Home > Projects

ADHD
Depressed Parents
Disruptive Behavior Disorders
Personality Disorders (Narcissistic Traits)
Cross Cultural Research (European American and Chinese)
Child Sexual Abuse and Posttraumatic Play (Case Study)
Relational Psychopathology (Case Study: Mother with Dependent Personality)
Scale Development
Treatment and Intervention Projects

ADHD

Parent-Child Interactions with ADHD Children: Significance of Parental Empathy in Child Adjustment
Shelly Warren and Trish Kaminski
Much attention has been paid in research and therapy to negative cycles of interaction between parent and child, which are thought to play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of child behavior problems. However, it is equally important to consider how positive family interactions can be promoted, as these are likely to help prevent or reduce behavior problems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between parental empathy and child adjustment factors in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Specifically, it is hypothesized that higher levels of parent empathy will predict higher levels of child self-esteem, social skills, and behavioral compliance, and lower levels of child aggression. If this relationship can be verified, it will have important implications for the treatment of children with ADHD, who often experience difficulties in interactions with their parents.

Parent-Child Relations and Peer Relations in Children with ADHD
Sarah Durrant and Trish Kaminski
Research has shown that poor peer relationships are predictive of negative outcomes in adolescence and early adulthood (i.e., school dropout and criminal behavior) (for a review, see Parker & Asher, 1987). Further, developmental research has posited that parents indirectly influence children's peer functioning through aspects of the parent-child relationship (e.g., Armentrout, 1972; Carson & Parke, 1996; Harrist, Pettit, Dodge, & Bates, 1994). One specific group of children that exhibit significant problems with peers (Henker & Whalen, 1999) and in interactions with parents (Danforth, Barkley, & Stokes, 1991) is children diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The purpose of the study is to determine if there is a significant association between parent-child relationship characteristics and peer acceptance in an ADHD population. If family-peer links are found in children with ADHD, this will indicate the importance of focusing peer problem interventions not only on social skills training, but also on improving aspects of the parent-child relationship.

Self-Concept of Children with ADHD
Kim Barton and Trish Kaminski.
Children with ADHD and matched controls are interviewed after being shown the video recording of their recent PCIA interaction with their parents. The interview is transcribed and inferences are drawn about the child's self-concept based upon the child's answers to questions about what the child is doing, thinking, feelings, and wanting.

Mothers and Daughters with ADHD
Sara Weisenbach and Trish Kaminski

Parent-Child Psychopathology: ADHD Children and Depressed/Anxious Parents
Investigators: Katie Besly and Trish Kaminski.
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Depression

Direct Observation of School Aged Children with Depressed and Nondepressed Mothers
Janel Burchfield and Rick Holigrocki
Children of depressed parents are at risk for behavioral and emotional difficulties as well as for developing later psychopathology. Some children, however, do not show evidence of dysfunction. The nature and pattern of the interaction of depressed and nondepressed parents and their children is described. Children of depressed parents are expected to show a range of responses and post hoc qualitative exploratory analysis will be conducted to understand what risk and protective factors may account for resiliency and dysfunction.

Depressed and Nondepressed Mothers
Danielle Bach and Rick Holigrocki
How does maternal depression affect the nature of parents' interaction with their children? Although the impact of maternal depression on infants has been well documented, there are a limited number of direct observation studies of depressed mothers with preschoolers and school age children. This study will examine the actual interactions between children and parents with Major Depressive Disorder and/or Dysthymic Disorder. Using a nondepressed control group for comparison, researchers will test hypothesis relating to the communication and behaviors of parent-child dyads when the mother is depressed.
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Oppositional Defiant Disorder/Conduct Disorder

Children with Disruptive Behavior Disorders: Internal Representations and Behaviors with Parents
Christine Raches and Rick Holigrocki
The study examines the relationship between a child's internal representational world, as inferred by the Rorschach and the TAT, and a child's behaviors during a play task with the parent. This research is being conducted with a sample of mothers and their 7- to 10-year-old children in which the child has been diagnosed with a disruptive behavior disorder and age- and gender-matched control dyads. Each dyad is filmed as they complete the Parent-Child Interaction Assessment. The behavior codes of interest are Child Aggression and Compliance. Upon completion of the PCIA-II, the child is then given the Rorschach and the TAT. The Rorschach is scored using the Mutuality of Autonomy Scale (Urist, 1977), which involves evaluating all movement responses on an ordinal scale ranging from empathic relatedness to malevolence. The TAT is coded using the Social Cognitions and Object Relations Scale (1985, Westen, Lohr, Silk, Kerber, & Goodrich) which measures the complexity of representations, affect tone of relationship paradigms, emotional investment in relationships, and understanding of social causality. Data are also collected for descriptive purposes on parent and child psychopathology, parenting style, and child intelligence. Object relations theory is used to describe the relationship between the children's internal representations and their behaviors with their parents.

Disruptive Behavior: Sequential Analysis
Sarah Rains and Rick Holigrocki

Attributions and Role Reversals of Children with Disruptive Behavior Disorders
Yvonne Bohr, York University, Canada
This study is of parents and 4- to 6-year-old children with disruptive behavior disorder, conduct disorder, and/or ADHD.

Projection and Observed Aggression in Children with and without Conduct Problems
Rick Holigrocki and Robbi Hudson-Crain
The use of defense mechanisms and observed physical aggression by male and female 7- to 10-year old children with conduct problems (CP) were compared to children with no conduct problems (NCP). Children completed the Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1943) and were filmed with their parents as they completed the Parent-Child Interaction Assessment-II (PCIA-II; Holigrocki, Kaminski, & Frieswyk, 1999, 2002). The TAT responses were coded for defenses using the Defense Mechanisms Manual (DMM; Cramer, 1991); and the video recordings were coded for children’s physical aggression.
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Personality Disorders and Character Traits

Narcissistic Traits and Parenting Style: A Closer Look at Maladaptive Parenting Through Parent-Child Observations, Parent Self-Report, and Child Self-Report
Michelle Collins and Trish Kaminski
The thrust of this investigation is to examine the relationship between narcissistic traits in mothers and several variables associated with parenting efficacy. Approximately 200 mothers will complete a battery of measures, including the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory-2, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Child Abuse Potential, and the MCMI-III (Narcissistic scale). Variables hypothesized to be associated with maternal narcissism include parental empathy, inappropriate expectations of children, disciplining style, and parent-child role-reversal. Moreover, mothers' expressions of nurturance, positive personal comments, and negative personal comments towards their children are also hypothesized to be related to narcissism and will be assessed through coding of video recorded interactions on the Parent-Child Interaction Assessment-II (PCIA-II; Holigrocki, Kaminski, & Frieswyk, 2002). Other relationships under study include associations between maternal narcissism and personal abuse history, child abuse potential, and children's perceptions of maternal rejection. Finally, the factor structure of the MCMI-III will be analyzed, given the emphasis within the recent literature on narcissism as a multi-dimensional construct. Understanding the construct of narcissism and its relationship to parent-child interactions and children's perceptions of parental acceptance could have important implications for children's healthy development and parenting interventions.
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Cross Cultural Research

Hong Kong and European-American Mother-Child Interaction
Daphne Au Young and Rick Holigrocki
How are Hong Kong and European-American mother-child interactions similar or different? This research is exploratory and has implications for assisting professionals in the fields of mental health, education, and health sciences in learning to understand cross-cultural differences in parenting. Ms. Au Young travelled to Hong Kong in August 2003 and collected PCIA-II data at the Hong Kong Baptist University. With the assistance of undergraduate research assistants in Canada, Ms. Au Young is transcribing the video recordings and translating them from Cantonese to English. She will be comparing her Hong Kong sample to a community sample collected in Indianapolis.
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Posttraumatic Play

Sequelae of Child Sexual Abuse: A Child and Parent Assessment
Rick Holigrocki and Christine Raches
We present a case example of a 9-year-old, biracial girl and her mother. We integrate data collected from rating scales (e.g., Child Behavior Checklist; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001), a free response measure (Thematic Apperception Test; Murray, 1943), and a direct observation measure (Parent-Child Interaction Assessment-II; Holigrocki, Kaminski, & Frieswyk, 1999, 2002) and reveal how a child sexual abuse victim’s internal representations and symptoms manifest in both an interpersonal context and in the realm of play. We discuss assessment findings regarding how they provide for an idiographic understanding of the child (Journal of Personality Assessment, April 2006). [PDF 159 kb]
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Relational Psychopathology

A Structural and Microanalytic Exploration of Parent-Child Relational Psychopathology Investigators
Rick Holigrocki and Trish Kaminski
A videotape of a parent and child playing is used to illustrate the relational expression of psychopathology and how internal representations of a parent may be transferred to a child. The dyad's verbalizations and behaviors are understood as expressions of an underlying organization of tacitly held assumptions of self and other experiences. The case presented is of a 25-year-old mother with dependent personality characteristics and her dysfunctional interactions with her 7-year-old daughter. Descriptive data were drawn from a battery of objective tests and the structural analysis was performed on the videotaped interactions of the dyad completing the Parent-Child Interaction Assessment This paper is based upon our presentation at the Society for Personality Assessment (Published in Constructivism in the Human Sciences). [PDF 147 kb]
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Victim-Victimizer Relational Dynamics as Maintained by Representational, Defensive, and Neurobiologic Functioning
Rick Holigrocki and Robbi Hudson-Crain
Cognitive-affective, defensive, and neurobiologic aspects of victim-victimizer relational dynamics are illustrated. Observations of a 26-year-old mother and her 9-year-old son during a social pretend play task and projective and objective assessment data provide the sources of inference regarding how the parent and child’s thematic structures are relationally expressed, maintain their psychopathology, and foster a victim-victimizer interactional cycle. By way of complimentary interpersonal, psychological, and neurobiologic processes, a victim-victimizer relational dynamic is maintained and intergenerationally transmitted (Published in the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic). [PDF 168 kb]
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Scale Development

Child Aggression Scale
Trish Kaminski

Global Assessment of Parental Attunement
Trish Kaminski, Rick Holigrocki, and Shelly Warren

Disruption of Play
Rick Holigrocki and Shira Louria

Observation Coding System
Trish Kaminski

Transcript Coding System
Rick Holigrocki, Sid Frieswyk, Chuck Fantz and Jim Taylor, Trish Kaminski, Danielle Bach, Janel Perkins, Sarah Rains, Lisa Settles, & Christine Shuttz (Last five co-authors listed in alphabetical order)
PCIA-II video recordings of high-risk and control parent-child dyads were used to generate codes. Codes include variables such as nurturance, aggression, limit setting, asking, suggesting, commanding, complying, oppositionality, etc. A manual has been developed that describes each code. Transcription instructions are also included in the manual.

Treatment

Changing Parent Attributions in High Risk Families
Yvonne Bohr
This article describes one child and family treatment center's process of creating a long-awaited, new infant/child early intervention program. An experimental service model is discussed in the context of the need for empirically validated assessment and intervention for very young clients in high-risk families. Case examples and illustrations of service flow are provided. Some features of this program, such as the fact that it was set up for a seamless transition to a treatment research project, are highlighted. Citation: Bohr, Y. (2005). Infant Mental Health Programs: Experimenting with innovative models. Infant Mental Health Journal, 26(5), 407-422.

Women Victims of Domestic Violence: Modifying Attributions using the PCIA-II MAP Intervention
Rick Holigrocki
The study involves the evaluation of an intervention for mothers who have been victims of domestic violence. The intervention, designed by Bohr (2005, 2004a, 2004b), targets and modify a mother’s faulty parental attributions regarding her child. Method. Forty mothers and their 7- to 10-year-old children will be randomly assigned to a waitlist or treatment group. They are filmed as they complete the PCIA-II. Recordings are reviewed by the clinician and shown to the mother during the four treatment sessions. The focus of the treatment is working with the mother to identify difficulties in the parent-child interaction as well as to highlight areas of parenting strength. Maternal attributions, parenting stress, and parent perceptions of child behavior problems are assessed for waitlist and treatment groups during pre-treatment, post-treatment and follow-up phases of the intervention. Treatment efficacy will be assessed through measures assessing parental attributions, representations, affect, behaviors, and child behavior problems.

Attributions, Affect, and Representations as Mediators of the Relationship Between the Severity of Domestic Violence and Parenting Behaviors.
Kelly Young and Rick Holigrocki
This study examines questions about possible mechanisms that underlie the relationship between the severity of domestic violence and negative parenting behaviors.  The proposed mediators are attributions, negative affect, and hostile and malevolent representations.  Method: Twenty women victims of domestic violence (WVDV) and their 7- to 10-year-old children are being recruited from a domestic violence shelter and a transitional living program.  A contrast group of 20 mothers who have children of similar age and gender are being recruited from the community.  Dyads are administered a multimethod assessment to assess severity of domestic violence (CTS-2; Conflict Tactics Scale, Straus, Hamby, & Warren, 2003), parenting behaviors (PCIA-II; Parent-Child Interaction Assessment II, Holigrocki, Kaminski, & Frieswyk, 1999, 2002 coded using the AMBIANCE; Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification, Bronfman, Parsons, & Lyons-Ruth, 2004), attributions (ASQ; Attributional Style Questionnaire, Peterson, Semmel, von Bayer, Abramson, Metalsky, & Seligman, 1982), negative affect (BDI-II; Beck Depression Inventory II, Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996), and representations (TAT-AT; Thematic Apperception Test, Murray, 1943 scored using SCORS-AT; Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale, Affect Tone, Westen, 1991).  Proposed Analysis: This study utilizes a mixed design quasi-experimental method, whereby both groups will be compared on the key constructs and a mediational model will be tested within the women victims of domestic violence (WVDV) group.  Implication: Support for a mediational model would provide an empirical rationale for parenting interventions designed to alter WVDV’s attributions, negative affect, and hostile and malevolent representations.

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