“Translational research in the behavioral and social sciences addresses how basic behavioral processes inform the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and delivery of services for mental illness, and, conversely, how knowledge of mental illness increases our understanding of basic behavioral processes.”

Air Force Definitions and Severity

In 2001, we began working with the Air Force's Family Advocacy Programs (AF-FAP) to create operationalized definitions of maltreatment and field test their reliability. (We had already been working with AF-FAP since 1998 in testing their interrater reliability of and modifying the AF severity index which indicated whether a maltreatment was to be classified as "mild", "moderate" or "severe".) The primary goal of AF-FAP is to address the needs of families affected by family maltreatment in the military. Our mission was to help AF-FAP not only create the definitions but also create a stable tracking system that could be used AF-wide and hopefully be used to create prevention programs.

Stage 1: Creating a Reliable Threshold for Family Maltreatment Substantiation Decisions

Our team first (a) interviewed FAP staff worldwide regarding their impressions of the then-current DoD maltreatment definitions; (b) assessed civilian and AF experts about the then-current maltreatment definitions. In collaboration with FAP headquarters staff, we then (a) created a new set of definitions for use by pilot bases (b) iteratively improved the operationalizations based on the field trial; (d) measured consensus among FAP members; and (e) compared 5 pilot bases' decisions to a gold standard (i.e., the agreed upon "correct" decision of master reviewers).

Stage 2: Creating a Reliable Threshold for Family Maltreatment Substantiation Decisions

First, to continue strengthening the definitions and ensure a successful launch to more AF bases of the definitions and tracking system in stage 3, we developed a structured assessment interview that paralleled the definitional criteria for each form of family maltreatment; FAP staff were provided with and instructed to use these questions. Second, we altered the structure of case presentation, the make-up of committee members, and the voting procedures.

Stage 3a: Developing Training Materials for Dissemination of Reliable Family Maltreatment Definitions and Decision Processes Stage 3b: Evaluating Dissemination of Reliable Family Maltreatment Definitions and Decision Processes

In this stage we launched to approximately one-half of all AF bases. In part A our goal was to develop educational materials and determine the best method of instruction for our AF-teams. In part B we disseminated the information to the bases and evaluated their progress in learning the material and becoming reliable on the use of the definitions.

A related Stage: Refinement of the Department of Defense Family Advocacy Program's Maltreatment Severity Measure: Development and Initial Reliability

In part, due to our extensive work and success with the AF, we were awarded this grant to refine the DoD severity index (similar to the AF severity index mentioned above) to be used in all branches of the military. We will contact military personnel (FAP experts in each of the four branches) as well as civilian experts in order to help refine the index. We will then pilot the new measure across services before helping DoD to launch service-wide.

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©2007 Family Translational Research Group