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The Relationship of Reflective Functioning to Parent Child Interactions in a Sample of Fathers with Concurrent Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration and Substance Abuse Problems

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Abstract

This study is the first to examine reflective functioning (RF) and direct parent–child interactions of fathers with concurrent intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration and substance abuse (SA) problems. Twenty-four fathers, with children between the age of one and seven, completed a structured interview to assess RF, self-report measures of hostile-aggressive parenting behaviors, IPV perpetration severity, SA severity, and a coded play session with their children. Results of three simultaneous multiple regressions revealed that RF in fathers was not associated significantly with observed parenting behaviors. However, fathers’ SA severity emerged as a significant predictor for child avoidant behavior and dyadic tension, and fathers’ IPV perpetration severity contributed unique variance to child avoidant behavior and dyadic constriction. These results suggest that fathers’ SA severity and IPV perpetration behaviors may be more salient factors in predicting their father-child interactions than paternal RF.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) K23 DA023334 (Stover). The authors would like to acknowledge Rodney Webb III, MA, and Cindy DeCoste, MA for their work on this project.

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Correspondence to Carla Smith Stover.

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Stover, C.S., Coates, E.E. The Relationship of Reflective Functioning to Parent Child Interactions in a Sample of Fathers with Concurrent Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration and Substance Abuse Problems. J Fam Viol 31, 433–442 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-015-9775-x

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