K, Daniel O'Leary, Ph.D.
      My research focuses on the etiology, treatment, and prevention of partner abuse (physical and psychological aggression in intimate relations). In addition, we have been conducting research on factors in marriage that lead to clinical depression (e.g discovery of affair, partner threatens to leave, physical aggression).

Susan O'Leary, Ph.D.
      My current projects include:(1) identification of factors that can be assessed when infants are 7-9 months old and that predict how well mothers will manage inappropriate behavior when their children are 24 months old. This should prepare us to conduct primary prevention work; (2) a 5-yr NIMH-supported project in collaboration with Dr. Dan O'Leary ( a close relation) and Dr. Amy Slep. A representative sample of 450 couples who have children 3-7 yrs old will provide us extensive questionnaire, observational, and physiological data. We will use this information to test a model that hypothesizes both unique and common predictors of partner and parent aggression; and (3) a 3-yr NIMH grant to develop and test a tailored treatment for angry mothers of 2-3 yr old children with externalizing behavior problems. Please visit our lab's web page at Point of Woods for more details.

Everett Waters, Ph.D.
      Everett Waters earned his Ph.D. from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota in 1977. He is engaged in a wide range of research on attachment relationships from infancy through adulthood. This work focuses on direct observations of secure base behavior in naturalistic and laboratory settings, and on the mental representations of experience in secure base relationships. Recent studies have examined parent-child and marital relationships over periods of 10-20 years. Much of this research is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Judith Crowell from the Department of Child Psychiatry.