Positions

Overview

  • I have made a number of stops along my way before arriving at UAB. I received my undergraduate Bachelor’s of Science degree in psychology from the University of Miami, with minor concentrations in English and Mathematics/Computer Science. I obtained my PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Florida from the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology. I then completed my pre-doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Tennessee-Memphis. My training in clinical psychology is relatively broad throughout my work, reflecting a balance of adult and child clinical emphases, but I specialized as a clinical child psychologist.

    • Selected Publications

    Academic Article

    Year Title Altmetric
    2022 Factors Distinguishing Reciprocal Versus Nonreciprocal Intimate Partner Violence Across Time and Reporter.  Journal of Interpersonal Violence: concerned with the study and treatment of victims and perpetrators of physical and sexual violence.  37:NP13654-NP13684. 2022
    2022 Longitudinal Analysis of Short-term Changes in Relationship Conflict During COVID-19: A Risk and Resilience Perspective.  Journal of Interpersonal Violence: concerned with the study and treatment of victims and perpetrators of physical and sexual violence.  37:NP14239-NP14261. 2022
    2022 Parental Social Isolation and Child Maltreatment Risk during the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Journal of Family Violence.  37:813-824. 2022
    2022 Parenting style history in predicting harsh parenting and child abuse risk across the transition to parenthood: Role of gender.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  127. 2022
    2022 Psychometric Evidence for Indirect Assessment of Child Abuse Risk in Child Welfare-Involved Mothers.  Children.  9. 2022
    2022 Mediators between Positive and Negative Parenting and Child Depressive and Anxious Symptoms: Findings from a Diverse, At-Risk Sample.  Children.  9. 2022
    2022 Psychometric evidence for indirect assessment of child abuse risk in child welfare-involved mothers 2022
    2022 Spotlight on Maternal Perceptions of Child Behavior: A Daily Diary Study with Child Welfare-Involved Mothers.  Behavioral Sciences.  12. 2022
    2022 Child and Parent Factors Predictive of Mothers’ and Fathers’ Perceived Family Functioning.  Journal of Family Psychology.  2022
    2022 Examining Gender-Specific Modeling in the Intergenerational Transmission of Parenting Style and Physical Child Abuse Risk.  Journal of Child and Family Studies.  2022
    2022 Role of maternal emotion in child maltreatment risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Journal of Family Violence.  2022
    2021 Spillover and Crossover Effects: Mothers’ and Fathers’ Intimate Partner Violence, Parent-Child Aggression Risk, and Child Behavior Problems.  Child Maltreatment.  26:420-430. 2021
    2021 Applying Socio-Emotional Information Processing Theory to Explain Child Abuse Risk: Emerging Patterns from the COVID-19 Pandemic 2021
    2021 Role of Emotion in Child Maltreatment Risk during the COVID-19 Pandemic 2021
    2021 Talking to Parents about Spanking: The Potential for Pediatricians to Reduce the Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences.  Journal of Pediatrics.  235:22-23. 2021
    2021 Underlying mechanisms for racial disparities in parent-child physical and psychological aggression and child abuse risk.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  117. 2021
    2021 The Perfect Storm: Hidden Risk of Child Maltreatment During the Covid-19 Pandemic.  Child Maltreatment.  26:139-151. 2021
    2021 Reliability and Validity of the Lower Extremity Motor Activity Log for Measuring Real-World Leg Use in Adults With Multiple Sclerosis.  Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.  102:626-632. 2021
    2021 Bidirectional Spillover in the Family across the Transition to Parenthood.  Family Process.  60:235-250. 2021
    2021 Testosterone Associations With Parents’ Child Abuse Risk and At-Risk Parenting: A Multimethod Longitudinal Examination.  Child Maltreatment.  26:50-62. 2021
    2021 Assessing Mothers’ Automatic Affective and Discipline Reactions to Child Behavior in Relation to Child Abuse Risk: A Dual-Processing Investigation.  Assessment.  2021
    2021 Development and psychometric characteristics of analog measures of parental empathy.  PLoS One.  16:e0259522. 2021
    2020 Longitudinal Analysis of Short-term Changes in Relationship Conflict During COVID-19: A Risk and Resilience Perspective 2020
    2020 Assessing Mothers' Automatic Affective and Discipline Reactions to Child Behavior in Relation to Child Abuse Risk: A Dual-Processing investigation 2020
    2020 Acceptability of Family Violence: Underlying Ties Between Intimate Partner Violence and Child Abuse.  Journal of Interpersonal Violence: concerned with the study and treatment of victims and perpetrators of physical and sexual violence.  35:3217-3236. 2020
    2020 Refining social-information processing theory: Predicting maternal and paternal parent-child aggression risk longitudinally.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  107. 2020
    2019 Interaction between maternal and paternal parenting styles with infant temperament in emerging behavior problems.  Infant Behavior and Development.  57. 2019
    2019 Gender role ideology in mothers and fathers: Relation with parent-child aggression risk longitudinally.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  96. 2019
    2019 Emerging behavior problems: Bidirectional relations between maternal and paternal parenting styles with infant temperament.  Developmental Psychology.  55:1199-1210. 2019
    2019 When Couples Disagree: Predicting Informant Differences in Adults’ Emotion Regulation.  Journal of Child and Family Studies.  28:1548-1557. 2019
    2019 Acceptability of intimate partner violence among male offenders: The role of set-shifting and emotion decoding dysfunctions as cognitive risk factors.  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.  16. 2019
    2019 Predicting maternal and paternal parent-child aggression risk: Longitudinal multimethod investigation using Social Information Processing theory.  Psychology of Violence.  9:370-382. 2019
    2019 Assessing Parental Attributions through an Implicit Measure: Development and Evaluation of the Noncompliance IAT.  Journal of Child and Family Studies.  28:894-905. 2019
    2019 Cognitive-Affective Pathways to Child Depressive and Anxious Symptoms: Role of Children’s Discipline Attributions.  Child Psychiatry and Human Development.  50:163-171. 2019
    2019 Predicting child problem behavior and maternal/paternal parent-child aggression: Identifying early prevention targets.  Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.  60:76-86. 2019
    2019 Psychometric Evaluation of a Brief Assessment of Parents’ Disciplinary Alternatives.  Journal of Child and Family Studies.  2019
    2018 Maternal ADHD Symptoms and Physical Child Abuse Risk: A Multi-Informant Study.  Journal of Child and Family Studies.  27:4015-4024. 2018
    2018 Predictors of change in mothers’ and fathers’ parent-child aggression risk.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  86:247-256. 2018
    2018 Disentangling the Cycle: Potential Mediators and Moderators in the Intergenerational Transmission of Parent–Child Aggression.  Child Maltreatment.  23:254-268. 2018
    2018 Predicting Parent–Child Aggression Risk: Cognitive Factors and Their Interaction With Anger.  Journal of Interpersonal Violence: concerned with the study and treatment of victims and perpetrators of physical and sexual violence.  33:359-378. 2018
    2017 Mediators between Parenting History and Expected At-Risk Parenting: Role of Conformity, Coping, and Attitudes.  Journal of Child and Family Studies.  26:3237-3245. 2017
    2017 Predicting Parent-Child Aggression Risk in Mothers and Fathers: Role of Emotion Regulation and Frustration Tolerance.  Journal of Child and Family Studies.  26:2529-2538. 2017
    2017 Personal and couple level risk factors: Maternal and paternal parent-child aggression risk.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  69:213-222. 2017
    2017 Assessing the amount of spontaneous real-world spoken language in aphasia: Validation of two methods.  American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.  26:316-326. 2017
    2016 Parent–Child Aggression Risk in Expectant Mothers and Fathers: A Multimethod Theoretical Approach.  Journal of Child and Family Studies.  25:3220-3235. 2016
    2016 Multimethod prediction of child abuse risk in an at-risk sample of male intimate partner violence offenders.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  60:27-35. 2016
    2016 A Preliminary Evaluation of the Spanish Parent–Child Aggression Acceptability Movie Task in Spain.  Journal of Family Violence.  31:549-555. 2016
    2016 Emotion Regulation in Relation to Emerging Adults’ Mental Health and Delinquency: A Multi-informant Approach.  Journal of Child and Family Studies.  25:1916-1925. 2016
    2016 Parental Discipline Reactions to Child Noncompliance and Compliance: Association with Parent–Child Aggression Indicators.  Journal of Child and Family Studies.  25:1363-1374. 2016
    2016 Multimethod prediction of physical parent-child aggression risk in expectant mothers and fathers with Social Information Processing theory.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  51:106-119. 2016
    2015 Analog assessment of frustration tolerance: Association with self-reported child abuse risk and physiological reactivity.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  46:121-131. 2015
    2015 Predicting Maternal Physical Child Abuse Risk Beyond Distress and Social Support: Additive Role of Cognitive Processes.  Journal of Child and Family Studies.  24:1780-1790. 2015
    2015 Preliminary evaluation of an analog procedure to assess acceptability of intimate partner violence against women: The Partner Violence Acceptability Movie Task.  Frontiers in Psychology.  6. 2015
    2014 Utility of child report: Correspondence with parent-reported child abuse risk.  Child Abuse Review.  23:334-341. 2014
    2014 Family Dysfunction and Social Isolation as Moderators Between Stress and Child Physical Abuse Risk.  Journal of Family Violence.  29:175-186. 2014
    2014 Frustration influences impact of history and disciplinary attitudes on physical discipline decision making.  Aggressive Behavior.  40:1-11. 2014
    2013 Analog of parental empathy: Association with physical child abuse risk and punishment intentions.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  37:493-499. 2013
    2012 Reading between the lines: Implicit assessment of the association of parental attributions and empathy with abuse risk.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  36:564-571. 2012
    2012 Multimethod assessment of children's distress during noninvasive outpatient medical procedures: Child and parent attitudes and factors.  Journal of Pediatric Psychology.  37:557-566. 2012
    2011 Association Between Independent Reports of Maternal Parenting Stress and Children's Internalizing Symptomatology.  Journal of Child and Family Studies.  20:631-639. 2011
    2011 Assessing abuse risk beyond self-report: Analog task of acceptability of parent-child aggression.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  35:199-209. 2011
    2011 Behind the cycle of violence, beyond abuse history: A brief report on the association of parental attachment to physical child abuse potential.  Violence and Victims.  26:246-256. 2011
    2010 Physical discipline, escalation, and child abuse potential: Psychometric evidence for the analog parenting task.  Aggressive Behavior.  36:251-260. 2010
    2010 Personal contextual characteristics and cognitions: Predicting child abuse potential and disciplinary style.  Journal of Interpersonal Violence: concerned with the study and treatment of victims and perpetrators of physical and sexual violence.  25:315-335. 2010
    2010 Who spares the rod? Religious orientation, social conformity, and child abuse potential.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  34:84-94. 2010
    2010 Parent-child aggression: Association with child abuse potential and parenting styles.  Violence and Victims.  25:728-741. 2010
    2009 Coping style as a mediator between pregnancy desire and child abuse potential: A brief report.  Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology.  27:61-69. 2009
    2008 Mothers of children with externalizing behavior problems: Cognitive risk factors for abuse potential and discipline style and practices.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  32:774-784. 2008
    2008 Disciplinary style and child abuse potential: Association with indicators of positive functioning in children with behavior problems.  Child Psychiatry and Human Development.  39:123-136. 2008
    2008 Ecological predictors of disciplinary style and child abuse potential in a hispanic and Anglo-American sample.  Journal of Child and Family Studies.  17:336-352. 2008
    2007 Stress and anger as contextual factors and preexisting cognitive schemas: Predicting parental child maltreatment risk.  Child Maltreatment.  12:325-337. 2007
    2006 University faculty attitudes on affirmative action principles toward faculty and students.  Equity and Excellence in Education.  39:303-312. 2006
    2006 Cognitive-affective predictors of Women's readiness to end domestic violence relationships.  Journal of Interpersonal Violence: concerned with the study and treatment of victims and perpetrators of physical and sexual violence.  21:1417-1439. 2006
    2006 Attributional style as a mediator between parental abuse risk and child internalizing symptomatology.  Child Maltreatment.  11:121-130. 2006
    2006 Emotional functioning, attachment style, and attributions as predictors of child abuse potential in domestic violence victims.  Violence and Victims.  21:199-212. 2006
    2004 Attributions and discipline history as predictors of child abuse potential and future discipline practices.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  28:845-861. 2004
    2003 Parental Discipline and Abuse Potential Affects on Child Depression, Anxiety, and Attributions.  Journal of Marriage and Family.  65:809-817. 2003
    2002 Professionals' attitudes and accuracy on child abuse reporting decisions in New Zealand.  Journal of Interpersonal Violence: concerned with the study and treatment of victims and perpetrators of physical and sexual violence.  17:320-342. 2002
    1999 Predictors of parents' physical disciplinary practices.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  23:651-657. 1999
    1998 Applicability of Australian adaptations of intelligence tests in New Zealand with a Dunedin sample of children.  New Zealand Journal of Psychology.  27:4-12. 1998
    1998 Depression, anxiety, and attributional style in a New Zealand sample of children.  New Zealand Journal of Psychology.  27:28-34. 1998
    1998 Assessment of Behavioral Distress and Depression in a Pediatric Population.  Children's Health Care.  27:157-170. 1998
    1997 Parenting stress and anger expression as predictors of child abuse potential.  Child Abuse and Neglect.  21:367-377. 1997
    1997 Parenting Stress and Abuse Potential in Mothers of Children with Developmental Disabilities.  Child Maltreatment.  2:245-251. 1997
    1996 Handbook of depression in children and adolescents - Reynolds,WM, Johnston,HF 1996
    1996 Parenting stress and anger expression as predictors of child abuse potential.  International Journal of Psychology.  31:22499-22499. 1996
    1994 Behavioral upset in medical patients-revised: Evaluation of a parent report measure of distress for pediatric populations.  Journal of Pediatric Psychology.  19:319-324. 1994
    1993 Relationships between maternal parenting stress and child disruptive behavior.  Child and Family Behavior Therapy.  14:1-9. 1993

    Research Overview

  • The primary emphasis of my current research program involves understanding factors that exacerbate parental risk for physical child abuse, particularly psychological distress and cognitive processes that increase the likelihood that a parent will transition from using physical discipline to harsher and ultimately abusive discipline. Most recently I have focused on identifying innovative assessment strategies that would permit greater confidence in our abuse risk assessments.

    To better understand potential avenues leading to abusive parenting, the Parenting Challenges with Kids (PaCK) Lab considers factors that promote optimal parenting in addition to parenting in more at-risk, challenging circumstances. As part of this effort, we are studying the potential evolution of parenting beliefs and attitudes by following first-time parents from their last trimester of pregnancy to track their transition into parenthood. We follow families during the first years of the baby’s life in the longitudinal Following First Families (Triple-F) study, an NICHD funded grant.

    I have also considered how such parental disciplinary behaviors, beliefs, and abuse risk are associated with children’s internalizing difficulties, such as the development of depressive and anxious symptomatology, paying particular attention to potential cognitive mechanisms that can be transmitted intergenerationally. Feel free to conduct a literature search for my publications on these interrelated research interests.

    Parenting, child abuse

    • Principal Investigator On

    Education And Training

  • Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology, University of Florida 1993

    • Full Name

  • Christina Rodriguez