Institute of Child Development doctoral student Adrienne VanZomeren-Dohm is an author on a paper to be published in the Journal of Family Issues that discusses the impact of in-home social networks on positive adjustment in children who witness intimate partner violence.

VanZomeren-Dohm, a second-year doctoral student, conducted the research at the University of Michigan prior to joining the ICD program. The project looked at the in-home family networks (a measure of social support) for 120 children. Results indicated that larger in-home networks were associated with few internalizing and externalizing problems overall.

"Interestingly, the presence of a grandfather, specifically, was associated with fewer total adjustment problems," VanZomeren-Dohm said. She added that "a mother's education level moderated the relationship between network size and child adjustment, such that when mothers had low levels of education, children had few overall adjustment problems as network size increased, but when mothers had high levels of education, child adjustment didn't vary as network size increased."

Miller, L. E., VanZomeren-Dohm, A., Howell, K. H., Hunter, E. C. & Graham-Bermann, S. A. (In-press). In-home social networks and positive adjustment in children witnessing intimate partner violence. Journal of Family Issues.