Alytia Levendosky

Michigan State University | MSU · Department of Psychology

Objective: When two members of a couple are asked about the violence in their relationship, their reports often do not align. However, sources of disagreement are not well understood. This study leveraged a unique daily diary design to investigate how four relevant factors impact levels of violence agreement in dating couples. Method: We examined h...

Background Research has revealed associations between microbes of the gastrointestinal tract and stress, anxiety and depression in pregnant or postpartum women. While these studies suggest a gut-brain-behaviour axis, no studies have examined microbes of the oral cavity in relation to maternal mental health. Objective To explore a potential oral-br...

First responders (FRs) are continuously exposed to critical incidents, considered traumatic events (TEs). This cumulative exposure increases the risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, there is no evidence about the relationship between PTSD symptoms and emergency decision-making (EDM). The objective of this study was to examine th...

(1) Background: To mitigate COVID-19 transmission, global public health interventions were swiftly implemented. However, a comprehensive understanding of individual variations in adhering to these recommendations remains elusive. Addressing this gap is crucial for effectively managing future epidemic and pandemic scenarios. This study aims to explo...

Maternal HPA axis dysregulation during early pregnancy can negatively affect maternal functioning. However, findings are mixed regarding how intimate partner violence (IPV), a common traumatic stressor, impacts HPA axis regulation during pregnancy. Interactions between IPV and mental health symptoms as they influence cortisol production are rarely...

Contemporary clinical conceptualizations of pathological narcissism emphasize two primary dimensions, grandiosity and vulnerability. These dimensions may reflect a broader borderline organization of personality, which contemporary object relations theorists understand as three distinct dimensions (primitive defenses, identity diffusion, and reality...

Objective: There is a strong evidence-base for a psychodynamic approach, supporting primary theoretical tenets as well as the treatment effectiveness. Additionally, there are increasing calls from the field for more individualized treatment for clients, and the lack of training in multiple orientations limits the ability of students in clinical ps...

Numerous studies associate childhood exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) with adverse adjustment in the domains of mental health, social, and academic functioning. This review synthesizes this literature and highlights the critical role of child self-regulation in mediating children's adjustment outcomes. We discuss major methodological pro...

Objective: Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy is associated with negative physical and mental health consequences for both mothers and infants. Economic hardship is often exacerbated during pregnancy and is associated with increased rates of IPV in nonpregnant samples. However, temporal associations between economic hardship and IPV v...

Objective: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive and common form of violence against women. IPV is multifaceted, with physical, sexual, and/or psychological means of perpetration, and has detrimental effects on women’s mental health. IPV generally affects women; however, how IPV differentially affects different groups of women is less clea...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.711109.].

Our primary objective was to document COVID-19 induced changes to perinatal care across the USA and examine the implication of these changes for maternal mental health. We performed an observational cross-sectional study with convenience sampling using direct patient reports from 1918 postpartum and 3868 pregnant individuals collected between April...

Objective: Trauma as well as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with increased rates of later somatization symptoms. Some evidence has proposed that posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) can mediate this relationship. However, most data come from adult samples. This two-wave longitudinal study aimed to investigate the relatio...

In this study, we aimed to examine how moment-to-moment interpersonal behaviors of warmth and dominance in patients and therapists, as well as interpersonal complementarity, are related to withdrawal and confrontation ruptures as sessions unfold. Sixteen psychotherapy sessions from eight independent therapeutic dyads were sampled for the highest le...

Touch is a primary form of communication for mother-infant dyads in the infant’s first year of life. Stressors such as intimate partner violence (IPV) and maternal depression experienced during the perinatal period may interfere with mother-infant touch via prenatal programming of the stress response and disrupted parenting. Mother-infant touch res...

Objective: In this study we aimed to examine how moment-to-moment interpersonal behaviors of warmth and dominance in patients and therapists, as well as interpersonal complementarity, are related to withdrawal and confrontation ruptures as sessions unfold. Methods: Sixteen psychotherapy sessions from eight independent therapeutic dyads were sampled...

Children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) are at risk for posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and alterations in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning. The current study investigated children’s threat and self-blame appraisals about parental conflict as potential mechanisms leading to these adverse outcomes. Parent-child...

The parent-child relationship is critically important for children's functioning and long-term outcomes. Although typically measured by self-report or global codes in observed interactions, parent-child interactions actually occur on a moment-to-moment basis, with frequent shifts in behavior and affect happening in each member of the dyad. Even so,...

The impact of COVID-19-related stress on perinatal women is of heightened public health concern given the established intergenerational impact of maternal stress-exposure on infants and fetuses. There is urgent need to characterize the coping styles associated with adverse psychosocial outcomes in perinatal women during the COVID-19 pandemic to hel...

Developmental researchers face considerable challenges regarding maximizing data collection and reducing participant attrition. In this article, we use our experiences implementing our study on the effects of timing of prenatal stress on maternal and infant outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic as a framework to discuss the difficulties and solutio...

Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are common reactions to trauma. One factor that influences the manifestation of PTSD symptoms is the type of trauma experienced. Traumas perpetrated by someone on whom the trauma survivor trusts and relies on for support (i.e., betrayal traumas) are especially predictive of PTSD symptoms. However, th...

Globally, individuals and communities that are marginalized based on their identities are at heightened risk for exposure to traumatic stress and socioeconomic hardship. Marginalization and disproportionate risk for many types of adversities correspond with disparities in physical health, mental health, and overall well-being. Together, the 12 empi...

Introduction: The aim of this study was to explore the mediating effect of psychopathology between childhood adversity and trauma and quality of life (QOL) in adolescents. The second aim of the study was testing the moderation by social support of this mediation effect. Methods: Self-reports of childhood adversity and trauma, QOL, social support, a...

Introduction: The aim of this study was to explore the mediating effect of psychopathology between childhood adversity and trauma and quality of life (QOL) in adolescents. The second aim of the study was testing the moderation by social support of this mediation effect. Methods: Self-reports of childhood adversity and trauma, QOL, social support, a...

Introduction. The aim of this study was to explore the mediating effect of psychopathology between childhood adversity and trauma and quality of life (QOL) in adolescents. The second aim of the study was testing the moderation by social support of this mediation effect. Method. Self-reports of childhood adversity and trauma, QOL, social support, an...

Introduction A considerable literature implicates prenatal stress as a critical determinant of poor psychological functioning in childhood and beyond. However, knowledge about whether the timing of prenatal stress differentially influences the development of child outcomes, including psychopathology, is virtually unknown. The primary aim of our stu...

The Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD) integrates several theoretical models of personality functioning, including interpersonal theory. The interpersonal circumplex dimensions of warmth and dominance can be conceptualized as traits similar to those in AMPD Criterion B, but interpersonal theory also offers dynamic hypotheses about ho...

The current study examined self-reported and observed positive (i.e., nurturing, sensitive, and responsive) parenting behavior among women who experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy and through their early parenting years. Mother-child dyads were assessed during the third trimester of pregnancy and each year postpartum until a...

Objective: Suicide is a problem on college campuses. One of the strongest predictors of suicide risk is symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Additional factors, such as trauma, also increase risk for suicide. One type of trauma that is especially insidious is 1 in which people are betrayed by others on whom they depend for support or...

We established realness as the relatively stable tendency to act on the outside the way one feels on the inside, without regard for proximal personal or social consequences. In nine studies, we showed that realness is a) a core feature of individual differences in authenticity, b) generally adaptive but largely unrelated to agreeableness, c) highly...

Parentification occurs when children are unfairly charged with fulfilling parental instrumental and emotional needs. Parentification is associated with risk to evaluative self cognitions from childhood to emerging adulthood, but this association has not yet been studied among parents. The transition to parenthood is typically characterized by decli...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health concern in the United States and has been associated with significant rates of negative physical and mental health outcomes. IPV victimization tends to be highest during young adulthood (ages 18–25), with half of individuals in this age range reporting at least one experience of violenc...

Maternal stress exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic may have transgenerational effects, adversely affecting both the pregnant woman and her offspring. Therefore, there is an urgent need to characterize the coping styles and psychosocial distress of pregnant and postpartum women during the COVID-19 pandemic to help mitigate lasting sequalae on bot...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a common problem for young adult women and is associated with symptoms of depression. However, not all women who experience IPV exhibit depressive symptoms. Research suggests that one factor that influences women’s degree of depressive symptoms in the aftermath of IPV is personality, but different studies have emp...

Objective: Based on the prototype hypothesis of attachment, suggesting that earlier internal working models influence the development of later working models, this study investigated the relationship between pregnant women’s attachment to their caregivers in childhood, their attachment to their romantic relationships, and to their prenatal represen...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a common traumatic stressor for young adult women and results in a number of problems for those who experience it. The appraisals women make of IPV influence the degree of distress they experience in the aftermath of IPV. Research suggests that personality traits may influence IPV appraisals, although there are re...

The inclusion of complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases is an important development in the field of psychotraumatology. Complex PTSD was developed as a response to a clinical need to describe difficulties commonly associated with exposure to traumatic stressors that are pre...

Attachment status in early childhood is a key yet modifiable contributor to the development of social–emotional competence. The security and organization of the infant–mother attachment bond is particularly susceptible to stressors in the caregiving environment. While the impacts of normative interparental conflict on infant attachment are increasi...

Objectives A growing body of literature has examined differences in the mental health and social support of abused women living in shelters compared with women from the community. However, less attention has been given to the differential effects of living in shelters and living with abusive partner in both mothers and children. A cross-sectional s...

Objective: This study assessed the psychometric properties of a self-reported measure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for adolescents based on DSM-5 criteria – the Child PTSD Symptom Scale – Self Report. We tested the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity. Method: The participants were 317 Portuguese adolesc...

The factor structure of DSM-5 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been extensively debated, with evidence supporting the recently proposed seven-factor hybrid model. However, few studies examining PTSD symptom structure have assessed the implications of these proposed models on diagnostic criteria and PTSD prevalence. In the present study, we...

Research in the field of trauma has highlighted the influence of exposure to trauma with a high degree of betrayal on personality pathology. Studies have demonstrated that high betrayal trauma affects the severity of personality pathology over and above other forms of trauma. This research been confined primarily to the study of borderline personal...

Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are some of the most common mental health symptoms women experience following exposure to dating violence (DV). However, not all women who experience DV exhibit PTSD symptoms. One factor that may influence whether or not women exhibit PTSD symptoms in the aftermath of DV exposure is interpersonal sty...

Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are some of the most common mental health symptoms women experience following exposure to dating violence (DV). However, not all women who experience DV exhibit PTSD symptoms. One factor that may influence whether or not women exhibit PTSD symptoms in the aftermath of DV exposure is interpersonal sty...

Recent research has linked traumatic experiences with a high degree of betrayal with symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Much of this research has operationalized BPD in terms of diagnostic symptoms, which contrasts with recent approaches to understanding personality disorders (PDs) in terms of maladaptive personality traits. In this...

Existentially oriented thinkers propose that anxiety about one’s eventual demise (i.e., death anxiety) is a salient feature of the human condition and the underlying cause of psychological distress. They further propose that exposure to trauma is likely to evoke death anxiety, an idea that has been supported by the research literature. Research als...

Children's appraisals of interparental violence, including appraisals of high threat and low coping efficacy, are robust predictors of behavioral and emotional problems. However, few studies have examined the factors that account for children's use of these maladaptive appraisals, particularly among children exposed to more severe forms of interpar...

Typologies of IPV and parenting practices in mothers who experienced police-reported IPV remain surprisingly unexplored, in addition to how those typologies are linked with children's externalizing problems. Using data from 162 Portuguese mother-child dyads with a police or child protection services referral of IPV, this study aimed to: (a) identif...

Background: Attachment security in the early years plays an important role in a range of psychosocial outcomes in later life, and continues to be an important focus of prevention and intervention research. The couple relationship has long been argued to play a seminal role in offspring attachment1. The literature has established longitudinal associ...

Background: Attachment security in the early years plays an important role in a range of psychosocial outcomes in later life, and continues to be an important focus of prevention and intervention research. The couple relationship has long been argued to play a seminal role in offspring attachment1. The literature has established longitudinal associ...

This chapter reviews the effects of intimate partner violence (IPV: defined here as male physical, psychological and/or sexual violence towards his female partner) on the early mother-child relationship, beginning during pregnancy and through the first few years postpartum. Attachment theory is used to explain the mechanisms through which IPV affec...

Method: The participants of the study were 183 adolescents, mean age of 16 years old (M=15.71, SD=1.31), ranged between 13 and 17 years old, 89 (48.6%) males and 94 (51.4%) females. Results: The results revealed that 26.2% of the sample met the criteria for probable PTSD. Our statistical model explained 64% of the variance in PTSD symptoms, but...

Objective: Insecure attachment style may be one mechanism by which women who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) and childhood maltreatment (CM) are at increased risk for depressive symptoms. In fact, women who experienced high levels of both CM and IPV may be at the greatest risk for attachment insecurity and resulting depressive symp...

Objective: Hazardous alcohol use is a common problem among survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV), although not all women who experience IPV exhibit hazardous alcohol use. Recent research has suggested that 1 factor that may influence hazardous alcohol use is temperament, although this has not yet been examined in the context of IPV. Method...

Children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) are likely to develop behavior problems, but findings are mixed regarding whether girls and boys are differentially affected. Bem (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 634–643, 1975) argued that gender role is an important predictor of mental health, and this relationship may differ f...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects about 36% of women and 29% of men; prevalence varies by race/ethnicity, age, and income. Women experience more severe injuries than do men. Women and men victims of IPV are at increased risk for posttraumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, and substance use disorders. Women are more likely to exp...

Attunement between mothers and infants in their hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis responsiveness to acute stressors is thought to benefit the child's emerging physiological and behavioral self-regulation, as well as their socioemotional development. However, there is no universally accepted definition of attunement in the literature, which...

The focus of this paper is on the termination of clinical supervision. Although clinical supervision is considered the backbone of most mental health training programs, it gets relatively little theoretical or empirical attention. The termination of supervision has received even less attention. In this paper, we describe an approach to terminating...

Studies of the effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) on parenting have usually not examined the role of the maternal perceptions, either its stress or maternal satisfaction, on the mothers’ and children´s mental health functioning. The present study aimed to assess whether maternal satisfaction, parenting stress, and social support are signifi...

Studies on the effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) on children have typically focused on IPV to which children were exposed after their birth. However, research has also demonstrated the effect of prenatal IPV on children’s psychological functioning, although this has not yet been studied with respect to dissociation. In this study, we exami...

Un enforque de ciencia clinica para entrenar a terapeutas para navegar las relaciones terapéuticas En el surgimiento del movimiento clínico dentro de la psicología clínica, los programas de posgrado comenzaron a descuidar el entrenamiento de la relación terapéutica y darle enfasis al aprendizaje de técnicas para apuntar síntomas especificos de los...

In this article, we organize multimethod, multitimescale data around the interpersonal situation, a conceptual framework that can be used to integrate personality, psychopathology, and psychotherapy constructs in order to guide the assessment of clinical dynamics. We first describe the key variables of the interpersonal situation model and articula...

Research results are mixed as to whether stress exerts its damaging effects via under-or overproduction of diurnal cortisol. Facets of the stressor itself as well as the mental health sequelae that follow have been put forward as important considerations in determining levels of cortisol secretion. We hypothesized that the contradictory findings in...

Prenatal stress negatively affects fetal development, which in turn may affect infant hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis regulation and behavioral functioning. We examined effects of exposure to a traumatic stressor in families [intimate partner violence (IPV)] on both infants' HPA axis reactivity to stress and their internalizing and extern...

Trauma symptoms are common among survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV), although not all women who experience IPV develop trauma symptoms. One of the factors that may influence whether women develop trauma symptoms upon exposure to IPV is temperament. In this study, we examined the main and moderating effects of temperament traits (constrain...

This prospective longitudinal study examines the long-term influence of intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure in utero. We hypothesized that (a) prenatal IPV increases risk for internalizing and externalizing problems as well as for a profile of dysregulated cortisol reactivity, and (b) patterns of cortisol hyper- and hyporeactivity are differen...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a common type of violence that is associated with a number of psychological problems among women who experience it. Recent research suggests that interpersonal style may influence the degree to which women exhibit psychological problems following IPV exposure. One possible mechanism through which interpersonal sty...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an intrinsically interpersonal form of violence that can be readily understood within the framework of interpersonal theory. In this chapter, we provide a brief introduction to interpersonal theory and apply it to understanding the interpersonal and affective dynamics of IPV. We also discuss and present new resear...