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. Kathleen Bergman E346 Corbett Family Hall, NOTRE DAME, Indiana in the USA.

1. Family conflict, violence, international conflict and child adjustment
2. EST as an explanatory model for the effects of conflict and violence on children
3. The Value of DP for understanding family processes in multiple contexts
4. Methods for Evaluating Families from a DP perspective
5. Applications of DP for understanding family conflict
6. Political Violence from a DP perspective
7. Translational Research and the DP Perspective
8. Prevention/intervention for conflict across contexts (returning to the socioecological model)
9. Next Steps in Research on Emotional Security and Conflict