Are Children Exposed To Domestic Violence

There is no real way to tell if a child exposed to intimate partner violence will one day grow up to abuse his or her significant other but there are indicators which will be presented later on in this paper. As well as the short-term and long-term effects that witnessing intimate partner violence can have on children. First off we’ll delve into what intimate partner violence is and some of the national statistics.

Domestic Violence is any willful intimidations, sexual assault, physical assaults, or any other forms of physical or verbal violent behavior by one intimate partner towards another. Domestic Violence can create both psychological and emotional effects on both the intended victim and anyone that witnesses it to include children. Some children that witness domestic violence are experiencing serious effects that they have to deal with all their lives. The severity of these effects on children depends on the intensity, consistency and whom is being assaulted. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Syndrome is one of the most serious effect that children are experiencing from Domestic Violence.

What is domestic Violence? Domestic Violence is described as violent or aggressive behavior within the home, typically involving the violent abuse of a spouse or partner. Many children end up being the victims to seeing domestic violence in the home which is very unhealthy to their development. Some children may development resentment toward both parents- one for not leaving and the other for causing the abuse. Depression, aggressive behavior, emotional distress and suicide depending on the severity are all signs of effects on children. Usually research is examined only for women and the effects that domestic violence has on them, but recently more and more research is being found on how domestic violence has it effects on children.

“There are more than three million children that are a witness to domestic violence in their own homes every year (Prinz 2003)”. When a child lives in a home when they are exposed to domestic violence they suffer also. They are at risk for abuse and neglect at thirty to sixty percent. “When children are exposed to domestic violence, they are more at risk for health problems, including becoming sick more often, having frequent headaches and stomachaches, and being more tired and lethargic than normal children (Prinz 2003)”. Children will try to intervene when they witness their parent being abused. This can put the child at great risk for injury and even cause death. In the United States there are between ten and twenty percent of children that are exposed to domestic violence.

Domestic violence has long been a hot topic and statics shows that” every 15 seconds a woman in the United States of America is beaten” (Beller 2015, p. 207). Most of what we talk about when we discuss domestic violence is the man or woman that is the victim, rarely via media does anyone put to the forefront the children. Children are the most affected by the effects of abuse in a relationship be it a marriage or partner situation. They are the unspoken and often unheard victims. There are many aspects or directions that can be undertaken in discussing the tiny victims of domestic violence. choosing only one aspect to share and hopefully shed some light on how this affects them as a child and possibly later in their emotional development and growth.

What else plays a role into this is that it effects the family and by that it affects the kids drastically. Children of victims often witness the abuse. This exposure to domestic violence is harmful and can cause an age-dependent negative effects to the children’s psychological health. Such negative effects could become fearful and anxious (Katz, 2016). The children are always on guard, watching and waiting for the next violent event to occur. The children that experience the even would never know what will trigger the abuse. For this they would never feel safe. They will always be worried for themselves, their mother or father, and their siblings. They also may feel worthless and/or powerless because they couldn’t do anything to prevent the violent event from happening.

In addition, because violence is a learned behavior, growing up in a violent home can contribute to someone potentially becoming abusive. Of all batterers, two-thirds witnessed domestic violence while growing up. ( Government and academic studies consistently demonstrate that the majority of victims of domestic violence are females and that batterers are overwhelmingly male.) However, many males who witnessed violence in their childhood homes have gone on to have healthy family relationships. The same is true for girls who have grown up in a violent home. Although some do become victims of abuse, others develop healthy interpersonal relationships. It is still unclear why some people are able to develop healthy relationships while others continue to repeat the cycle of violence.

The mental image that people generally attribute to domestic violence is a husband physically abusing his wife. The battered woman has been the symbol for this issue as far back as anyone can trace. An illustration done in 1848 uses this image to warn people about the effects of alcohol abuse (Illustration). This image may be useful in warning people about the harmful effects of alcohol, but the unfortunate truth about domestic violence is that it doesn’t affect just one group of people, it has the potential to affect everyone. Neither gender, age, race, nor sexuality exclude a person from this problem. By definition, domestic violence is “acts of violence or abuse against a person living in one 's household, especially

The ways that domestic violence can affect a child’s health is by increasing anxiety, depression, anger, stomach pains, headaches, bedwetting, weight gain and or weight lost and also losing the ability to concentrate. A child having to worry so much about their surroundings and having to worry about their parents and their safety increases their anxiety and depression, making them feel that it 's their fault everything is happening. These all lead to long term trauma and unable to develop their emotional life. “Children from violent homes have higher risks of alcohol/drug abuse, post traumatic stress disorder and juvenile delinquency.” (domestic violence roundtable).

This is the year of 2014 and only recently has domestic violence been defined as a crime in the United States. Domestic violence is still prevalent in countries all over the world and it is an important issue that needs to be addresses before the measure of violence takes place. Although there isn’t any education programs that are teaching women how to site signs of a potentially dangerous relationship, there is aftercare for those who have been in an abusive relationship. Aftercare for domestic violence helps give women strength to get back on their feet. It is a beneficial resource that is there for victim, to have a feeling of empowerment, but is the current form of providing aftercare for domestic violence victims adequate? The goal of

Children look at their parents as their own personal hero’s, but what type of a role model is a father who hits a mother? Who is truly to blame when a child feels responsible for what’s happening in the home? Being exposed to domestic violence seriously threatens the health and emotional wellbeing of children. Researchers found date that when domestic violence occurs in households with children, the children grow up feeling guilty, hopeless, and unloved. Sometimes these children follow in the footsteps of their parents by becoming the abuser. Some grow up to commit crimes; others turn to drugs for comfort.

Overall, these abuses lead to some significant impacts not only on the victims, but also on the society. Though, some abuses have minor impacts, but most of the abuses have long-term affect and some of them of the affects of abuse stay for decades. In an article, “The Hidden Consequence Of Domestic Violence Linger For Decades”, from Think Progress, the author Tara Culp-Ressler wrote, “You’re at a higher risk for some of the largest health problems that our country is facing today” which informs that the victims of domestic violence are at higher risk of some of the serious health problems which can significantly impact on one’s life. Most of the affects of domestic violence are with health, which is caused mostly from physical abuse, but from emotional and sexual abuse as well. The minor health affects from domestic violence can be recovered by seeing the doctor immediately, but the major injuries takes a long time to recover, and some major affects don’t even recover which leaves the victim as disabled and makes them different from a normal person. The Affects from sexual abuse can ruin one’s life as it has a chance of causing affects in the reproductive system especially for the women. Emotional abuse is also has significant affect, perhaps the biggest affect on a victim’s life as it plays with the emotion of a person. Other than the health affects, the domestic violence have some significant impact in a victim’s life because the victims usually don’t live freely like a

With gratitude, I would like to draw you into a situation that has occurred throughout history. All individuals who work at a center involved with domestic violence should hear my concern about how late elementary to late high school students lack the knowledge about domestic violence.

There are many consequences of not taking a strong stance against domestic abuse and the later impact on the children in the situation. Even if the children are not involved in the actual abuse, they are still negatively impacted by the presence of domestic violence in their households (Osofsky 1990). When abuse is condoned or ignored in a domestic relationship, children can begin to assume that is a normal occurrence, which can be a concept they carry with them for the rest of their lives. Prior research has shown that It is thus the first hypothesis of this research that former children born into abusive homes may grow up to repeat the same process in their own homes as adults, either as the abuser or the victimized partner in a domestic relationship (Rosa 2008). Secondly this research would hypothesize that children born into abusive households would also be more likely to enter into an abusive relationship, where they become the victim they once saw one of their parents to be.

Children are negatively impacted by the surrounding of domestic violence in multiple ways, in which need to be identified. The audience that needs to be aware of domestic abuse’s effects on children is adults that care for children; such as pediatricians, teachers, counselors, and parents. The issue that needs to be addressed is the negative effects on children involved in a domestic violence situation.