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Emotional Security and Conflict in Context

A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective on Youth Adjustment

  • 1st Edition - May 1, 2026
  • Latest edition
  • Authors: E. Mark Cummings, Kathleen Bergman
  • Language: English

Emotional Security and Conflict in Context: A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective on Youth Adjustment covers the effects of conflict on children. Moving beyond confli… Read more

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Description

Emotional Security and Conflict in Context: A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective on Youth Adjustment covers the effects of conflict on children. Moving beyond conflict in the family, over 1 billion children are affected by community and political conflict and war, which also has profound and long-lasting implications for development. This book integrates several theoretical models that are central to work in this field, providing a clear review of the literature in a way that systematically and logically flows. In addition, it discusses child development from a developmental psychopathology perspective.Finally, the book integrates perspectives on violence and conflict across the social ecology, as well as several theoretical frameworks that are core to the field.

Key features

  • Introduces Emotional Security Theory as a way to understand links between conflict and adjustment
  • Presents the basic principles of DP: pathways of development, understanding normal development from a DP perspective, risk and protective factors and resilience
  • Describes ways in which translational work can be extended to support families in contexts of political violence and armed conflict
  • Emphasizes the differences between constructive and destructive research

Readership

Academics conducting research in this area (Psychology, Social Work, Sociology, Human Development), graduate students and/or advanced undergraduates completing specialized coursework, people working in applied settings (e.g., clinicians), Social workers, policy makers

Table of contents

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

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: May 1, 2026
  • Language: English

About the authors

EC

E. Mark Cummings

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.
Affiliations and expertise
William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families Professor of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame, USA

KB

Kathleen Bergman

Katie Bergman is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame. Her research interests are anchored in the developmental psychopathology perspective and focus on understanding and intervening in the processes associated with normal and abnormal development during childhood and adolescence, particularly in the context of interadult and family conflict. A related focus of her work is on increasing representation of minoritized families and non-traditional family structures in communication and conflict intervention work. Dr. Bergman is a Principal Investigator or Project Director on multiple externally funded studies, including currently active intervention projects funded by NICHD and NIMH.

Affiliations and expertise
University of Notre Dame