Research Proposal

Another common effect on children who witness domestic violence is that they have severe gender role issues. Clearly, children exposed to the abuse of their mothers are at risk for learning deleterious patterns of social behavior and for developing distorted expectations about the appropriate roles of men and women in the family (Brescoll & Graham-Bermann, 2000, p.2). Therefore, children exposed

How far can children be said to be affected by domestic violence? Discuss in relation to recent research in this area.

Children react to their environment in different ways, and those reactions can vary, depending on the child 's gender and age. Children exposed to family violence are more likely to develop behavioral, emotional, psychological, and social problems than those who are not. Recent research indicates that children who witness domestic violence show anger and temperament problems, depression, low self-esteem, and more anxiety than children who do not witness violence in the home. The trauma they experience can show up in behavioral, physical, social, and emotional disturbances that affect their development and can continue into adulthood.

Domestic violence is a widespread sociological problem wherein women and children are most often the victims. This sociological problem is compounded by the fact that so much domestic violence goes under-reported, whether against women or children. Domestic violence may take a wide range of forms and may include a variant combination of battery, sexual abuse, verbal abuse or general violence. Targets of such behaviors may include a spouse, child or both. For the purposes of this research, there will be an interest in noting the impact on children who are exposed to violence both directly as the victims of abuse or indirectly as witnesses to spousal abuse. In either instance, the same findings are anticipated. Namely, the primary thesis driving the

Carlson, B (2000) Children exposed to intimate partner violence: Research findings and implications for intervention. Trauma Violence Abuse, October 2000 1: Pages 321-324

Recently, there has been an emphasis on the adverse effects of children 's exposure to violence between their adult family members and the

The level of impact and trauma of violence depend on many factors which affect on their perception and respond. Children’s age is one of the most crucial elements reflect this.It was evident that infants and young children are threatened significantly of health and psychology.

People are exposed to violence on a daily basis, whether it is through media, personal relationships, or simply observed during daily activities. The few types of violence that are most prominent in today’s society are physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, and domestic violence. Domestic violence is one of the most problematic and dangerous forms of violence that exist due to the detrimental effects it has on the individuals directly involved, children who witness these acts of violence, and society as a whole. Both men and women can be victims of domestic abuse, however, Safe Horizon states that, “1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence during her lifetime” (Safe Horizon). Everyone who experiences or witnesses domestic abuse are affected in detrimental ways. The abusers often have anger problems or lack of impulse control which only progresses. The victims become physically and emotionally scarred and the children who fall witness to parental domestic violence develop issues with emotional and behavioral functioning as well as social competence. More often than not, domestic violence is a learned behavior by children in abusive homes. Research conducted by The American Medical Association estimates that over 3.3 million children observe spousal abuse every year (Bennett, 1995). Because of this, children will believe this behavior is ‘okay’ and may even

Domestic violence has been a large problem for as long as societies have been around, but more recently in the past century, it has received more attention. The part of domestic violence that has gotten the largest amount of awareness is the act of spousal abuse. Between 600,000 and six million women and between 100,000 and six million men are victims of domestic abuse each year. Of course this is paralleled by the effect on children. For every family household that a spouse is abused in, if there is a child there is a large chance that the he or she will be affected by the incident. It is estimated that about 3.3 million children will witness some type of domestic abuse

When faced with domestic violence these children sometimes carry on violence when they become adults or blame themselves. This article explores theories and situations that show the long term and short term effects of domestic violence. They identified 41 studies that provided relevant and adequate data for inclusion in a meta-analysis. Forty of these studies indicated that children 's exposure to domestic violence was related to emotional and behavioral problems, translating to a small overall effect (Wolfe, Crooks, Lee, McIntyre-Smith, & Jaffe, 2003).

Children who experience domestic violence may have higher rates of externalizing behaviors, internalizing behaviors, and lower academic performance when compared to their same age peers not exposed to domestic violence (Kitzamnn et al., 2003; Evans et al., 2008; Holt et al., 2008; Bogat et al., 2006; Levendosky et al.,1998). A meta-analysis conducted by Kitzmann et al. (2003) found a significant effect size for children exposed to domestic violence and poor child outcomes. Kitzmann et al (2003) findings indicate that 63% of children who witness domestic violence had more externalizing and internalizing problems than children not exposed to domestic violence. A meta-analysis of 61 studies examining the rates of externalizing and internalizing behaviors of children who were exposed to domestic violence found medium effect size for internalizing behaviors and exposure to domestic violence. A medium effect size was also found for externalizing behaviors and exposure to domestic violence (Evans, et al., 2008). An association was also found between exposure to domestic violence and trauma symptoms in children (Evans, et al.,

In conclusion, the information provided above goes to show that domestic violence is not an issue just between the couple. When a child grows up in a violent home it can be both a terrifying and traumatic experience that can affect every aspect of the child’s life, growth and development. Its’s also critically important to remember that domestic violence not only affects the present generation because “what begins as an assault by one person on another, reverberates throughout the entire family and the community into the future” Kaur (2008). Children deserve to live and grow up in homes where they

For example, domestic violence is also child abuse. Women are not the only people involved with domestic violence. Some children are abused too. 15% of all domestic violence victims are kids. If a boy witness’s domestic violence at home, he is twice as probable to do that as an adult. 30 to 60 percent of perpetrators that abuse their girlfriend or wife also beats their kids. There are about 681,000 children

Edleson (1999) describes adult-to-adult domestic violence as a wide range of events, such as the child directly viewing the violence, hearing it, being used as a tool of the perpetrator, and experiencing the aftermath of violence. For example, a perpetrator hitting or threatening a child while in his or her mother’s arms, taking the child hostage to force the mother’s return to the home, using a child as a physical weapon against the victim, forcing the child to watch assaults against the mother or to participate in the abuse, and using the child as a spy or interrogating him or her about the mother’s activities (pg. 4). As a result of the high prevalence of domestic violence and the increased likelihood that children will be exposed to

Until recently, there have been limited studies focused on the effects of exposure to domestic violence on children. This paper will review various literatures that identify the effects of domestic violence exposure on children. There were many trends in the literatures that were studied but there were two common trends worth mentioning. The first trend was the participants that were used in the studies. Many of the literatures mention that previous studies mainly gathered information from women and children who resided in battered women shelters. The second trend was the methods used for the studies. Many of the studies used surveys and interviews where women and children self-reported on their experiences.