My research focuses on two areas: 1) characterizing the long-term health and academic consequences of teen dating violence, domestic violence, and child abuse; and 2) describing intimacy-seeking patterns in violent married couples and the role of couples’ children in such intimacy seeking.
• Profiling teen dating violence patterns across the teen years, including examining the overall prevalence and the types, frequency, severity and duration of dating violence in teens’ lives;
• Describing the long-term health and academic consequences of teen dating violence;
• Characterizing intimacy-seeking needs and patterns in violent couples with and without young children.
• Profiling dating violence patterns across the teen years and associated health consequences in 3,000 teens (50% female) recruited from Group Health, a large health care delivery system located in Seattle.
• Development of a systemic theoretical model to describe how intimacy-seeking drives violent couples’ interactions, and how such interactions influence victims to call back their stories in court. The role of the couples’ children in such intimacy seeking is specifically examined.
