to early development of aggression, and how individual differences in children's attention deployment and impulsivity moderate these social processes. From a social learning perspective, socialization occurs in the cumulative, day-to-day interactions of children with their parents, siblings, peers, and teachers. Social learning theory relies heavily on observable social interaction in family and peer settings to ascertain the proximal social processes that evoke, shape, maintain, and elaborate aggressive behavior. Gender differences in physical aggression have multiple determinants. Parents and peers play important but complementary roles in socialization. Early interventions that alter group contingencies for physical aggression and disruptive behavior hold particular promise. These programs can be applied in hallways, lunchrooms, and play-grounds where adult monitoring and contingencies are often nonsystematic and minimal.

SYNOPSISObjective Vagal suppression is a parasympathetic physiological indicator of emotion regulation and social engagement behaviors, often measured via heart rate variability. Experiential avoidance reflects psychological inflexibility or poor emotion regulation. We tested the interaction effects of parental vagal suppression and experiential avoidance on observed parenting behaviors among combat deployed fathers.Design. We analyzed data from 92 male National Guard/Reserve members who had returned from a deployment to Iraq and/or Afghanistan since 2001. They were mostly European American, in their 30s, middle-class, and married. All fathers participated in home-based assessments with their spouses (if married) and a target child aged 4-13 years. Fathers' vagal suppression was measured as the decrease in cardiac vagal tone (i.e., high frequency heart rate variability) from a neutral reading task to a father-child conflict resolution task. Experiential avoidance was self-reported. Parenting behaviors were observed during family interaction tasks and coded into positive engagement and withdrawal avoidance using a macro-level coding system.Results. Multiple regression analysis showed no main effects of vagal suppression on observed parenting, but interaction effects of experiential avoidance by vagal suppression on observed parenting. Specifically, among fathers with higher vagal suppression, we found no relations between experiential avoidance and observed parenting; among fathers with lower vagal suppression, we found an inverse association between experiential avoidance and positive engagement as well as a positive association between experiential avoidance and withdrawal avoidance.Conclusions. The effect of psychological inflexibility on military fathers' parenting behaviors was moderated by vagal suppression. The findings have implications for the linkage between emotion regulation and parenting in military fathers.

Vagal flexibility is a parasympathetic physiological indicator of emotion regulation and social engagement behaviors, often measured via heart rate variability (HRV). Experiential avoidance reflects psychological inflexibility or emotion dysregulation. We tested the influences of parental vagal flexibility and experiential avoidance on observed emotion-related parenting behaviors among combat deployed fathers. We analyzed data from 92 male National Guard/Reserve members who had been deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan since 2001 and recently returned. They were mostly White, in their 30s, middle-class, and married. All fathers participated in home-based assessments with their spouses (if married) and a target child aged between 4-13 years. Emotion-related parenting behaviors were observed during family interaction tasks using a macro-level coding system and quantified into four categories: positive engagement, withdrawal avoidance, reactivity coercion, and distress avoidance. Fathers’ vagal flexibility was measured as the change in cardiac vagal tone (i.e., high frequency HRV) from a neutral reading task to a father-child conflict resolution task. Experiential avoidance was self-reported. Results of multiple regression analysis showed no significant main effects of vagal flexibility on any observed parenting measures. There were significant moderation effects of experiential avoidance by vagal flexibility: among fathers with poorer vagal flexibility, a stronger relationship was found between experiential avoidance and emotion-related parenting behaviors (positive engagement and withdrawal avoidance), whereas among fathers with higher vagal flexibility, no such relationship was shown. These findings have implications for the linkage between emotion regulation and parenting in military fathers.

Deployment to war is associated with disruptions to emotion regulation and parenting. Using data from a randomized controlled trial, we examined whether fathers with poorer emotion regulation would differentially benefit from the After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools program, a 14-session group-based parenting intervention. Prior analyses of the intervention demonstrated benefits to observed couple parenting and children's adjustment, but not to fathers' observed parenting. In this study we examined whether intervention effects on fathers' observed distress avoidance were moderated by baseline emotion regulation, and whether reduced distress avoidance was associated with improved observed parenting and reduced children's internalizing symptoms. A subset of the full randomized controlled trial sample (181 families with a father who had returned from deployment to war in Iraq or Afghanistan, a nondeployed mother, and a target child aged 4-13) completed measures at baseline, 12-months, and 24-months postbaseline. Results indicated that fathers high in baseline emotion regulation difficulties assigned to the intervention group showed reductions in observed distress avoidance at 12 months compared to controls, which were subsequently associated with improvements in observed parenting practices and reductions in children's internalizing symptoms at 24 months. The results suggest a role for personalizing parenting programs for fathers high in emotion dysregulation.

Anger-related problems have been documented among post-deployed service members who returned home, posing risks to their well-being and increasing distress in their families. Trait mindfulness (acting with awareness, nonjudging, and nonreactivity) has been associated with lower self-reported anger. Using actor-partner interdependence models, we tested the association between trait mindfulness and parental anger observed in parent-child and couple interactions. The sample consisted of 155 dyads of male National Guard/Reserve members who had been recently deployed and returned, and their female non-deployed partners. Results showed that fathers' and mothers' nonreactivity was negatively associated with their own observed anger, indicating that parents who reported higher nonreactivity exhibited lower anger. Mothers' nonreactivity was also negatively associated with observed fathers' anger in the same family such that fathers exhibited lower anger when their female partner reported higher nonreactivity. Nonreactivity facilitates emotion regulation and its cultivation may reduce anger in post-deployed military families.

This study assessed the mediating pathways of observed couple communication on the dyadic associations between experiential avoidance (EA) and relationship quality. A sample of 228 military couples following combat deployment participated in a conflict discussion and completed self-report measures to assess EA and relationship quality. Results of an actor–partner interdependence model using structural equation modeling indicated that for both dyad members greater EA was associated with their own lower relationship quality. Higher EA in men was associated with more observed negative communication, as well as lower relationship quality in their female partners. Positive couple communication was associated with higher relationship quality in men and in women. Overall, EA demonstrated associations with relationship quality above and beyond couple communication skills. This study points to the importance of EA for the marital system and suggests that interventions targeting EA and positive couple communication skills may strengthen military marital relationships following deployment to war.

This report uses 6-year outcomes of the Oregon Divorce Study to examine the processes by which parenting practices affect deviant peer association during two developmental stages: early to middle childhood and late childhood to early adolescence. The participants were 238 newly divorced mothers and their 5- to 8-year-old sons who were randomly assigned to Parent Management Training-Oregon Model (PMTO®) or to a no-treatment control group. Parenting practices, child delinquent behavior, and deviant peer association were repeatedly assessed from baseline to 6 years after baseline using multiple methods and informants. PMTO had a beneficial effect on parenting practices relative to the control group. Two stage models linking changes in parenting generated by PMTO to children's growth in deviant peer association were supported. During the early to middle childhood stage, the relationship of improved parenting practices on deviant peer association was moderated by family socioeconomic status (SES); effective parenting was particularly important in mitigating deviant peer association for lower SES families whose children experience higher densities of deviant peers in schools and neighborhoods. During late childhood and early adolescence, the relationship of improved parenting to youths' growth in deviant peer association was mediated by reductions in the growth of delinquency during childhood; higher levels of early delinquency are likely to promote deviant peer association through processes of selective affiliation and reciprocal deviancy training. The results are discussed in terms of multilevel developmental progressions of diminished parenting, child involvement in deviancy producing processes in peer groups, and increased variety and severity of antisocial behavior, all exacerbated by ecological risks associated with low family SES.

Transactional cascades among child internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and fathers' and mothers' posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms were examined in a sample of families with a male parent who had been deployed to recent military conflicts in the Middle East. The role of parents' positive engagement and coercive interaction with their child, and family members' emotion regulation were tested as processes linking cascades of parent and child symptoms. A subsample of 183 families with deployed fathers and nondeployed mothers and their 4- to 13-year-old children who participated in a randomized control trial intervention (After Deployment: Adaptive Parenting Tools) were assessed at baseline prior to intervention, and at 12 and 24 months after baseline, using parent reports of their own and their child's symptoms. Parents' observed behavior during interaction with their children was coded using a multimethod approach at each assessment point. Reciprocal cascades among fathers' and mothers' PTSD symptoms, and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms, were observed. Fathers' and mothers' positive engagement during parent-child interaction linked their PTSD symptoms and their child's internalizing symptoms. Fathers' and mothers' coercive behavior toward their child linked their PTSD symptoms and their child's externalizing symptoms. Each family member's capacity for emotion regulation was associated with his or her adjustment problems at baseline. Implications for intervention, and for research using longitudinal models and a family-systems perspective of co-occurrence and cascades of symptoms across family members are described.

Adolescent problem behaviors are costly for individuals and society. Promoting the self-regulatory functioning of youth may help prevent the development of such behaviors. Parent-training and family intervention programs have been shown to improve child and adolescent self-regulation. This study helps fill gaps in knowledge by testing for indirect effects of the Common Sense Parenting® (CSP) program on reduced substance use, conduct problems, and school suspensions through previously identified short-term improvements in parents' reports of their children's emotion regulation skills. Over two cohorts, 321 low income families of 8th graders were enrolled and randomly assigned to either the standard CSP program, an adapted CSP Plus program, or a minimal-contact control condition. Pretest, posttest, 1-year follow-up, and 2-year follow-up survey assessments were completed by parents and students with 94% retention. Intent-to-treat multivariate path analyses were conducted. Neither intervention had statistically significant total effects on the three targeted adolescent outcomes. CSP, but not CSP Plus, had statistically significant indirect effects on reduced substance use and school suspensions at the 1-year follow-up as well as conduct problems and school suspensions at the 2-year follow-up through increased child emotion regulation skills at posttest. Findings provide some support for emotion regulation as one pathway through which the intervention was associated, indirectly, with reduced substance use, conduct problems, and school suspensions among at-risk students over the high school transition.

This research examined whether military service members' deployment-related trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and experiential avoidance are associated with their observed levels of positive social engagement, social withdrawal, reactivity-coercion, and distress avoidance during postdeployment family interaction. Self reports of deployment related trauma, postdeployment PTSD symptoms, and experiential avoidance were collected from 184 men who were deployed to the Middle East conflicts, were partnered, and had a child between 4 and 13 years of age. Video samples of parent-child and partner problem solving and conversations about deployment issues were collected, and were rated by trained observers to assess service members' positive engagement, social withdrawal, reactivity-coercion, and distress avoidance, as well as spouse and child negative affect and behavior. Service members' experiential avoidance was reliably associated with less observed positive engagement and more observed withdrawal and distress avoidance after controlling for spouse and child negative affect and behavior during ongoing interaction. Service members' experiential avoidance also diminished significant associations between service members' PTSD symptoms and their observed behavior. The results are discussed in terms of how service members' psychological acceptance promotes family resilience and adaption to the multiple contextual challenges and role transitions associated with military deployment. Implications for parenting and marital interventions are described.

Several measures of experiential avoidance have been developed in investigating how efforts to control unwanted private events may contribute to psychopathology. We sought to extend research on experiential control by developing and examining the psychometric properties of the Experiential Approach Scale (EAS) as a measure reflecting efforts to sustain desired affective states. An exploratory and 2 confirmatory analyses revealed a 2-factor structure comprised of Anxious Clinging and Experience Prolonging subscales. Further structural analyses supported a hierarchical model of experiential control, with experiential approach and experiential avoidance as first-order factors. Both EAS subscales demonstrated high internal reliability and temporal stability as well as sufficient convergent and divergent validity. Only Anxious Clinging was positively associated with measures of psychological distress and psychopathology and inversely related to subjective happiness and satisfaction with life. Suggestions for further research in the development of the EAS and its possible use in investigating experiential approach are discussed.

This randomized controlled trial tested a widely used general parent training program, Common Sense Parenting (CSP), with low-income 8th graders and their families to support a positive transition to high school. The program was tested in its original 6-session format and in a modified format (CSP-Plus), which added 2 sessions that included adolescents. Over 2 annual cohorts, 321 families were enrolled and randomly assigned to either the CSP, CSP-Plus, or minimal-contact control condition. Pretest, posttest, 1-year follow-up, and 2-year follow-up survey data on parenting as well as youth school bonding, social skills, and problem behaviors were collected from parents and youth (94% retention). Extending prior examinations of posttest outcomes, intent-to-treat regression analyses tested for intervention effects at the 2 follow-up assessments, and growth curve analyses examined experimental condition differences in yearly change across time. Separate exploratory tests of moderation by youth gender, youth conduct problems, and family economic hardship also were conducted. Out of 52 regression models predicting 1- and 2-year follow-up outcomes, only 2 out of 104 possible intervention effects were statistically significant. No statistically significant intervention effects were found in the growth curve analyses. Tests of moderation also showed few statistically significant effects. Because CSP already is in widespread use, findings have direct implications for practice. Specifically, findings suggest that the program may not be efficacious with parents of adolescents in a selective prevention context and may reveal the limits of brief, general parent training for achieving outcomes with parents of adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record

This study tests Common Sense Parenting (CSP)®, a widely used parent-training program, in its standard form and in a modified form known as CSP Plus, with low-income 8th graders and their families during the high school transition. The six-session CSP program proximally targets parenting and child emotion regulation skills. CSP Plus adds two sessions that include youth, and the eight-session program further targets skills for avoiding negative peers and activities in high school. Over two cohorts, 321 families were enrolled and randomly assigned to either CSP, CSP Plus, or minimal-contact control conditions. To date, pretest and posttest assessments have been completed, with 93 % retention over about a 6-month interval. Here, analyses of preliminary outcomes from pretest to posttest focus on data collected from parents, who represent the primary proximal intervention targets. Intent-to-treat structural equation modeling analyses were conducted. CSP and CSP Plus had statistically significant effects on increased parent-reported child emotion regulation skills. CSP Plus further showed a statistically significant effect on increased parent perceptions of their adolescent being prepared for high school, but only in a model that excluded the CSP condition. Neither program had a significant proximal effect on parenting practices. Emotion regulation, one indicator of self-control, is a robust protective factor against problem behaviors. Intervention effects on this outcome may translate into reduced problems during high school. Moreover, CSP Plus showed some limited signs of added value for preparing families for the high school transition.

This chapter (1) examines the multiple ways in which coercive processes may be manifested during family interaction in addition to their more blatant, aversive forms, including emotion dismissing, invalidating, intrusive/controlling social actions; (2) assesses the role of higher cognitive processing and control in coercive social interaction in the context of previous assumptions that coercive processes are primarily overlearned and automatic; (3) examines the utility of extensions of environmental main effects models of coercive processes by explicitly focusing on synergistic models that involve child temperamental self-regulatory capacities (reflecting underlying molecular genetic and neurobiological mechanisms); and (4) assesses the role of coercive family processes in relation to borderline features and trauma/PTSD.

This chapter summarizes the history of research focused on coercive relationship dynamics among family members and peers. It is plausible that evolutionary mechanisms are at play that account for the cross-generational repetition of conflict and coercion and the alarming transformations in human behavior that lead to more serious forms of violence. Considerable progress has been made in understanding the genetic and neurobiological underpinnings of emotion-regulation patterns that define vulnerability to coercive relationships. Coercive relationship dynamics can be subtle and laden with many emotions, but ultimately, the core dynamic is that conflict is solved by emotional manipulation rather than by negotiation. More nuanced forms of coercion are also implicated in some patterns of depression, anxiety, and suicide ideation and attempts. There are several evidence-based prevention and treatment strategies for youth problem behavior and marital relationships. Successful prevention and intervention must skillfully motivate and manage changes in these overlearned patterns of behavior.

Many evidence-based preventive interventions have been developed in recent years, but few are widely used. With the current focus on efficacy trials, widespread dissemination and implementation of evidence-based interventions are often afterthoughts. One potential strategy for reversing this trend is to find a promising program with a strong delivery vehicle in place and improve and test the program’s efficacy through rigorous evaluation. If the program is supported by evidence, the dissemination vehicle is already in place and potentially can be expanded. This strategy has been used infrequently and has met with limited success to date, in part, because the field lacks a framework for guiding such research. To address this gap, we outline a framework for moving promising preventive interventions that are currently being implemented in community settings through a process of rigorous testing and, if needed, program modification in order to promote expanded dissemination. The framework is guided by RE-AIM (Reach, Efficacy/Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) (Glasgow et al., Am J Publ Health 89:1322–1327, 1999), which focuses attention on external as well as internal validity in program tests, and is illustrated with examples. Challenges, such as responding to negative and null results, and opportunities inherent in the framework are discussed.

Objective Demonstrate multivariate multilevel survival analysis within a larger structural equation model. Test the 3 hypotheses that when confronted by a negative parent, child rates of angry, sad/fearful, and positive emotion will increase, decrease, and stay the same, respectively, for antisocial compared with normal children. This same pattern will predict increases in future antisocial behavior. Methods Parent-child dyads were videotaped in the fall of kindergarten in the laboratory and antisocial behavior ratings were obtained in the fall of kindergarten and third grade. Results Kindergarten antisocial predicted less child sad/fear and child positive but did not predict child anger given parent negative. Less child positive and more child neutral given parent negative predicted increases in third-grade antisocial behavior. Conclusions The model is a useful analytic tool for studying rates of social behavior. Lack of positive affect or excess neutral affect may be a new risk factor for child antisocial behavior.

Parent management training (PMT) has beneficial effects on child and parent adjustment that last for 5 to 10 years. Short-term changes in parenting practices have been shown to mediate these effects, but the manner in which changes in specific components of parenting are sequenced and become reciprocally reinforcing (or mutually entrained) to engender and sustain the cascade of long-term beneficial effects resulting from PMT has received modest empirical attention. Long-term changes in parenting resulting from the Oregon model of PMT (PMTO) over a 2-year period were examined using data from the Oregon Divorce Study-II in which 238 recently separated mothers and their 6- to 10-year-old sons were randomly assigned to PMTO or a no treatment control (NTC) group. Multiple indicators of observed parenting practices were used to define constructs for positive parenting, monitoring and discipline at baseline, and at 6-, 12-, 18- and 30-months postbaseline. PMTO relative to NTC resulted in increased positive parenting and prevented deterioration in discipline and monitoring over the 30-month period. There were reliable sequential, transactional relationships among parenting practices; positive parenting supported better subsequent monitoring, and positive parenting and better monitoring supported subsequent effective discipline. Small improvements in parenting resulting from PMTO and small deteriorations in parenting in the NTC group may be sustained and amplified by mutually entrained relationships among parenting practices. These data about the change processes engendered by PMTO may provide information needed to enhance the power, effectiveness, and efficiency of behavioral parent training interventions.