Clinical trial NCT03672942: Communication Skills vs. Mindfulness for IPV
Official title: A Proximal Change Experiment: Testing the Effects of Communication Skills Training vs. Mindfulness Techniques on Intimate Partner Aggression
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Domestic Violence
Domestic Abuse
Family Conflict
Aggression
Keywords: intimate partner violence
aggression
batterers intervention
mindfulness
communication skills
couples
Lead sponsor: University of Houston
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2018-09-17
Enrollment: 50
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 80
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: random assignment to two active conditions vs. a placebo control
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

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

Eligibility criteria: 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

Primary outcomes:
measure: Observed aggression
timeFrame: 10 minutes: Change in observed behavior/emotion from first to second conflict discussion
measure: TAPS aggression paradigm
timeFrame: 10 minutes: Change in aggression from first to second conflict discussion
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Houston
name: Julia C Babcock, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Babcock JC, Graham K, Canady B, Ross JM. A proximal change experiment testing two communication exercises with intimate partner violent men. Behav Ther. 2011 Jun;42(2):336-47. doi: 10.1016/j.beth.2010.08.010. Epub 2011 Feb 24.