Witnessing interparental psychological aggression in childhood: implications for daily conflict in adult intimate relationships

Childhood Maltreatment, Personality Pathology, and Intimate Partner Aggression

The goal of the current study was to examine the early childhood roots of adult personality pathology and intimate partner aggression in later life. Childhood maltreatment is associated with perpetration of intimate partner aggression (IPA) in adulthood, although the effect is generally only small to moderate in size. Childhood maltreatment is also linked with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) personality disorders (PDs) in adulthood, which in turn are correlated with IPA in adult romantic relationships. This suggests that one pathway by which childhood maltreatment leads to adult IPA is through maladaptive personality patterns. In the current analyses, data from 495 older, racially diverse adults and their romantic partners recruited from the St. Louis Personality and Aging Network (SPAN) study were used to examine whether childhood maltreatment may impact adult IPA through adult personality pathology. Findings from structural equation modeling demonstrated that for most of the 10 DSM-5 PD (Section II) constructs, there was a significant indirect effect from childhood maltreatment to IPA in later life through a latent variable of personality pathology. Our findings confirm that IPA does occur among romantic partners in later life, that it is robustly associated with personality pathology traits in later life, and that personality pathology in later life may have its roots in early neglect and maltreatment.

Interpersonal problems and negative affect in Borderline Personality and Depressive Disorders in daily life

Theories of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) suggest that interpersonal problems in BPD act as triggers for negative affect and, at the same time, are a possible result of affective dysregulation. Therefore, we assessed the relations between momentary negative affect (hostility, sadness, fear) and interpersonal problems (rejection, disagreement) in a sample of 80 BPD and 51 depressed outpatients at 6 time-points over 28 days. Data were analyzed using multivariate multi-level modeling to separate momentary-, day-, and person-level effects. Results revealed a mutually reinforcing relationship between disagreement and hostility, rejection and hostility, and between rejection and sadness in both groups, at the momentary and day level. The mutual reinforcement between hostility and rejection/disagreement was significantly stronger in the BPD group. Moreover, the link between rejection and sadness was present at all three levels of analysis for the BPD group, while it was localized to the momentary level in the depressed group.

Daily Supportive Equity in Close Relationships

Receiving support in committed relationships has frequently been associated with negative psychological outcomes in the recipient, such as increased distress. The authors hypothesized that these negative effects could be offset by support recipients' reciprocation of support, that is, by creating a sense of supportive equity. To investigate this hypothesis, the authors obtained daily reports of mood and of received and given emotional support from both partners in 85 couples throughout a 4-week period. Reciprocity in support transactions was associated with higher levels of positive mood and lower levels of negative mood. In line with previous research, receiving support without reciprocation was associated with increases in negative mood. Giving support, regardless of receipt, was associated with a decrease in negative mood.

Family process and peer deviance influences on adolescent aggression: longitudinal effects across early and middle adolescence

Beginning in sixth grade at an average age of 11.9 years, 416 adolescents and their parents participated in 4 waves of data collection involving family observations and multiple-reporter assessments. Ecological theory and the process-person-context-time (PPCT) model guided the hypotheses and analyses. Lagged, growth curve models revealed that family hostility and peer deviance affiliation predicted adolescent aggression in the subsequent year. Family warmth played only a minor role in protecting against adolescent aggression. In hostile or low-warmth families, peer deviance affiliation linked to a declining aggression trajectory consistent with the arena of comfort hypothesis. The longitudinal findings suggest a nonadditive, synergistic interplay between family and peer contexts across time in adding nuance to understanding the adolescent aggression.

The good and bad of relationships: how social hindrance and social support affect relationship feelings in daily life

The authors examined the effects of social hindrance and support on negative and positive relationship-specific feelings in three daily diary studies. Study 1 showed that hindrance and support independently predicted positive relationship feelings, but only hindrance predicted negative feelings. Study 2 used new measures of hindrance and support and showed that hindrance and support independently predicted same-day relationship feelings but that the effects of hindrance were stronger in magnitude. Study 3 yielded similar findings using the new measures of hindrance and support and controlling for morning feeling. These asymmetrical crossover effects suggest that bad is only stronger than good when it comes to bad outcomes; they also support the distinction between aversive and appetitive relational processes.

A procedure for evaluating sensitivity to within-person change: can mood measures in diary studies detect change reliably?

The recent growth in diary and experience sampling research has increased research attention on how people change over time in natural settings. Often however, the measures in these studies were originally developed for studying between-person differences, and their sensitivity to within-person changes is usually unknown. Using a Generalizability Theory framework, the authors illustrate a procedure for developing reliable measures of change using a version of the Profile of Mood States (POMS; McNair, Lorr, & Droppleman, 1992) shortened for diary studies. Analyzing two data sets, one composed of 35 daily reports from 68 persons experiencing a stressful examination and another composed of daily reports from 164 persons over a typical 28-day period, we demonstrate that three-item measures of anxious mood, depressed mood, anger, fatigue, and vigor have appropriate reliability to detect within-person change processes.

Self-Monitoring and Close Relationships

Three types of close relationships have received attention from theorists and researchers interested in self-monitoring: friendships, romantic relationships, and marriage. Our review of this literature was organized around three phases of relationships: initiation, maintenance, and dissolution. Across the three types of relationships, consistent differences between high self-monitors and low self-monitors emerged concerning the structure of their social relationships (segmented vs. integrated), the basis for choosing friends and romantic partners (activity-based vs. person-based), and the orientation taken to romantic and marital partners (uncommitted vs. committed). Across all three types of relationships, however, little is known about the processes and consequences involved in the dissolution of close relationships for high self-monitors and low self-monitors. Relatively little is also known about the processes used by high self-monitors and low self-monitors to maintain their friendships and marriages. In addition to addressing these deficiencies in the literature, theorists and researchers interested in self-monitoring and close relationships need to develop sophisticated, causal models that can account for (a) interaction exchanges in the relationships, (b) dyadic as well as individual levels of analysis, and (c) temporal and situational changes in the course of close relationships.

Using diary methods to study marital and family processes

Diary methods allow researchers to study marital and family processes within the context of daily life in a way that is not possible with more traditional methods. The authors review applications of diary designs in marital and family research and detail the types of research questions that can uniquely be asked of dyadic/family diary data. Technological developments for the use of electronic palm-top devices for implementing diary methods are also reviewed. Additionally, the authors discuss specific issues relevant to the analysis of diary data that come from dyads or families. Last, the authors raise unresolved issues and directions for future research in the use of diary methods for studying marital and family processes.

Diary methods: capturing life as it is lived

In diary studies, people provide frequent reports on the events and experiences of their daily lives. These reports capture the particulars of experience in a way that is not possible using traditional designs. We review the types of research questions that diary methods are best equipped to answer, the main designs that can be used, current technology for obtaining diary reports, and appropriate data analysis strategies. Major recent developments include the use of electronic forms of data collection and multilevel models in data analysis. We identify several areas of research opportunities: 1. in technology, combining electronic diary reports with collateral measures such as ambulatory heart rate; 2. in measurement, switching from measures based on between-person differences to those based on within-person changes; and 3. in research questions, using diaries to (a) explain why people differ in variability rather than mean level, (b) study change processes during major events and transitions, and (c) study interpersonal processes using dyadic and group diary methods.