Lisa Cromer - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Lisa Cromer

Military Behavioral Health, 2020

The most stressful phase of deployment for military families with young children is predeployment... more The most stressful phase of deployment for military families with young children is predeployment; they are often overlooked in family preparation strategies. Failure to prepare young children may put them at risk for disrupted attachment and it can increase parenting stress. Preparing young children for deployment could buffer the potential negative impact by reducing associated parenting stress and empowering parents with attachment-strengthening strategies. Telephone-based interventions are the preferred method of service delivery among military families. The current study randomly assigned (N ¼ 13) mothers of children who were under age five, to either a control group (n ¼ 6) or to a telephone-administered pre-deployment parent coaching program (n ¼ 7). Parent coaching was comprised of two content modules and two follow-up calls. Feasibility analysis of the assessment and implementation procedures are provided. There were large effect sizes for reduced parenting stress and increased parenting competence and emotion regulation. Between subjects comparisons found small and medium effect sizes for the parenting coaching compared to controls on number and intensity or parenting hassles. Preliminary data are promising, suggesting that investigation of the parent coaching program with larger samples is possible.

The Family Journal, 2017

Parenting stress is a cross-cultural concept and is impacted by specific family and life circumst... more Parenting stress is a cross-cultural concept and is impacted by specific family and life circumstances. Parenting stress is amplified by challenging life situations including poverty, single parenting, and parental separation, but parenting stress is counteracted by the inherent benefits of parenting including intrinsic feelings of warmth and love. The Parental Stress Scale (PSS) was created in 1995 to measure stress unique to parenting and captures both the joys and demands of parenting. The current study reviews two decades of research that incorporated the PSS. We present descriptive data from published studies that all used the same parenting stress measure and provide cross-study comparisons. The studies we review evidence diverse use of the PSS in eight countries and PSS translation into four languages. This review is intended to aid future researchers with interpretation of relative differences in descriptive statistics of parenting stress by providing descriptive data from d...

Teaching of Psychology, 2015

Human subject pools have been a valuable resource to universities conducting research with studen... more Human subject pools have been a valuable resource to universities conducting research with student participants. However, the costs and benefits to student participants must be carefully weighed by students, researchers, and institutional review board administrators in order to avoid coercion. Participant perceptions are pivotal in deciding whether coercion is a concern. In the current study, students answered an anonymous survey after completing 3 hr of research-related activities. In order to gauge the relative value of research participation in participants’ eyes, we computed perceived benefits–costs ratios for research participation and for class attendance in a sample of university students. Results indicated that participants thought attendance and research requirements were generally positive experiences even after considering the costs. However, the benefits of research participation decreased with an increase in required research hours. Suggestions on how to increase studen...

Human subject pools (HSPs) are the basis for much psychological research. There is an explicit as... more Human subject pools (HSPs) are the basis for much psychological research. There is an explicit assumption that participants receive benefits from their participation, however there is little empirical research about the costs/benefits of participation. We conducted two studies with undergraduate psychology students to evaluate factors that can affect the cost/benefit ratio. Study 1 (N=46) examined Big Five personality characteristics and number of psychology courses taken, in relation to perceived benefits. There were depreciating returns for ongoing participation but no personality differences in ratings. Study 2 (N=50) used a quasi-experimental design to manipulate educational value. Half of the participants completed an educational assignment that integrated their HSP research experience into course material. Students who completed the educational assignment had a strong sense of contributing to scientific knowledge whereas students who had no such assignment did not. Implications for increasing educational value in HSPs are discussed.

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 2014

Military families with young children face unique psychological and relational challenges during ... more Military families with young children face unique psychological and relational challenges during reintegration because of attachment disruption. This can increase psychological stress for service members. We examined three phases of the deployment cycle: predeployment, deployment, and reinte gration to reveal risk and resilience factors that may impede or promote attachment relationships. We also explored the impact of predeployment preparation and deployment communication on service members' parenting stress at reintegration. We conducted (N = 30) semistructured interviews with fathers who were deployed within 2 years of the study, and whose youngest child was 6 years old or younger during the deployment. We found that military fathers whose families did not have preparation strategies for maintaining father-child relationship during the deployment experienced more parenting stress after the deployment than did fathers whose families did use preparation strategies. All participants reportedly communicated with their children during deployment, although number of communication methods did not predict later parenting stress. The most common reintegration experiences were described as an adjustment period, parental stress, and time off of work. Strategies for building attachment as a means of promoting resilience throughout the deployment cycle are identified and discussed.

Clinical Case Studies, 2012

Two case studies are presented to demonstrate that children who experience trauma-related nightma... more Two case studies are presented to demonstrate that children who experience trauma-related nightmares may benefit from cognitive-behavioral therapy for this sleep problem. The treatment was adapted from the empirically supported adult treatment for chronic trauma-related nightmares: exposure, relaxation, and rescripting therapy (ERRT). Pretreatment and posttreatment nightmare frequency and severity were measured in addition to subjective nightmare-related distress, behavioral problems, sleep quality and quantity, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression. Improvement in nightmare and sleep disturbance frequencies were found as well as reductions in parents’ reports of child behavior problems. This study provides preliminary support for the use of ERRT with children.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate factors that influence the believing of child... more The purpose of the current study was to investigate factors that influence the believing of child sexual abuse (CSA) disclosures. CSA is a major public health issue (WHO, 2002). Approximately one third of females and one sixth of boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18 (Kendall-Tackett, Williams, & Finkelhor, 1993), yet most victims do not disclose the abuse until long after it occurred, if ever (London, Bruck, Ceci, & Shuman, 2005). Not disclosing has many deleterious effects for victims including not stopping chronic abuse and not receiving therapeutic interventions (Ullman, 2003). Fear of not being believed is a major deterrent against disclosure (Goodman-Brown, Edelstein, Goodman, Jones, & Gordon, 2003) and not being believed when one discloses has negative psychological and physiological health effects (Ullman, 2003). Therefore, the question about factors that influence believing disclosures is related to public health.

Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 2019

Predictors of children's outcomes in trauma-focused interventions are well documented. However, l... more Predictors of children's outcomes in trauma-focused interventions are well documented. However, little is known about the role of higher-order cognitive processes, specifically executive function (EF) abilities, in determining children's responses to treatments specifically for trauma-related sleep disturbances. EF is independently related to PTSD reactions, sleep deficits, and nightmares. Furthermore, well-developed EF can be protective; thus, we sought to examine whether higher EF predicted better treatment outcomes for trauma-related sleep disturbances. Twenty-three children aged 5 to 17 presenting with post-traumatic nightmares (PTNs) participated in a cognitive behavioral therapy to address their trauma-related nightmares (CBT-NC). Pre-and post-treatment data were used in analyses. Findings from discriminant function analyses revealed that EF was not a statistically significant predictor of treatment outcomes across indices of nightmare frequency and distress, sleep quality, and PTSD symptomology. However, effect sizes suggested that EF was a moderate predictor of sleep quality outcomes, which has clinical implications. Treatment duration for sleep problems could be related to EF with briefer interventions being more suitable for children with high EF, whereas children with low EF may benefit from longer treatment protocols.

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2017

The terms historical trauma and intergenerational transmission of trauma have been used interchan... more The terms historical trauma and intergenerational transmission of trauma have been used interchangeably in the literature, yet may be theoretically distinct. The confusion in nomenclature may mask different underlying mechanisms for understanding trauma. The current study applies institutional betrayal trauma theory as a means for understanding awareness of historical losses and examines the intergenerational transmission of trauma through family systems. In a diverse sample ( N = 59) of American Indians, we find support for the idea that institutional betrayal may be at the heart of historical loss awareness. The more participants in the current study were acculturated, or identified with White culture, the less they were aware of historical losses. For the entire sample, regardless of acculturation, we found that family history of boarding school experiences, having parents and grandparents who lived in boarding schools, predicted interpersonal childhood trauma but not noninterper...

American Journal of Psychiatry, 2017

TO THE EDITOR: Extensive media coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the eme... more TO THE EDITOR: Extensive media coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the emergence of sports medicine as a subspecialty reflect elite athletes' important societal roles. While the optimization of athletes' physical performance is a priority, their mental health is largely ignored. Psychiatric studies of competitive athletes are nonexistent in the United States and are limited worldwide, despite risks to athletes that include sleep disruption, travel, low autonomy, and performance demands (1-3). Physicians are biased toward athletes' mental well-being (3, 4); moreover, athlete help-seeking is stigmatized (4). Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating, treatable illness affecting 2.3% of adults, with subthreshold obsessive-compulsive symptoms occurring in 28.2% of adults (5). Competitive athletes' traits, including overresponsibility, perfectionism, and secrecy, mask OCD identification (4, 5). Calorie obsession, body hyperfocus, superstitions, and rituals are normative for athletes (2). We report findings from the first OCD study in collegiate athletes, derived from two data collection waves of a study on college athletic stress at a Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association school.

Military Behavioral Health, 2015

More than 2 million children have experienced parental deployment since 2001, yet little is known... more More than 2 million children have experienced parental deployment since 2001, yet little is known about the impact of deployment on families with young children. Specifically, the reintegration experiences of families with young children is absent from the extant literature, despite the fact that 41% of military children are under six years old. The current study is a first step in examining the honeymoon, which, when present, is considered the initial period of reintegration. The honeymoon period is inconsistently operationalized across studies, and the term is used in the literature without being defined. The current qualitative investigation sought to operationalize and define the honeymoon period in families with young children.

PsycEXTRA Dataset

Human-animal interaction (HAI) provides benefits for humans. Emotional attachment to pets is a po... more Human-animal interaction (HAI) provides benefits for humans. Emotional attachment to pets is a possible mechanism for benefits but there is no standard operationalization for "attachment to pets." The study presented here (N = 651) uses a pet attachment measure based on qualitative research about benefits of pets. This measure, the Pet Attachment and Life Impact Scale (PALS), has four factors that measure Love, Regulation, Personal Growth, and Negative Impacts. We present exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis of the instrument. We then examine convergent validity with four a priori derived measures of pet attachment (Anthropomorphism Scale, CENSHARE PAS, CABS, LAPS) and a social support scale. We provide evidence that having a current relationship with a pet is related to higher scores on the PALS than having a former pet relationship, evidencing that the PALS is a relational measure. Overall, females are more attached to pets than are males, and dog owners are most attached, followed by cat owners and owners of other pets.

Psychological trauma : theory, research, practice and policy, 2013

Poor psychological outcomes are common among trauma survivors, yet not all survivors experience a... more Poor psychological outcomes are common among trauma survivors, yet not all survivors experience adverse sequelae. The current study examined links between cumulative trauma exposure as a function of the level of betrayal (measured by the relational closeness of the survivor and the perpetrator), trauma appraisals, gender, and trauma symptoms. Participants were 273 college students who reported experiencing at least one traumatic event on a trauma checklist. Three cumulative indices were constructed to assess the number of different types of traumas experienced that were low (LBTs), moderate (MBTs), or high in betrayal (HBTs). Greater trauma exposure was related to more symptoms of depression, dissociation, and PTSD, with exposure to HBTs contributing the most. Women were more likely to experience HBTs than men, but there were no gender differences in trauma-related symptoms. Appraisals of trauma were predictive of trauma-related symptoms over and above the effects explained by cumul...

Journal of interpersonal violence, Jan 10, 2014

Human trafficking is believed to oppress millions of people worldwide. Despite increased media at... more Human trafficking is believed to oppress millions of people worldwide. Despite increased media attention and public awareness campaigns in recent years, no empirical research has examined public attitudes about human trafficking. The present study examined gender, sexual trauma history, and attitudes about human trafficking as they related to belief of a sex-trafficking scenario and willingness to blame the victim for the situation. Undergraduate students (N = 409) at a large private university in the Northeastern United States completed measures in which they responded to a vignette portraying sex trafficking in the United States. Participants also reported their personal trauma history and completed a Human Trafficking Myths Scale. Results indicated that gender and human trafficking myth acceptance, but not sexual trauma history, were significantly related to participants' belief of the sex-trafficking scenario and their perception of the victim's responsibility. Potential...