Communication Skills vs. Mindfulness for IPV

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Domestic Violence; Aggression; Domestic Abuse; Family Conflict
• Interventions: Behavioral: Mindfulness; Behavioral: Communication Skills Training; Behavioral: Placebo

• Registration Number: NCT03672942
• Lead Sponsor: University of Houston

Brief Summary

This tests the immediate impact of two brief interventions on couples reporting intimate partner violence using the proximal change experimental design. Couples will be randomly assigned to a mindfulness conditions, a communication exercise or a placebo condition. Outcome measures include observed and experimentally assessed aggression.

Detailed Description

This pilot study is designed to test the effects of two brief interventions on communication and emotional expression between intimate partners who have experienced recent domestic violence. In addition, it will provide some basic laboratory findings on differences in distress tolerance between perpetrators and victims of domestic abuse. Specifically, using the proximal change experimental design, couples will engaged in a 7.5 minute conflict discussion while being videotaped and having their autonomic responding monitored. Then they will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a communication skills training exercise, a mindfulness condition, or a placebo control. Next, ,couples will engaged in second 7.5 minute conflict discussion. It is hypothesized that those in both the communication skills training and mindfulness condition will display more positive and less aggressive behavior in their second conflict discussion as compared to their first. It is also expected that they will administer less aggression (as measured by delivery of a loud noise) to their partner after both of the active interventions. In addition, multiple measures of distress tolerance will be administered to both partners. It is expected that couples with a characterologically violent perpetrator, he or she will evidence decreased distress tolerance and the victimized partner will evidence increased distress tolerance

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2018-08-07
• Study First Submitted QC: 2018-09-12
• Study First Posted: 2018-09-17
• Status Verified: 2019-04
• Last Update Submitted: 2019-04-16
• Last Update Posted: 2019-04-18
• Study Start: 2019-09-15
• Primary Completion: 2021-09-15
• Study Completion: 2022-09-15

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 50

Inclusion Criteria

Adult co-habituating couples Reporting some violence in the past year (score > 0 on CTS2 physical abuse subscale)

Exclusion Criteria

Homosexual couples Children under 18 non-English speakers

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Mindfulness	Mindfulness	Male and female participants will listen to a script about Acceptance/Willingness of unwanted emotions written by Amie Zarling and practice this technique in the lab for approximately 8 minutes.
Communication Skills	Communication Skills Training	Male and female participants will listen to a description of John Gottman's Gentle Start-up communication skills training exercise and practice the technique in the lab for approximately 8 minutes.
Placebo	Placebo	Male and female participants will listen to music in lieu for 8 minutes.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Observed aggression	10 minutes: Change in observed behavior/emotion from first to second conflict discussion	Specific Affect Coding System (SPAFF; Gottman, McCoy, Coan, Collier, 1996). SPAFF categorizes 16 emotions based on facial affect, vocal tone, body language, and content of speech.
TAPS aggression paradigm	10 minutes: Change in aggression from first to second conflict discussion	Overt aggression will be assessed using a modified version of the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP; Epstein \& Taylor, 1967). The TAP is an established method to study aggression in the laboratory. It is a deceptive, competitive reaction time task in which the participant competes against an "opponent" which is actually the computer program.