Publication Date

2008

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Crouch, Julie L.||Milner, Joel S.

Degree Name

Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)

Legacy Department

Department of Psychology

LCSH

Child abuse--Prevention

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to examine if parental risk for child physical abuse (CPA) and exposure to aggression cues are independently and additively associated with higher levels of hostile interpretations of ambiguous child behaviors. A total of 196 high- and low-risk for CPA parents with complete and valid protocols participated (108 in the preliminary supraliminal study, 88 in the subliminal study). Participants were randomly assigned to either the hostility priming condition or the neutral priming condition, and were exposed to hostile/neutral cues using well-established supraliminal and subliminal priming procedures. Following the priming procedures, participants were asked to rate pictures presenting ambiguous child behaviors. As predicted, high-risk, compared to low-risk, for CPA parents rated ambiguous pictures as more hostile. Also as expected, parents in the hostile, versus neutral, priming condition rated ambiguous child pictures as more hostile. The combined influence of CPA risk status and priming condition produced an additive effect, so that high-risk parents in the hostile priming condition reported the highest mean hostility ratings.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references (pages [51]-59).

Extent

114 pages (some color pages)

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

Download

Share

COinS