The purpose of this study was to examine the nature and extent of mutual violence among a sample of pregnant and parenting Latina adolescent females and their partners. The sample consisted of 73 Latina adolescent females between the ages of 14 and 20 who were referred to a community-based organization for case management, education, and psychosocial support for pregnant and parenting adolescents. They completed the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS-2) as part of a pretest to evaluate this intervention program. A small number (12 out of 73; 16%) reported no use of aggressive conflict tactics. Eighty-four percent (61 out of 73) of the study respondents reported using at least one form of minor psychological aggression and 62% (45 out of 73) reported using at least one form of minor physical assault over the past 6 months. Mutuality of conflict was high, especially in cases of minor assault by partner. There was no difference in severity or chronicity of conflict between those who were pregnant and those who were not. Female respondents reported that they and their partners engaged in comparable levels of sexual coercion. Discussion of the context of psychological, physical, and sexual aggression in adolescent relationships suggests alternative approaches to prevention of intimate partner violence among adolescents.

The computer preparation package facilitated coping behavior in children undergoing DGA induction.

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A Camberwell Family Interview for Childhood (CFI-C) was developed by adding questions about the family impact of the child's problems to a semi-structured interview on child psychiatric symptoms. The whole CFI-C took under an hour to administer; the questions about family impact added 15-20 minutes. The inter-rater reliability was good (kappa 0.64-1.0). Mothers of 25 boys aged four to nine years referred with disruptive behaviour, and 25 matched controls were interviewed twice in five months. Test-retest stability was fair to good (kappa 0.36-1.0). Discriminant validity between referred and control samples was strong for critical comments, positive comments and warmth, but not significant for emotional overinvolvement or hostility. The same three scales showed strong discriminant validity between child symptom domains, being strongly correlated with conduct symptoms (kappa = 0.49-0.71) but not emotional symptoms (kappa = 0.10-0.17). Sensitivity to change with treatment was shown by a reduction in the mean number of critical comments from 4.7 to 2.9, an increase in positive comments from 2.3 to 3.9, and an increased score on the warmth scale from 2.1 to 2.6. The CFI-C is a useful instrument for the study of the relationship between parenting style and child psychiatric symptoms.