data analysis techniques
What are the effects of family violence on social well-being in adolescents?
Rehab Al Ghamdi
Dr. Sperry
EPSY 621
1
Did you know?
Millions of children are exposed to domestic violence in their home (Carlson, 1984; Straus, 1992).
Millions of children classified as maltreated by parents and other caretakers (USDHHS, 2006).
Co-occurrence of violence domestic as well as otherwise with child abuse(Edleson, 2001; Tajima, 2004).
Links between domestic violence as well as child abuse with adverse psychosocial and behavioral outcomes (T. Herrenkohl, Sousa, Tajima, R. Herrenkohl, & Moylan, 2008; Sternberg, 2006; Wolfe, Crooks, Lee, McIntyre-Smith, & Jaffe, 2003).
2
The above facts represents a disheartening story related to the dismal state of affairs with respect to the increasing incidents of child abuse and violence .Such an exposure at the tender age has a detrimental effect on their future personalities by adversely influencing their internalizing and externalizing behaviors.
2
Research question
Does the exposure to violence and child abuse at an early age responsible for influencing the psychosocial outcomes in adolescence comprising their internalizing and externalizing behaviors.
3
This investigation aims to strengthen research on effects of exposure to child abuse and domestic violence.
3
Summary
The effects of child abuse and exposure to domestic violence on adolescent internalizing and externalizing behavior problems.
4
The following slides will present the summary of the research study authored by Moyan et al. to investigate and validate the findings.
Moylan, C. A., Herrenkohl, T. I., Sousa, C., Tajima, E. A., Herrenkohl, R. C., & Russo, M. J. (2010). The effects of child abuse and exposure to domestic violence on adolescent internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Journal of family Violence, 25(1), 53-63.
4
Purpose of Study
The examination of the impact of child abuse and domestic violence exposure in childhood on their internalizing adolescent behavior resulting in psychological problems like anxiety and depressionas well as their externalizing behaviors manifested as delinquency and violence perpetration.
Moylan, C. A., Herrenkohl, T. I., Sousa, C., Tajima, E. A., Herrenkohl, R. C., & Russo, M. J. (2010). The effects of child abuse and exposure to domestic violence on adolescent internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Journal of family Violence,
5
The study by Moylan et al. attempted to investigate the combined effects of exposure to child abuse and domestic violence on psychosocial outcomes in adolescence and examine interaction of gender with abuse and domestic violence exposure in the prediction of youth outcomes.
5
Research hypothesis
The study postulates that
exposure to violence will enhance the likelihood of child imbibing these outcomes, and
the risk is higher among the children who face child abuse along with domestic as compared to those who are exposed to only one type of abuse.
There is moderating effect of gender on the childhood exposure as well as the later outcomes in adolescence.
6
The study by Moylan et al. particularly tried to investigate its objectives of study by examining the above mentioned three hypothesis.
6
Design
Lehigh Longitudinal Study
Descriptive research design using three time assessment process with well structured interviews
individually face-to-face administered questionnaires
adolescent youth survey comprising 457 youth
information was captured on variables like parenting practices, youth behaviour, youth psychological functioning, and youth school experiences
To cross check the reliability of information and to lessen the potential measurement bias data was procured from three sources including official records; reports provided by mothers and the retrospective reports by adolescents were used in the study.
7
The above slide provides a comprehensive list of the characteristics of the research design used in the study by Moylan et al.(2010)
7
Methods
Participants
The participants in the study included youth and parents(for the preschool and school-age children)
Instrument for data collection
The study used well validated scales like the items from the Achenbach Youth Self Report (YSR) (Achenbach 1991) in a structured assessment form
Data collection techniques
Face to face interviews
8
The study employed the above mentioned methods to ensure the generalization of the research findings.
8
Data analysis
Data analysis techniques
Regression models and
structural modelling program(SEM)using the MPlus
9
The use of software was done to ensure the fast speed for calculations. The use of SEM facilitated the testing for the hypothesis of interest. To make an assessment regarding the possible gender differences across levels of the predictors and outcomes it was used as a free-standing covariate.
9
Findings
The findings related to first hypothesis about the impact of violence exposure on internalizing and externalizing behaviour indicate exposure to be predictive for some outcomes and the gender was also predictive for certain outcomes.
The study confirmed the complexity of the relationship between violence exposure and later adolescent outcomes as results were not statistically significant.
10
The study did indicate some observable but insignificant differences across the predictions for children with dual exposure and those who were exposed to either abuse or domestic violence only. Also the comparison of results across gender revealed the comparability of results for effect of exposure between the boys and girls.
10
Conclusions
Though the findings indicated that the exposure to domestic violence and child abuse at an early age impact certain type of internalizing and externalizing outcomes in adolescence but it failed to confirm if the dual exposure was more severe than the individual. Further the moderating effect of gender on this relationship was also observed.
11
11
Theoretical perspective
The theoretical perspective of the author on the issue to extend the realms of cognitive-development by gaining a knowledge that how the exposures in early life influence the outcomes at later stage.
12
Cognitive development aims to identify the various factors that influence the development of human beings across the different stages of life.
12
Theoretical perspective
To verify the severity of double whammy effect (Herrenkohl et al., 2008; Hughes, Parkinson, & Vargo, 1989) and to to measure the developmental changes in the target group the study makes use of longitudinal research.
13
The study aimed to verify the theory that that whether double whammy effect (Herrenkohl et al., 2008; Hughes, Parkinson, & Vargo, 1989) is more severe than the exposure to only one of the factors but it could not gather substantive evidence to support the issue.
13
summary
Prospective effects of violence exposure across multiple contexts on early adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problems.
14
The following slides will present the summary of the research study authored by Mrug & Windle to investigate and validate the findings.
Mrug, S., & Windle, M. (2010). Prospective effects of violence exposure across multiple contexts on early adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problems. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 51(8), 953-961
14
Purpose of Study
To examine the impact of cross-contextual (in community, home or school )exposures on children by evaluating the effects of witnessing violence and victimization both individual as well as interactive on the adolescent’s internalizing and externalizing issues.
15
The study by Mrug & Windle attempts to explore the cross cultural impact of violence and abuse exposure on the shaping of problems during early adolescence.
15
Research hypothesis
The study postulated
violence exposure in home and school is more detrimental in cultivating the adjustment problems as compared to
community violence
violence exposure in the community have an attenuating impact on violence exposure at home and school
Victimization has direct strong association with adjustment issues in comparison to exposure to violence and therefore the application of cross-context attenuation is more apt in witnessing
Violence rather than victimisation.
16
design
Longitudinal study of two assessments at a lag of 16 months
Two-stage probability sampling process with random selection of schools followed by inviting the participants from the selected schools
The study is correlational trying to deduce the impact of witnessing violence and victimization on the behavior of adolescents.
17
Methods
The Birmingham Youth Violence Study
(BYVS) was conducted between 2003 and 2005.
Sample survey comprising 603 boys and girls from . 5th grade classrooms in 17 schools of the area
Sample was constituted by 78% African Americans and 20% Caucasians
18
Methods(contd.)
Use of standardized scales for measurement of variables like Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS;Reynolds & Richmond, 1997), Major Depressive Disorder scale of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children
Predictive Scales (DPS; Lucas et al., 2001), Hopelessness Scale for Children (Kazdin, Rodgers,& Colbus, 1986) etc. to ensure the validity and relaiability of study findings.
19
Data analysis
Multiple regressions
Initial levels of internalizing and externalizing problems and demographics were the control factors in the study.
20
The study used multiple regression to test the hypothesis of the impact of independent and interactive effects of witnessing violence or victimization across multiple cross-contexts.
20
Findings
The study concluded that Witnessing violence at school and home was a predictor for anxiety and depression while witnessing community violence was a predictor for delinquency.
Similarly for the victimization, the impact of victimization at home was associated with anxiety, depression, and aggression while victimization at school related with anxiety only and the association of victimization in the community with any outcomes could not be ascertained from the study.
The study suggested that the impact of witnessing violence at home was more on the outcomes like anxiety, delinquency and aggression in absence of exposure to community violence.
21
Conclusions
Violence exposure at home and school on internalizing and externalizing outcomes was confirmed by the study and the witnessing of community violence is found to have an attenuating this effect.
22
Theoretical perspective
The theoretical perspective of the author on the issue to extend the realms of cognitive-development by gaining a knowledge that how the exposures in early life influence the outcomes at later stage in the multiple contexts of community, school and home.
23
Theoretical perspective
The study makes use of longitudinal research to measure the developmental changes in the target group.
24
Findings from similar research studies
A meta-analytic review of the video-game research literature including various types of research settings like experimental and non-experimental studies, in laboratory and field settings, with males and females and explores the role of exposure to violent video games in influencing aggressive behavior concluded that exposure to violent video games increases physiological arousal, cardiovascular arousal, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect and aggression-related thoughts and feelings whereas it has an adverse effect on pro-social behavior and helping behavior (Anderson , Bushman).
25
Findings from similar research studies
Another study exhibits that effect of violent video games on aggression is positively associated with type of game violence and negatively related to time spent playing the games(Sherry). Carnagey and Anderson in their study employed three experiments for examining the effects of rewarding and punishing violent actions in video games on the aggression-related variables by using an experimental research design and concluded that rewarding violent game actions increased aggressive thinking, aggressive behavior as well as hostile emotion where as the punishing violent actions increased hostile emotion and did not increase aggressive thinking or aggressive behavior. Therefore it can be drawn as an inference that games that reward violent actions can increase aggressive behavior by increasing aggressive thinking.
26
Findings from similar research studies
Study by Anderson and Dill revealed a positive association between violent video game play with aggressive behavior and delinquency and negative association between academic achievement and overall amount of time spent playing video games. It was further concluded that these associations were stronger for aggressive and male individuals. The study by Bartholow and Anderson examining the effect of playing a violent video game on aggression in a laboratory setting using an experimental research design and measuring aggression in terms of the punishment levels set by participants for their opponents confirmed the hypothesis that playing the violent game would result in more aggression rather than playing of the nonviolent game and the larger interaction effect between game and sex for men.
27
Take home message
In the light of the evidences presented by the two studies by Moylan et al.(2010) and Mrug & Windle it can be safely concluded that the exposure to violence(domestic or otherwise) as well as the child abuse at the tender age are responsible for shaping the behavior of the adolescents reflected in their internalizing behaviors like anxiety, depression as well as their externalizing behaviors like delinquency.
28
Thank you
29
References
References
Moylan, C. A., Herrenkohl, T. I., Sousa, C., Tajima, E. A., Herrenkohl, R. C., & Russo, M. J. (2010). The effects of child abuse and exposure to domestic violence on adolescent internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Journal of family Violence, 25(1), 53-63.
Mrug, S., & Windle, M. (2010). Prospective effects of violence exposure across multiple contexts on early adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problems. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 51(8), 953-961.
Other References
Chan, K. L., Brownridge, D. A., Yan, E., Fong, D. Y., & Tiwari, A. (2011). Child maltreatment polyvictimization: Rates and short-term effects on adjustment in a representative Hong Kong sample. Psychology of violence, 1(1), 4.
Lepistö, S., Luukkaala, T., & Paavilainen, E. (2011). Witnessing and experiencing domestic violence: a descriptive study of adolescents. Scandinavian journal of caring sciences, 25(1), 70-80.
Lepistö, S., Åstedt‐Kurki, P., Joronen, K., Luukkaala, T., & Paavilainen, E. (2010). Adolescents’ experiences of coping with domestic violence. Journal of advanced nursing, 66(6), 1232-1245.
Margolin, G., & Vickerman, K. A. (2011). Posttraumatic stress in children and adolescents exposed to family violence: I. Overview and issues.
Quinn, A., Briggs, H. E., Miller, K. M., & Orellana, E. R. (2014). Social and familial determinants of health: Mediating effects of caregiver mental and physical health on children’s mental health. Children and Youth Services Review, 36, 163-169.
Smith, D. E., & Moore, T. M. (2013). Family Violence and Aggression and Their Associations With Psychosocial Functioning in Jamaican Adolescents. Journal of Family Issues, 34(6), 745-767.
Other References
Anderson, C. A., & Dill, K. E. (2000). Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life. Journal of personality and social psychology, 78(4), 772.
Anderson, C. A., Carnagey, N. L., Flanagan, M., Benjamin, A. J., Eubanks, J., & Valentine, J. C. (2004). Violent video games: Specific effects of violent content on aggressive thoughts and behavior. Advances in experimental social psychology, 36, 200-251.
Anderson, C. A. (2004). An update on the effects of playing violent video games. Journal of adolescence, 27(1), 113-122.
Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological science, 12(5), 353-359.
Rubric
Evaluation Rubric for Research Presentation
Total Assignment = 100 pts (=23% of course grade) 10 pts — Your research question/ appropriate selection of articles and presentation length–total presentation should be no shorter than 20 and no longer than 40 slides 45 pts — Summary of each study; please include for each study the following. a. Purpose of Study–what are the study’s research questions? (6 pts) b. Design –First, answer this question: is this study experimental?, quasi-experimental?, or correlational? Experimental=are there randomly assigned groups that were treated differently?, Quasi-Experimental–are there groups that naturally occurred–e.g., smokers vs. non-smokers–that were treated differently by the researcher?, Correlational–a group is described and the results show differences among the group members? Second, IF the study has a developmental focus, analyze the developmental design: cross-sectional, longitudinal, or sequential. (6 pts) c. Methods–include participants, materials/instruments, data collection techniques, and data analysis techniques. After summarizing the methods, analyze what the researchers did in terms of the criteria of 1) objectivity, 2) reliability, 3) validity, 4) representative sampling, and 5) replication. (21 pts)
Rubric II
d. Findings–look for information indicating significant differences–connect the findings back to the research hypotheses. The findings should be contained in the Results section of the paper (6 pts) e. Conclusions–summary of authors’ interpretations from Discussion section (6 pts) 15 pts–Theoretical Perspective–what are the researchers’ (probably implicit) perspectives on human development?–defend your decisions for each study with reasons (from the purpose, design, data collection and analysis, results, and interpretation); you should 1) identify (2 pts), 2) explain (5 pts), and 3) defend (8 pts) whether the perspective of each study is organismic, cognitive-developmental, cognitive-learning, behavioral, psychodynamic, contextual, or humanistic. If possible to determine the specific theory being tested by the study, further analyze the origins of the developmental approach being used. Be sure to defend your point of view. 15 pts — Take Home Message–having read these two studies (notice this is a comparative analysis), what do you now believe? (=conclusions, 5 pts) What other questions do you have? (=future research questions, 5 pts) What can you not know for sure? (=limitations, 5 pts)
Rubric III
15 pts — Communicative Effectiveness a. Presence of a brief introduction and conclusion (2 pts) b. Does paper flow? (please use headings) (3 pts) c. Are words misspelled or used incorrectly, are subject-verb agreements correct? (4 pts) d. Correct use of in-text citation (e.g., refer to studies by the authors’ last names and year of publication)–please note that the only proper way to refer to a study in formal writing is by the last names of the authors and the year of publication. No article titles should appear in the narrative. (3 pts) e. Style of references (3 pts) For both d. and e. please follow the APA Manual of Style, 6th ed. An APA tutorial is available under the Cunningham Memorial Library’s home page (see online tutorials). Please post your presentation as an attachment (with document in Power Point or Word or rtf, preferably) under the Research Presentations Forum of the Discussion Board by the due date listed in the Calendar (under Tools).
