Assessment of Family Violence: A Handbook for Researchers and Practitioners

In the first comprehensive volume of its kind, Assessment of Family Violence describes and reviews traditional, time-tested instruments as well as more recent assessment methods in the field of family violence. Here practitioners, researchers, and program evaluators will find a wealth of assessment information at their fingertips. Several dozen methods—namely instruments developed for and applied to assessment of violence, risk factors, its correlates, and sequelae as it occurs in the family—are included in an easy-to-read and handy reference format.

This volume provides detailed information for each assessment, including development and description of the assessment, target population information, equipment needs, format of the assessment, administration and scoring guidelines, psychometric analysis, primary and related references, and scale availability, as well as advantages, limitations, and general recommendations for practitioners and researchers. Also included are a general overview of the field and matters pertaining to the assessment of family violence, as well as information on test construction and psychometrics.

Also Available:
Assessment of Partner Violence: A Handbook for Researchers and Practitioners

List of Measures

Preface

Acknowledgments

I. Issues in the Assessment of Family Violence

1. The Assessment of Family Violence: An Overview
2. General Issues in the Assessment of Family Violence
3. Family Violence Assessment: Test Construction and Psychometrics

II. Assessment of Maltreated Children and Adolescents

4. Interview Methods
5. Self-Report Inventories for the Assessment of Children
6. Behavioral Observation and Analogue Methods

III. Assessment of Parents and Caregivers

7. Interview Methods
8. Self-Report Assessment of Parents and Caregivers
9. Behavioral Observation and Analogue Methods

IV. Assessment of Family Interaction

10. Interview Methods
11. Self-Report Inventories
12. Analogue Methods and Behavioral Coding

References

Author Index

Subject Index

About the Authors

Eva L. Feindler, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the Long Island University (LIU)/CW Post Campus doctoral program in clinical psychology. As a faculty member of the Specialty Track in Family Violence department and as director of the Psychological Services Clinic, she is directly involved in programs to help children and families manage their anger and resolve conflict. She received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Mount Holyoke College and her master's and doctoral degrees from West Virginia University. Her clinical internship training was completed at the Children's Psychiatric Center in Eatontown, New Jersey. Before her position at LIU, she was an associate professor of psychology at Adelphi University, where she also directed the master's program in applied behavioral technology.

She has authored several books (Adolescent Anger Control: Cognitive–Behavioral Strategies; Handbook of Adolescent Behavior Therapy) and numerous articles on parent and child anger and its assessment and treatment, and she has conducted professional training workshops across the United States and Canada. She has also served an appointed term on the New York State Board for Psychology and a term on the Board of the Nassau County Psychological Association, and she was the program coordinator for the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy Conference in 1995. In addition, she served on the American Psychological Association (APA) Commission on Violence and Youth from 1992 to 1995 and on the APA Task Force on Violence and the Family.

Jill H. Rathus, PhD, is associate professor of psychology at Long Island University/CW Post Campus in Brookville, New York, where she is director of the Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) Program as well as the director of the Family Violence Program. After receiving her doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, she became research coordinator of the Adolescent Depression and Suicide Program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York. There, she received an Institutional Research Grant from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to study the treatment of suicidal adolescents. She codeveloped the adaptation of DBT for suicidal adolescents.

In addition to training, consulting, and presenting her research nationally, she has published numerous articles and chapters on adolescent suicide as well as on marital discord/domestic violence, personality, and anxiety disorders. She is presently coauthoring her third book, DBT for Suicidal Adolescents. Finally, she maintains a clinical practice and is currently working on an adaptation of DBT for the treatment of partner violence.

Laura Beth Silver, PsyD, works as a project director at the Institute for Research on Youth at Risk at National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., in New York City. In this position she directs school-based research projects on violence, tobacco, and drugs. She completed her doctorate in clinical psychology at Long Island University/CW Post Campus, where she specialized in studies of family violence. Clinically she specializes in work with adolescents. She spent her internship working with children and adolescents with severe and chronic emotional, behavioral, and cognitive disturbances. She has collaborated on research studies assessing the characteristics of assaultive husbands and violent interactions within intimate relationships. She has presented at national conferences on topics including violence prevention, DBT, and battering.