Emotional Security and Conflict in Context

Dr. E. Mark Cummings is the William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families Professor of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame, and previously was the Notre Dame Endowed Chair in Psychology. Dr. Cummings’ work focuses on relations between adaptive and maladaptive family processes and development. He is interested in relations between family and community contexts and children’s development between early childhood and later adolescence, guided by the Emotional Security Theory. A recent direction is the development and testing of prevention programs designed to improve family functioning, especially the quality of interparental and parent-child relationships, and children’s adjustment and well-being in high-risk US samples and international samples of families exposed to community violence. Katie Bergman is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame. Her research interests are anchored in the developmental psychopathology perspective and focus on understanding and intervening in the processes associated with normal and abnormal development during childhood and adolescence, particularly in the context of interadult and family conflict. A related focus of her work is on increasing representation of minoritized families and non-traditional family structures in communication and conflict intervention work. Dr. Bergman is a Principal Investigator or Project Director on multiple externally funded studies, including currently active intervention projects funded by NICHD and NIMH.

• 1. Family conflict, violence, international conflict and child adjustment2. EST as an explanatory model for the effects of conflict and violence on children3. The Value of DP for understanding family processes in multiple contexts4. Methods for Evaluating Families from a DP perspective5. Applications of DP for understanding family conflict6. Political Violence from a DP perspective7. Translational Research and the DP Perspective8. Prevention/intervention for conflict across contexts (returning to the socioecological model)9. Next Steps in Research on Emotional Security and Conflict