Police Involvement in Intimate Partner Violence and Children’s Anxiety Symptoms

Abstract

This study examined whether police involvement in intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with children’s anxiety symptoms and threat appraisals. Participants were 117 mothers and their children (7-10 years) recruited from domestic violence shelters and followed for 6 months. Mothers reported on IPV and police involvement in the past 6 months; children reported their own anxiety symptoms and threat appraisals. Police involvement in IPV incidents at Time 1 was positively related to children’s anxiety symptoms at both the Time 1 and Time 2 assessments, even after controlling for the severity of the IPV. Police involvement was not associated with children’s threat appraisals. Police involvement in IPV may inadvertently contribute to an increase in children’s anxiety symptoms. Efforts to mitigate adverse outcomes should be investigated.

Keywords

intimate partner violence police children’s anxiety

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a far-reaching, global public health problem. Worldwide, approximately 30% of women are estimated to experience physical or sexual IPV in their lifetime (Devries et al., 2013); comparable lifetime prevalence estimates are reported in United States national surveys (Black et al., 2011; Breiding, Chen, & Black, 2014). In addition, in the United States, it has been estimated that at least 15 million children live in households in which IPV occurred during the previous year (McDonald, Jouriles, Ramisetty-Mikler, Caetano, & Green, 2006) and that 16% of United States children witness IPV at least once during their lifetime (Finkelhor, Turner, Shattuck, & Hamby, 2015). It is well documented that children are at heightened risk for adjustment problems following exposure to IPV (Evans, Davies, & DiLillo, 2008; Kitzmann, Gaylord, Holt, & Kenny, 2003). Specifically, IPV exposure predicts children’s internalizing and externalizing problems, and this association strengthens over time (Vu, Jouriles, McDonald, & Rosenfield, 2016). Nevertheless, many children exposed to IPV, even very frequent and severe IPV, do not seem to exhibit significant adjustment difficulties (Grych, Jouriles, Swank, McDonald, & Norwood, 2000; Hungerford, Wait, Fritz, & Clements, 2012). This variability in child outcomes has prompted researchers to consider how contextual factors surrounding incidents of IPV may contribute to child outcomes.

One contextual factor that has not yet received much research attention is whether police involvement in incidents of IPV might influence child outcomes. Police are often called upon to respond to incidents of IPV (Hamby, Finkelhor, & Turner, 2015). In fact, in some countries, police are aware of a sizable proportion of families in which there are IPV incidents. For example, in a phone survey conducted using a United States nationally representative sample of households with children, 42.3% of the families who reported IPV victimization indicated the incident was “known” to police (Finkelhor, Ormrod, Turner, & Hamby, 2011). In another United States national survey of households with children, 25.2% of respondents who reported IPV indicated that police or other law enforcement officials knew about what happened (Hamby et al., 2015).

Once law enforcement officials are made aware of incidents of IPV, specific policies and practices of law enforcement response vary across and within countries. However, an important objective in police response to IPV across countries involves fostering victim safety and minimizing further physical and psychological trauma (International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2017). Thus, in theory, police knowledge and involvement in IPV incidents should have protective effects on children in the home, particularly if it is associated with stopping the IPV. Indeed, in a qualitative study on children exposed to IPV in Norway, Overlien and Aas (2015) found that some children wished their neighbors would call the police during IPV incidents so that their parents would stop fighting. Furthermore, in some communities, police often serve as a gateway to additional resources for families, such as mental health services, that can help prevent the development of child adjustment problems (Hamby et al., 2015).

However, police involvement might also function to increase child adjustment problems. Theory on children’s exposure to interparental conflict and violence suggests that contextual factors surrounding the conflict, such as police involvement, might contribute to child anxiety problems in particular (e.g., Davies & Cummings, 1994; Davies & Sturge-Apple, 2007; Fosco, DeBoard, & Grych, 2007; Grych & Fincham, 1990). For example, according to the cognitive-contextual framework (Grych & Fincham, 1990), children who witness interparental conflict attempt to understand how it might affect them. This includes an appraisal of the extent to which the conflict threatens the child’s safety and that of other family members, as well as the stability of the family. Conflict appraised as highly threatening can elevate children’s anxiety in the short-term, leading to rumination or worry that the conflict might reoccur or might have negative consequences for the family. Such worries can further contribute to increasing children’s anxiety in the long term. It seems plausible that children might perceive police involvement in an IPV incident as threatening. For example, they may fear that one or both parents will be arrested, or that they themselves might be removed from the home. Such fears about family stability and child security within the family, and their persistence or intensification over time, may contribute to the development of long-term anxiety symptoms.

Findings from the limited research on this topic are consistent with the idea that children experience police involvement in IPV incidents as aversive. Specifically, in a qualitative study of adolescents in the United Kingdom who experienced police involvement in a domestic violence incident, youth reported that the police were “biased” “judgmental,” “make you feel uncomfortable,” and “probably think you’re lying to help your parents” (Richardson-Foster, Stanley, Miller, & Thomson, 2012). In another study, children in the United Kingdom reported feeling powerless and unimportant because the police ignored them and only talked to the adults about the incident (Swanston, Bowyer, & Vetere, 2014). Perhaps more directly related to the hypothesis that police involvement can contribute to elevated anxiety is children’s concern that police involvement can itself spark further IPV and broader family violence. Substantiating this are children’s reports of threats, such as “ . . . he threatened us so many times—if anyone ever called the police he would kill us” (Overlien & Aas, 2015).

An additional consideration involves race and ethnicity. In studies conducted in the United States, there are more reports of IPV to the police and more IPV arrests for ethnic minority families than White families (Bachman & Coker, 1995; Pearlman, Zierler, Gjelsvik, & Verhoek-Oftedahl, 2003). Moreover, adults from ethnic minority groups are more likely than White adults to believe that the police are untrustworthy, discourteous, unfair, and engage in unequal treatment (Lai & Zhao, 2010; McNeeley & Grothoff, 2016). Parents often function as children’s civic role models (White & Mistry, 2016), and children’s attitudes toward the police are likely to be similar to those of their parents. In short, in the United States, police involvement in IPV might be more likely to potentiate feelings of anxiety and threat among children from ethnic minority groups, as compared with White children, because of their parents’ more negative views of the police.

The present research tests the hypothesis that police involvement in IPV incidents is positively associated with children’s anxiety symptoms and threat appraisals. We examine these associations concurrently and prospectively over a 6-month period. Because the probability of making a police report is related to the severity of the IPV incident (Hamby et al., 2015), and the severity of IPV is associated with children’s adjustment problems (Jouriles et al., 1998), we control for the frequency of severe IPV in examining these associations. Consistent with theory on children’s appraisals of interparental conflict and the scant research on the effects of police involvement in IPV on children’s adjustment, we expect police involvement to be positively associated with children’s anxiety symptoms and threat appraisals, both concurrently and prospectively. We also explore whether these relations are stronger for children from ethnic minority groups.

Method

Participants and Procedures

All procedures were approved by the university institutional review board (IRB). Participants were mothers and their children recruited from domestic violence shelters as part of a larger study on mothers and children. Only procedures and measures used in the current study are described here. Participation commenced after the families had departed the shelter. Eligibility criteria included the following: (a) the mother had a biological child aged 7 to 10 years, (b) the mother and child both spoke English, (c) the mother had lived with a male intimate partner for at least 5 of the past 6 months, (d) the mother reported at least one act of physical IPV within the past 6 months, and (e) the child had never received a diagnosis of developmental delay.

The sample included 117 children and their mothers. In families with more than one eligible child, the oldest was selected to participate. Children (42% female) were 8.47 years old on average (SD = 1.13) at Time 1, Mothers reported on both their own and their child’s ethnicity. Child ethnicity in the sample was 26% White, 42% Black/African American, 15% Hispanic, and 14% Other. Mother’s ethnicity in the sample was 32% White, 40% Black/African American, 16% Hispanic, and 12% Other.

The Time 1 assessment was completed on average 26.03 days after shelter departure (SD = 18.77). Most families did not return to live with the violent partner immediately after shelter departure. However, before the Time 1 assessment, 22% had returned to the violent partner, and by the Time 2 assessment, 31% had done so. Of the 117 families who completed the Time 1 assessment, 96 (82%) completed all variables of interest at the Time 2 assessment 6 months later. There were no differences between those who completed both assessments and those who completed only the Time 1 assessment on any of the study variables, ps > .36.

A post hoc power analysis using GPower (Faul, Erdfelder, Lang, & Buchner, 2007) indicated that with four predictor variables (police involvement, ethnicity, Police Involvement × Ethnicity, and severe IPV as a control variable) with alpha set at .05, and our sample size of 117, power exceeded .92 to detect a medium-sized effect (f² = .15) and .99 to detect a large effect (f² = .35).

Mothers and children completed all assessment materials at our research offices (partners were not involved in the study nor did they accompany mothers to the assessments). Mothers and children were interviewed in separate rooms, and the study measures were read aloud to all participants. Staff members who conducted the interviews were trained and supervised by investigators with over 20 years of experience in researching IPV. Before beginning assessments with the children, staff members played games with them to develop rapport and engage them in the process. All mothers were given information about resources and referral sources during the assessments.

Measures

Police involvement

At Time 1, after completing 26 items from the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2; Straus, Hamby, Boney-McCoy, & Sugarman, 1996), which asked about incidents of physical IPV involving the mother and male partner during the past 6 months, mothers were asked to indicate whether “When these types of things (i.e., the acts of IPV) happened, were the police involved?” Responses were scored as 0 = no, 1 = yes. We also asked a subsample of the children (n = 94) whether the police came when their “parents had an argument, fight, or disagreement.” Mother and child reports of police involvement showed moderate agreement, percent agreement = 82%.

To provide additional evidence for the validity of our measure of police involvement, we evaluated whether police involvement was more common in ethnic minority families. Consistent with past research (Bachman & Coker, 1995; Pearlman et al., 2003), there was more police involvement in families in which the child was an ethnic minority (70%, 60/86), compared with families in which the child’s ethnicity was White (48%, 15/31), χ²(1, N = 117) = 4.53, p = .033, Φ = .20. Also consistent with past research (Hamby et al., 2015), police involvement was correlated with the frequency of severe incidents of IPV (measure described below), r = .28, p = .002.

Children’s anxiety

Children completed the 28-item Anxiety subscale of the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS; Reynolds & Richmond, 1978) at both assessments. The RCMAS assesses broad expressions of anxiety, worry, and difficulty concentrating using a yes/no response format (yes = 1, no = 0): “You worry about what is going to happen” and “You wake up scared some of the time.” Item responses are summed to create a scale score, with higher scores indicating greater anxiety. Previous literature recommends that a score of 19 or greater can be used to identify clinical levels of anxiety (Stallard, Velleman, Langsford, & Baldwin, 2001). Coefficient alpha was .88 at both assessments. The RCMAS has been found to correlate positively with children’s reports of depression and anxiety (Muris, Merckelbach, Ollendick, King, & Bogie, 2002).

Children’s threat appraisals

Children completed the six-item Threat subscale of the Young Children’s Perception of Interparental Conflict Scales (CPIC-Y; Grych, 2000) at both assessments. The Threat subscale measures children’s perceptions of fear and worry during interparental conflict on a yes/no scale (yes = 1, no = 0). Items include the child being afraid “something bad will happen” and being worried “that one of them will get hurt.” Item responses are summed to create a scale score, with higher scores indicating greater appraised threat. Coefficient alpha was .72 at Time 1 and .80 at Time 2. The CPIC-Y Threat subscale is associated with concurrent child reports of externalizing and internalizing problems (McDonald & Grych, 2006).

Severe IPV

Mothers completed the seven-item Severe Physical IPV subscale of the CTS2 (Straus et al., 1996) at Time 1. Mothers reported on their own and their partners’ severe IPV (for a total of 14 reported items) in the past 6 months on a modified 10-point response scale (0 = not in the past 6 months to 9 = every day). Items include acts such as one partner using a knife or gun on the other, or beating a partner up. Item responses are summed to create a composite score; higher scores indicate greater frequency of violence. Coefficient alpha was .82.

Data Analysis

Separate multiple regression analyses were conducted for each of the dependent variables (children’s anxiety symptoms and children’s threat appraisals). In addition to the primary predictor variable of police involvement and the control variable of severe IPV, we assessed the need to control for child gender and age. Child gender and age were not associated with either of the dependent variable, children’s anxiety or threat appraisals, so they were dropped from the final analyses.

Results

Descriptive Analyses

Police involvement in IPV in the 6 months prior to the Time 1 assessment was endorsed in 64% of the families (75/117). Severe IPV scores over the same time period ranged from 0 to 52, M = 8.23, SD = 8.57 (possible range = 0-63). Mean children’s anxiety scores at Time 1 were M = 13.60, SD = 6.53, with just under 27% (32/117) exceeding the clinical cutoff (≥19 on the RCMAS; Stallard et al., 2001). At Time 2, mean children’s anxiety scores were M = 10.65, SD = 6.43, with 13% exceeding the clinical cutoff (13/99). Children’s threat appraisal scores were M = 4.25, SD = 1.66, at Time 1, and M = 3.58, SD = 2.04, at Time 2. As expected in a domestic violence shelter sample, these means are higher than those from research using the CPIC-Y in community samples (Koss et al., 2013). Correlations, means, and standard deviations of the study variables are reported in Table 1.

Table 1.

Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations Among Study Variables.

Variable	1	2	3	4	5	6	M (SD)
1. Police involvement t₁	—						0.64 (0.48)
2. Child anxiety t₁	.21*	—					13.60 (6.53)
3. Child anxiety t₂	.23*	.57**	—				10.65 (6.43)
4. Threat appraisals t₁	.17	.48**	.31**	—			4.25 (1.66)
5. Threat appraisals t₂	.04	.29**	.36**	.35**	—		3.58 (2.04)
6. Severe IPV t₁	.28**	.11	.12	.12	−.01	—	8.23 (8.57)
7. Child ethnicity	.20*	.06	−.01	−.01	.05	.11	—

Note. t₁ = first assessment; t₂ = second assessment. Child ethnicity: 0 = White, 1 = non-White; 26% were White. Concurrent analyses, n = 117; prospective analyses, n = 96. IPV = intimate partner violence.

p < .05. **p < .01.

Association of Police Involvement With Children’s Anxiety and Threat Appraisals

Results of the regression analyses are summarized in Table 2. For children’s anxiety symptoms, police involvement over the previous 6 months (reported at Time 1) was associated positively with anxiety symptoms both at Time 1, b = 2.69, t(114) = 2.07, p = .04, $η_{p}^{2}$ = .04, and Time 2, b = 2.80, t(95) = 2.01, p = .05, $η_{p}^{2}$ = .04. Police involvement at Time 1 was not associated with threat appraisals at either assessment: Time 1, b = 0.44, t(114) = 1.38, p = .17, $η_{p}^{2}$ = .02; Time 2, b = 0.13, t(93) = 0.28, p = .78, $η_{p}^{2}$ < .01.

Table 2.

Relations of Police Involvement in IPV to Children’s Anxiety Symptoms and Threat Appraisals.

Variable	Anxiety Symptoms			Threat Appraisals
Variable	β	B (SE)	sr²	β	B (SE)	sr²
Concurrent (all variables measured at t₁)^a,b
Police involvement t₁	.20*	2.69 (1.30)	.04	.13	0.44 (0.32)	.02
Severe IPV t₁	.05	0.04 (0.07)	.00	.14	0.03 (0.02)	.02
Prospective (dependent variables measured at t₂)^c,d
Police involvement t₁	.21*	2.80 (1.39)	.04	.03	0.13 (0.45)	.00
Severe IPV t₁	.08	0.06 (0.08)	.01	.02	0.00 (0.03)	.00

Note. t₁ = first assessment, t₂ = second assessment. Concurrent analyses, n = 117; prospective analyses, n = 96. IPV = intimate partner violence.

Anxiety, F(2, 114) = 2.77, p = .07, R² = .22.

Threat, F(2, 114) = 2.84, p = .06, R² = .22.

Anxiety, F(2, 95) = 3.03, p = .053, R² = .25.

Threat, F(2, 93) = 0.09, p = .91, R² = .04.

p < .05.

Exploratory Analyses

To examine child ethnicity as a moderator of the relation between police involvement and children’s anxiety and threat appraisals, child ethnicity (coded 0 = White and 1 = non-White) and the Child Ethnicity × Police Involvement interaction term were added as predictors to the previous regression models.

Child ethnicity did not moderate the effect of police involvement on children’s anxiety symptoms at either assessment: Time 1, b = 2.36, t(112) = 0.84, p = .40, $η_{p}^{2}$ = .01; Time 2, b = 1.66, t(93) = 0.55, p = .59, $η_{p}^{2}$ < .01. It also did not moderate the effect of police involvement on children’s threat appraisals at either assessment: Time 1, b = 1.09, t(112) = 1.59, p = .12, $η_{p}^{2}$ = .02; Time 2, b = 1.61, t(91) = 1.63, p = .11, $η_{p}^{2}$ = .03.

Because anxiety symptoms and threat appraisals were correlated within and across the two assessments, we conducted an additional set of analyses, adding children’s threat appraisals as a predictor to the models predicting children’s anxiety symptoms. For the models with all variables measured at Time 1, police involvement was not associated with anxiety symptoms, b = 1.82, t(113) = 1.58, p = .12, $η_{p}^{2}$ = .02, but threat appraisals were, b = 1.97, t(113) = 5.91, p < .001, $η_{p}^{2}$ = .23. In the prospective analysis, both police involvement at Time 1, b = 2.78, t(92) = 2.20, p = .03, $η_{p}^{2}$ = .04, and children’s threat appraisals at Time 2, b = 1.05, t(92) = 3.62, p < .001, $η_{p}^{2}$ = .11, were associated with children’s anxiety symptoms at Time 2.

Discussion

Police involvement in IPV incidents was positively associated with children’s anxiety symptoms both concurrently and over a 6-month time period, even after controlling for the frequency of severe IPV. These findings are generally consistent with the findings of qualitative studies suggesting that children experience police involvement in IPV incidents as aversive (Overlien & Aas, 2015; Richardson-Foster et al., 2012; Swanston et al., 2014). Interestingly, police involvement was not associated with children’s threat appraisals—fears that IPV would lead to negative outcomes for either themselves or the family—a cognitive process theorized to account for links between IPV and children’s anxiety (Davies & Cummings, 1994; Davies & Sturge-Apple, 2007; Fosco et al., 2007; Grych & Fincham, 1990).

Given that one of the objectives of police response to IPV is to prevent further harm and minimize psychological trauma to victims (International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2017), it is highly unlikely that the positive association between police involvement and children’s anxiety symptoms is an intended outcome. The design of the present research does not address reasons for the association, but we can offer a couple of hypotheses as to why it might exist. First, the events that transpire when the police intervene in an IPV incident may contribute to children’s anxiety. For example, witnessing a parent being interrogated, arrested, or taken away in a police car may be anxiety-provoking (Shlafer, Gerrity, Ruhland, Wheeler, & Michaels, 2013). Second, it is also possible that children simply fear the police. Some children may form beliefs and ideas about the police on the basis of negative media coverage of incidents involving police, messages about the police they may have received from family members or others in their close social network, or their own experiences or observations of interactions involving the police. Consistent with this, high-crime and economically disadvantaged communities are sometimes characterized by high levels of police mistrust (Kruger et al., 2016; McNeeley & Grothoff, 2016).

The participants in this research were all recruited from domestic violence shelters, and the prevalence of police involvement in this sample was 64%. This prevalence figure suggests that a sizable proportion of women (36%) in the current sample elected not to involve the police following their experience of IPV. That is, even though the violence they experienced was significant enough that they sought refuge at a domestic violence shelter, the police were not involved. Understanding the reasons why women might elect to involve—or not involve—the police in an IPV situation is an important area of inquiry. These reasons may also help explain the association between police involvement and child anxiety symptoms. For example, prior research suggests that police are more likely to be contacted when certain help-seeking obstacles are present, such as the absence of available transportation or the presence of an especially possessive or jealous partner that limits the woman’s ability to leave the home (Hamby et al., 2015). Obstacles such as these might predict both police involvement and child anxiety symptoms.

Police involvement was not associated with children’s threat appraisals concurrently or prospectively. These associations were predicted, but in hindsight, their absence is not that surprising. The families that participated in this research all had experienced IPV that was severe enough to prompt the mothers to go to a domestic violence shelter and then, in most cases, to remain separated from the abusive partner immediately after departing from the shelter. Because our measure of threat appraisals assesses children’s concerns specific to potential negative consequences of interparental conflict and IPV, it is possible that, in this type of sample, the children already felt so threatened by the violence itself that police involvement did not make much difference (i.e., perhaps a ceiling effect was obtained). This is consistent with the high scores obtained on the threat appraisals measure relative to scores obtained in past research with this measure in community samples. In addition, the idea that children’s ethnicity moderates the relation between police involvement and children’s anxiety or threat appraisals was not supported in our exploratory analysis. However, such an effect might be hypothesized to result from feelings of distrust or fear of law enforcement—feelings that are sometimes associated with ethnicity (Lai & Zhao, 2010; McNeeley & Grothoff, 2016). A more precise test of this hypothesis would involve measuring these feelings of distrust or fear directly and evaluating whether they function as a moderator.

If the findings linking police involvement in IPV incidents and children’s anxiety symptoms are found to be robust, this line of research may hold implications for policy on police officer behavior in response to IPV incidents. Several child-relevant “best law enforcement practices” have emerged over the years, including assessing whether child witnesses need help and providing information about specific services for child witnesses (Hamby et al., 2015). Nationally representative data on United States law enforcement services in family violence cases suggest that the extent to which such practices are being implemented is variable (Hamby et al., 2015). It is also unclear whether such practices actually work to reduce child anxiety and how generalizable the effects of specific practices might be across different families and cultures. Our findings suggest that examining such questions may be useful for facilitating positive mental health outcomes among children exposed to IPV with police involvement.

The longitudinal follow-up of a sample of children exposed to severe IPV is a strength of this study, and the use of mothers’ reports of police involvement and children’s reports of anxiety symptoms mitigates the likelihood that shared method variance explains the documented associations. Nonetheless, there are certain limits to the conclusions that can be inferred from the present findings. First, our assessment of police involvement did not consider the nature or frequency of the police involvement. A more comprehensive assessment delineating what happened during police contacts and the frequency of such contacts could help in developing a better understanding of the reasons for the association and ideas about how to improve law enforcement policy. Second, although police involvement in IPV was positively associated with children’s anxiety symptoms, the design of the study precludes making causal inferences about this relation. Moreover, the time period over which police involvement was assessed (the 6-month period preceding the Time 1 assessment of child anxiety) prevents us from being able to evaluate whether police involvement increases child anxiety over time. Third, our study focused on families recruited from a domestic violence shelter. It is likely that the frequency and severity of the IPV in these families, as well as other family circumstances, differ from those of many other families experiencing IPV (Johnson, 1995). In short, it is not clear how generalizable our findings are to families that have not sought refuge at domestic violence shelters or families for whom the IPV differs in frequency and severity.

Despite these limitations, the results of this research extend our knowledge about children exposed to IPV, suggesting that police involvement in IPV may unintentionally contribute to children’s adjustment difficulties. Additional research is necessary to replicate and establish the parameters of this association, and to better understand the reasons for it. As responders to incidents of IPV, police can play a valuable role in fostering the physical and psychological health of the children in these families. It may be useful to investigate how police responses to IPV incidents might help mitigate adverse child outcomes that often result from IPV.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health: R01 MH062064.

Author Biographies

Ernest N. Jouriles is a Dedman Family Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology at Southern Methodist University. His research addresses violence in adolescent romantic relationships and the development of intervention programs to prevent such violence. His research also examines children’s exposure to interparental conflict and violence, and interventions to help children in violent families.

Caitlin Rancher is a clinical psychology doctoral student in the Department of Psychology at Southern Methodist University. Her research focuses on individual differences in risk and resiliency in children exposed to family conflict and violence. Her research interests also include understanding the precipitants and maintenance factors in adolescent dating violence and broader victimization experiences.

Nicole L. Vu is a clinical psychology doctoral student in the Department of Psychology at Southern Methodist University. Her research examines the impact of children’s exposure to interparental conflict and violence on children’s adjustment problems, with a particular focus on measurement of intimate partner violence and parenting interventions designed to help children in violent families.

Renee McDonald is an associate dean for Research and Academic Affairs in the Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences at Southern Methodist University. Her research examines how child adjustment problems are associated with exposure to family conflict and violence, with particular attention to developing and disseminating effective interventions. Her research has also focused on prevention of sexual assault and racist behaviors, and reduction of risk for sexual assault victimization among high school and college students.

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