 |
- Site Index |
MEET THE RESEARCHER |
WHO'S WHO IN MPRC |
ACTIVITIES |
AFFILIATIONS |
Meet Our Researchers |
||||||||
| ||||||||
Recent Scientific Accomplishments Much of La Taillade’s research focuses on couple relationships, including prevention and treatment of intimate partner violence, interracial and African American couple and family relationships, and more recently the impact of relationship quality on father involvement among African Americans. My research on African American same race and interracial relationships indicates that the quality of support and acceptance partners provide is strongly associated with marital satisfaction and stability (e.g., La Taillade, 2006), and that such support as well as other indicators of relationship quality may mitigate against the negative effects of social isolation and perceived discrimination on relationship functioning. As African American couples are at significantly greater risk for experiencing intimate partner violence, I have examined the role of socioeconomic stressors on conflict and physical violence among African American couples, using both clinic and community sample self-report and observational data. My research indicates that African American relationships in which the male partner endorses traditional attitudes toward his role as the provider and his female partner has higher occupational status are at greater risk for both psychological and physical abuse. In addition, discrepancies in education and employment status that favor the female partner interact with destructive communication behaviors to predict males’ use of physical aggression (La Taillade & Mitchell, 2008). With regards to treatment of intimate partner violence, the findings of La Taillade and others indicate that conjoint approaches are appropriate and effective in reducing abusive behavior and increasing relationship satisfaction and constructive communication in couple relationships in which partners have exhibited psychological and/or mild to moderate physical abuse, desire to improve their relationship, and do not report fear of being in a relationship with their partner (La Taillade, Epstein, & Werlinich, 2006). La Taillade is currently PI on a minority supplement within project 3 of the 5-year Program Project P01-HD-045610 from NICHD to Cornell University entitled the “Transition to Fatherhood.” The project investigates the contributions of changes in relationship quality, marital status, and residence on African American men's responsible fathering. Two papers, entitled “Young Adults Relations with Parents and Partners” and “Using survey data to examine African American’s relationship quality and fathering”, were presented at a conference at ABCT in November 2007. Results indicated that, for all males and for Black but not White females, closeness with one’s parents predicted positive relationship quality. La Taillade is part of an investigative group developing a proposal to examine individual and family adjustment among transracial adoptive families. | ||||||||
Maryland Population Research Center
0124N Cole Student Activities Building (#162)
College Park, MD 20742
Phone: 301-405-6403
Fax: 301-405-5743