Objective: To conduct the first population-based study comparing child maltreatment rates perpetrated by civilian parents in military families before, during, and after combat-related deployments. Method: The sample included children in United States Air Force families who experienced at least 1 child maltreatment incident perpetrated by their civilian parent and whose active-duty parent experienced at least 1 combat-related deployment between October 1, 2001, and October 31, 2008. Results: During the study period, 2,442 children were involved in 2,879 substantiated child maltreatment incidents perpetrated by the civilian parent. Rates of child maltreatment by civilian parents increased 52% during deployments compared with before the active-duty parent's first deployment. The overall postdeployment child maltreatment rate was lower than the predeployment and during-deployment maltreatment rates. The large increase in child maltreatment by the civilian parent during deployment compared with predeployment was largely driven by a 124% increase in child neglect. Conclusion: During combat-related deployments, children are at heightened risk of child neglect perpetrated by their civilian parent. These results suggest a need for focused maltreatment prevention/intervention efforts during this time of increased risk of children being neglected by their civilian parent.

Routine activities (RA) theory posits that changes in people's typical daily activities covary with increases or decreases in criminal behaviors, including, but not limited to, partner maltreatment. Using a large clinical database, we examined temporal variations among 24,460 incidents of confirmed partner maltreatment across an 11-year period within the U.S. Air Force (USAF). Specifically, we created regression models that predicted the number of partner maltreatment incidents per day. In addition to several control variables, we coded temporal variables for days of the week, month, year, and several significant days (e.g., holidays, Super Bowl Sunday), which allowed us to examine the independent influence of these variables on partner maltreatment prevalence. While accounting for the influence of all other study variables, we observed significant increases in partner maltreatment for weekend days, New Year's Day, Independence Day, and Super Bowl Sunday. Similar results were found for partner maltreatment incidents involving offender alcohol/drug use. Furthermore, the proportion of incidents involving offender alcohol/drug use increased on New Year's Day and Independence Day. Consistent with RA theory and data from civilian samples, the current results indicate that certain days are associated with increased incidents of partner maltreatment within the USAF. These findings should be used to inform future preventive efforts.

OBJECTIVE: To conduct the first population-based study comparing the frequency of child maltreatment among active-duty United States Air Force (USAF) maltreating parents before and after combat-related deployment. METHOD: By combining archival databases, we identified 2,287 children with a total of 2,563 substantiated maltreatment incidents perpetrated by USAF parents who deployed during an 85-month study period during Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom. RESULTS: Contrary to expectations, overall the frequency of child maltreatment was significantly lower after than before deployment, and this pattern did not vary as a function of the number of combat-related deployments. Further, the frequency of child maltreatment was lower postdeployment relative to predeployment for emotional abuse, mild neglect, and maltreatment not involving alcohol, but the frequency was higher postdeployment for child sexual abuse and severe child neglect, particularly when severe child neglect involved alcohol. CONCLUSIONS: In general, among children who experienced parental maltreatment by a deploying USAF parent, milder forms of child maltreatment were less common postdeployment, whereas severe types of child maltreatment were more common. Possible explanations implicate predeployment differences in resources and functioning or postdeployment differences in posttraumatic growth and maturation between parental perpetrators of mild versus more severe maltreatment. Postdeployment child maltreatment surveillance efforts should be vigilant for signs of severe forms of child maltreatment, which appear to be most likely to increase.

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) New Parent Support Program (NPSP) is a voluntary family maltreatment prevention program for expectant parents and parents of young children. NPSP mothers are classified as "low needs" (LN) or "high needs" (HN) based on their Family Needs Screener (FNS) responses and NPSP service providers' clinical judgment. Using data from 112,478 mothers, we analyzed classifications based on FNS scores, classifications based on NPSP service providers' clinical judgments, and whether these classifications predicted mothers' subsequent maltreatment of a child. Overall, 75% of mothers were classified as LN based on their FNS responses. Clinical judgments resulted in overrides for the classifications of 6% of cases and, when overrides occurred, mothers' classifications were more likely changed from LN to HN than vice versa. Further, both FNS-based HN classifications and clinical overrides from LN to HN predicted subsequent child maltreatment. These data suggest FNS and clinical overrides are useful for predicting child maltreatment within USAF families.Keywords: New Parent Support Programhome visitationenrollment strategyFamily Needs Screenerchild maltreatmentchild maltreatment prediction

This study examined child maltreatment perpetration among 99,697 active-duty U.S. Air Force parents who completed a combat deployment. Using the deploying parent as the unit of analysis, we analyzed whether child maltreatment rates increased postdeployement relative to predeployment. These analyses extend previous research that used aggregate data and extend our previous work that used data from the same period but used the victim as the unit of analysis and included only deploying parents who engaged in child maltreatment. In this study, 2% (n = 1,746) of deploying parents perpetrated child maltreatment during the study period. Although no overall differences were found in child maltreatment rates postdeployment compared to predeployment, several maltreatment-related characteristics qualified this finding. Rates for emotional abuse and mild maltreatment were lower following deployment, whereas child maltreatment rates for severe maltreatment were higher following deployment. The finding that rates of severe child maltreatment, including incidents involving alcohol use, were higher postdeployment suggests a need for additional support services for parents following their return from combat deployment, with a focus on returning parents who have an alcohol use problem.

From 2002 until 2007, the United States Air Force (USAF) revised the process of determining whether incidents of suspected family maltreatment met the criteria for maltreatment. In this study, all reported child maltreatment and partner abuse incidents in the USAF from January 2008 to July 2011 were examined to determine the extent to which characteristics of victims, offenders, and incidents affected whether incidents were determined to have met criteria for maltreatment. For both child maltreatment and partner abuse, alleged incidents in which offenders used substances and more severe incidents were more likely to have met maltreatment criteria than alleged incidents that did not involve offender substance use and less severe incidents. However, characteristics of the persons involved (e.g., age, gender, military status) were generally unassociated with an incident meeting criteria. Consistent with the goals of the criteria revisions, these results suggest that the current USAF criteria are associated with incident characteristics and not with demographic characteristics of the persons involved in the incident.

This study examined relations among experiential avoidance, state dissociation during writing, cognitive-emotional processing, and posttraumatic stress in the context of an expressive writing task among 58 undergraduate females who were students at a large midwestern university that had recently experienced a mass shooting. Experiential avoidance significantly predicted reported suppression during the writing task. Additionally, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) at the time of the writing task were significantly associated with state dissociation, suppression, and the use of positive emotion words during the writing. Finally, at the zero-order level, prospective PTSS were associated with state dissociation and suppression during the earlier writing task. However, in a full regression model, only experiential avoidance and PTSS at the time of the writing task significantly predicted prospective PTSS. Supplemental analyses suggest processes may operate differently across levels of exposure. Findings from the present study provide further support for the role of experiential avoidance, state dissociation during writing, and cognitive-emotional processing in predicting PTSS. Additionally, experiential avoidance may play an important role in how individuals use cognitive-emotional processing to narrate a traumatic event.

The authors examined spouse abuse perpetration among all married U.S. Air Force personnel who deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom. Using Poisson and conditional Poisson regression, they compared rates of spouse abuse perpetration predeployment and postdeployment in the population of married U.S. Air Force personnel who had a combat-related deployment between October 1, 2001 and October 31, 2008 (N = 156,296). Just over 2% (n = 3,524) of deployers perpetrated at least one substantiated incident of spouse physical or emotional abuse within the 308,197,653 days at risk for abuse during the study period. Male deployers perpetrated spouse abuse at approximately twice the rate of female deployers. Regarding changes in rates of spouse abuse perpetration postdeployment versus predeployment among all deployers, the authors found no differences overall; however, several deployer and incident-related characteristics moderated this effect. Rates of emotional abuse, mild abuse, and abuse not involving alcohol were significantly lower postdeployment, whereas rates of moderate/severe abuse and abuse involving alcohol were significantly higher postdeployment. Although the majority of U.S. Air Force deployers did not perpetrate any substantiated incidents of spouse abuse, there was variability in the impact of deployment on spouse abuse rates before versus after deployment. The finding that rates of moderate/severe spouse abuse incidents involving alcohol were higher postdeployment suggests a need for focused prevention/intervention efforts.

Objective: To conduct the first population-based study comparing spouse abuse rates before and after combat-related deployments during Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom among married U.S. Air Force personnel. Method: The sample included all married Air Force members with at least one substantiated incident of spouse physical or emotional abuse and at least one combat-related deployment between October 1, 2001 and October 31, 2008. Results: Overall, 6,063 individuals in 4,874 couples perpetrated 7,003 spouse abuse incidents across 9,676,517 person-days at risk. In couples where only one spouse abused and alcohol was involved, the abuse rate was significantly higher postdeployment. In couples where only the husband abused, the moderate/severe abuse rate was 24.0% higher postdeployment. In couples where only the husband abused, abuse was moderate/severe, and alcohol was used the abuse rate was 36.8% higher postdeployment. Despite these increases, among all abusive couples, the overall spouse abuse rate was 12.6% lower postdeployment. This finding was not moderated by military status, abuse type, year of first deployment, number of deployments, or total deployment duration. Conclusions: The impact of combat-related deployment on spouse abuse rates is variable with incidents involving moderate/severe abuse and alcohol being relatively more likely postdeployment, suggesting a need for focused prevention/intervention efforts. Families struggling with both violence and alcohol problems might benefit from collaboration between the Air Force Family Advocacy Program and Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment program.

Although research has documented negative effects of combat deployment on mental health, few studies have examined whether deployment increases risky or self-destructive behavior. The present study addressed this issue. In addition, we examined whether deployment effects on risky behavior varied depending on history of pre-deployment risky behavior, and assessed whether psychiatric conditions mediated effects of deployment on risky behavior. In an anonymous survey, active duty members of the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy (N = 2116) described their deployment experiences and their participation in risky recreational activities, unprotected sex, illegal drug use, self-injurious behavior, and suicide attempts during three time frames (civilian, military pre-deployment, and military post-deployment). Respondents also reported whether they had problems with depression, anxiety, or PTSD during the same three time frames. Results revealed that risky behavior was much more common in civilian than in military life, with personnel who had not deployed, compared to those who had deployed, reporting more risky behavior and more psychiatric problems as civilians. For the current time period, in contrast, personnel who had deployed (versus never deployed) were significantly more likely to report both risky behavior and psychiatric problems. Importantly, deployment was associated with increases in risky behavior only for personnel with a pre-deployment history of engaging in risky behavior. Although psychiatric conditions were associated with higher levels of risky behavior, psychiatric problems did not mediate associations between deployment and risky behavior. Implications for understanding effects of combat deployment on active duty personnel and directions for future research are discussed.

: anche se la trasmissione intergenerazionale della violenza familiare č stata ben documentata, il meccanismo responsabile di questo effetto non č stato ancora completamente accertato. Il presente studio valuta se i sintomi traumatici mediano la relazione fra una storia di maltrattamento fisico infantile (CPA, Child Physical Abuse) e il rischio in etŕ adulta di perpetrare il maltrattamento fisico (rischio di CPA in etŕ adulta), e se tale mediazione sia uguale per le donne e per gli uomini.: reclute femminili e maschili della Marina Statunitense (USN, US Navy) (N = 5.394) e studenti universitari (N = 716) hanno completato un questionario self-report riguardante la loro storia di maltrattamento infantile (nello specifico, maltrattamento fisico infantile e abuso sessuale infantile [CSA, Child Sexual Abuse]), l'esposizione alla violenza intima tra i partner (IPV, Intimate Partner Violence), attuali sintomi traumatici, e il rischio in etŕ adulta di perpetrare il maltrattamento fisico infantile.: come atteso, č stata riscontrata una forte associazione fra una storia di maltrattamento fisico infantile e il rischio di CPA in etŕ adulta. Questa associazione č risultata significativa anche dopo aver controllato le variabili demografiche e l'esposizione infantile ad altre forme di violenza (CSA e IPV), e la forza della relazione non č risultata variare in base alle variabili demografiche o all'esposizione ad altre forme di violenza. Tuttavia, l'associazione fra una storia di CPA e il rischio di CPA in etŕ adulta č risultata piů forte fra i soggetti con alti punteggi di evitamento difensivo rispetto ai soggetti con bassi punteggi. L'associazione fra una storia di CPA e il rischio di CPA in etŕ adulta č risultata largamente, ma non interamente, mediata dai sintomi psicologici traumatici. La mediazione č stata osservata per gli uomini e per le donne sia del campione della Marina Statunitense sia degli studenti universitari.: i sintomi traumatici associati ad una storia di CPA rendono conto di una sostanziale parte della relazione fra una storia di CPA e il rischio in etŕ adulta di perpetrare il maltrattamento fisico infantile sia negli uomini sia nelle donne.: nella misura in cui i sintomi traumatici sono un meccanismo a partire dal quale si verifica la trasmissione intergenerazionale dell'abuso infantile, intervenire per ridurre i sintomi traumatici nelle vittime di CPA ha il potenziale di ridurre il rischio di perpetuare il ciclo della violenza.

The U.S. Navy Sexual Assault Intervention Training (SAIT) program for women was evaluated in a randomized clinical trial. The SAIT uses multiple presentation modalities (lecture, slides, discussion, film) to provide information related to sexual assault, including risk factors, consequences, prevention, and relevant military regulations. Female personnel who had completed basic training (N = 550) participated in the SAIT or a Comparison condition, and then completed measures of rape knowledge, empathy for rape victims, and acceptance of rape myths (false beliefs about rape justifying sexual violence). Results showed that the SAIT increased factual knowledge about rape. In addition, the SAIT increased empathy with rape victims in some groups of women. However, the program did not reduce women's rape myth acceptance. Given the enormity of the problem of sexual assault and these promising initial findings, additional research on the efficacy of the SAIT is clearly warranted.

Objective: The present investigation used event-related potentials (ERPs, N400 and N300) to determine the extent to which individuals at low and high risk for child physical abuse (CPA) have pre-existing positive and negative child-related schemata that can be automatically activated by ambiguous child stimuli.Methods: ERP data were obtained from individuals at low (n = 13) and high risk (n = 12) for CPA and used in a procedure check, from which a sub-group of low-risk (n = 7) and high-risk (n = 7) individuals were selected for inclusion in the main study. ERP data were collected during the presentation of a priming paradigm consisting of non-child pictures (primes) and congruent and incongruent word descriptors (targets). ERP data also were collected during a second priming paradigm consisting of ambiguous child pictures (primes) and positive and negative word descriptors (targets). Data from this second paradigm were used to test the hypothesis that low-risk and high-risk individuals' putative pre-existing child-related schemata (i.e., positive schemata in low-risk individuals and negative schemata in high-risk individuals) provide a context that influences whether targets (positive or negative word descriptors) are congruent or incongruent with ambiguous child picture primes.Results: Analyses revealed the expected larger N400 waves in response to non-child picture, incongruent word pairs. There were no N400 differences between risk groups nor were there any risk group interactions, indicating that all participants responded in a similar manner to the non-child picture, congruent/incongruent word presentations. However, when ambiguous child picture primes were used with positive and negative word descriptors, low-risk individuals showed greater N400 and N300 responses to negative, relative to positive, word descriptors; whereas high-risk individuals showed no ERP differences with respect to positive and negative word descriptors.Conclusions: ERP evidence supports the view that low-risk individuals have greater accessibility to pre-existing positive (relative to negative) child-related schemata, which may reduce the likelihood of negative child-related evaluations. In contrast, high-risk individuals have pre-existing positive and negative child-related schemata that are equally accessible. Hence, high-risk, relative to low-risk, individuals appear to have greater accessibility to negative child-related schemata that may increase the likelihood of negative child-related evaluations and attributions that have been linked to CPA risk. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Subjective and objective reactions to writing and reading a narrative of their experiences after having been recently exposed to a campus shooting were examined in 58 women. Posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety symptoms, and physical exposure to the shooting were considered in relation to laboratory indices. The latter used a multimethod approach to index distress; these included subjective (self-report) and objective (heart rate, skin conductance, and cortisol) components. Consistent with prior research, reports of symptoms were significantly positively correlated with subjective distress (r ranged from .35 to .45), but only posttraumatic stress symptoms uniquely predicted subjective distress in regression analyses (partial r = .33). Objective distress, however, was not significantly related to any participant measure. Finally, a clear majority (85%) of participants reported they would participate in the study again. Points of convergence and divergence with prior studies are discussed.

This study explored individual and military risk factors for intimate partner aggression (IPA) perpetration among Navy personnel in their second year of service. We found some evidence that job stress was related to higher perpetration among men. Contrary to expectations, ship duty was related to lower perpetration rates, even though it involves more military operational stress and more frequent deployments than does shore duty. Premilitary alcohol problems were a stronger risk factor for men than for women, whereas premilitary patterns of aggressive behavior were a stronger risk factor for women. Recommendations for future research and public health interventions are discussed.

Investigations of the ability to distinguish real from imagined events can inform the mechanisms by which false memories are created. We examined psychophysiological reactivity while participants ( N = 53) narrated childhood events that they had experienced (according to their previous report) or that they denied having experienced but had imagined. Two types of events were narrated, emotional and neutral. Results show that participants rated experienced events as more vivid than imagined events and events the authors intended to be emotional as more emotional than events the authors intended to be neutral. Although there were no significant differences on the heart rate and skin conductance measures, both experienced and imagined events produced significant increases in reactivity in comparison to baseline measures. Implications for the creation of false memories are discussed.

OBJECTIVE:Although the intergenerational transmission of family violence has been well documented, the mechanisms responsible for this effect have not been fully determined. The present study examined whether trauma symptoms mediate the relationship between a childhood history of child physical abuse (CPA) and adult CPA risk, and whether any such mediation was similar for women and men.METHOD:Female and male US Navy (USN) recruits (N=5,394) and college students (N=716) completed self-report measures of their history of child abuse (i.e., CPA and child sexual abuse [CSA]), exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV), current trauma symptoms, and adult CPA risk.RESULTS:As expected, there was a strong association between a childhood history of CPA and adult CPA risk. This association was significant even after controlling for demographic variables and childhood exposure to other forms of violence (CSA and IPV), and the strength of the relationship did not vary depending on demographics or exposure to other forms of violence. However, the association between a history of CPA and adult risk of CPA was stronger for individuals high in defensive avoidance compared to those low in defensive avoidance. The association between a history of CPA and adult CPA risk was largely, although not entirely, mediated by psychological trauma symptoms. Mediation was observed for both women and men in both the USN and college samples.CONCLUSIONS:Trauma symptoms associated with a history of CPA accounted for a substantial part of the relationship between a history of CPA and adult CPA risk in both women and men.PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS:To the extent that trauma symptoms are a mechanism by which the intergenerational transmission of child abuse occurs, intervening to reduce trauma symptoms in CPA victims has the potential of reducing their risk of continuing the cycle of violence.

A randomized clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the Navy Sexual Assault Intervention Training (SAIT) program for men. A four-group Solomon design was used to control for possible pretest sensitization effects. Male Navy personnel (N = 1,505) were assessed for rape knowledge, rape myth acceptance (two scales), and rape empathy after participating in the SAIT program or viewing an educational video about HIV/AIDS (comparison condition). The SAIT program was found to be effective in increasing rape knowledge, reducing rape myth acceptance, and increasing empathy for rape victims. As expected, men who had exhibited previous coercive sexual behavior, compared with those who had not, reported lower levels of knowledge, higher levels of rape myth acceptance, and less rape empathy. However, the SAIT program was generally effective in changing men's knowledge, beliefs, and feelings on the key measures, regardless of participants' histories of coercive sexual behavior.