The Effects Of Domestic Violence On Children

The formative experiences that define a child's home life will have a lasting impact on the individual as he or she enters the later stages of childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The degree to which one's family life is loving, nurturing, supportive and attentive is a substantial determinant in emotional, social and intellectual development. Accordingly, a home which is abusive, violent, negative and neglectful is more than likely to have deleterious effects for the child both while and well after maintaining residence there. This turns us toward the focus of the present study, which is the impact levied by domestic violence on children.

For children living in violent and unsafe homes, they are learning that hitting and verbally abusing someone is the proper way of communicating love. According to Holt, Buckley & Whelan (2008), “as they learn a generational cycle begins in which children grow up to be victims and abusers as adults.” The effects that domestic violence has on children are heartbreaking. Some of the major effects are; increased risk of poor health, poor education, isolation, learned helplessness and decreased satisfaction in such family environment.

Lisa Fontes of DomesticShelters.org discussed four very important lessons to help build resilience. “Don’t go it Alone…Create Order from Chaos…Nurture Hope…Commit for the Long Term” (Fontes, 2016, para. 3-8). Ms. Fontes brings up the crucial point of creating stability and generating positive feelings of hope. Together, these feelings help both adults and children feel purposeful again, while also building up resilience to their past experiences. Stability for children is also crucial during their development. Factors such as frequent moves, deaths, and domestic violence have all been shown to be risk factors for developing negative social conditions. Each of these factors has one thing in common, they disrupt the stability of a child’s life. While stability is a very important factor, there are more things that can be done to help children. By fostering positive healthy familial relationships, children will not feel like they are alone. These relationships also help children realize they are valued, while also helping reduce the children’s negative actions from the domestic violence. Jessica also had to aid her children in reducing their unacceptable behavior developed from their time witnessing domestic violence. For her children, these more violent behaviors were normal, they had seen their

Whenever we talk about the subject of domestic violence, the first concern that we have is on adults who have experienced it. However, little attention has been paid to children who were exposed to domestic violence. The tragic reality of a long term effects for who have experienced domestic violence is not only to adult but their children. The younger the children is the harder for them to understand violence and coping with it. Therefore, children who witness their parents being abused are more likely to growing up thinking hurting people is a way to protect themselves or that is okay to being hurt by other. According to a study, nearly “4.8 million acts of physical or sexual aggression are perpetrated against women while 2.9 million physically

Children all around the world witness domestic violence. Whether it 's between parents, partners or even the elder. Does the parents, partners, or elder realize the affects that happen to their children? Witnessing domestic violence, children become fearful and anxious. They become this way because they never know when the next event may happen, fearing for themselves, mom or dad, and siblings. Also becoming worthless and powerless, feeling the need to keep their family a secret and/or not being able to talk to their own family about the abuse. Sometimes they feel like they are the reason why there is domestic violence in their home. If they look fine to you or others in the world that don’t know about their family, they truly may not be fine at all inside. As reading it doesn 't seem that the children are being hit in any of the domestic violence, but the parent that is being hit from their partner fear for the child/children. Domestic violence, can negatively affect children 's development. (try to make more persuasive)

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

Domestic violence is a dilemma that affects every family member, including the children. Two previous studies have shown that child abuse, domestic violence, and both in combination increase a child’s risk for internalizing and externalizing negative behavioral outcomes and that the belief that some children may have that they are capable of controlling a domestic violence situation may actually trigger them into adopting traumatic behavioral symptoms. The goal of this study is to focus on children in New York and determine the specific ways that they are mentally and behaviorally affected by exposure to domestic violence by measuring the amount of times that they have acted out violently. This study will juxtapose those who are greatly

Children’s exposure to domestic violence negatively affects children’s health and development. Millions of children are exposed to domestic violence on a daily. 3.3-10 million children are exposed to domestic violence annually (Wilson Pg.9). Many children’s futures are affected by the things they witness. Majority of what they witness alters they’re outlook on many situations that occur.

When it comes to domestic abuse there are signs to watch for and if caught early enough one can stop it before it begins. In violent relationships the ultimate goal of the abuser is to have complete control over the abused. According to Shattered Lives magazine, “One out of every four households experience a form of domestic violence” (1). When one feels they have nowhere to go they become more attached and often have children with their perpetrator. The children also play a part in the family members that are afflicted as they often see the abuse, they often suffer neglect from their caretakers (the one being abused or the abuser), and/or they do not live in a happy household. Some abused do better than others at hiding the abuse from their kids; however, often time’s children pick up on what is going on and this can have a negative emotional effect on the children. Together we can put a stop to this. A form of family violence is domestic violence and not just the abused are affected, all the family members are at risk of being harmed in one way or another and can be pushed out of the lives of their loved one by the abuser nevertheless; there is something that can be done about it.

Throughout history, women have been the main individuals who have been reported for being domestically violated however children with and without a disability play a major role in domestic violence.

According to the Domestic Violence Roundtable three to four million children are exposed to domestic violence. It has been said that children that witness domestic abuse are most likely to become very aggressive and anti-social. Children that also have witness domestic abuse have higher levels of anger then those children that aren’t in that environment. Violence could be mentally traumatizing for any child and they could carry painful images of events in their head for the rest of their lives. When a child is used to also seeing violence over a long term period of time they could carry the traits learned as a child into adulthood and repeat the same events witnessed by there parents or guardians (Domestic). Domestic abuse can cause a child to become angry with the abuser and the victim. This could make the child act out in violent ways at school with others. The Domestic Violence Roundtable also stated that the anger the child feels inside could cause them to turn violent against themselves by causing harm (Effects of Domestic). A lot of children that witness domestic violence are angry inside because they can’t comprehend their surrounds. They don’t know how to seek for help because they feel like they must protect their parents or

McGee’s (2000:70) research showed, that for several children, the influence of living with fear and intimidation on a regular basis is more disturbing than the effects of specific violent incidents. Fear is the most mutual impact of domestic violence on children (McGee 2000:70). Children are more afraid of their fathers’ (or their mother’s partners’) unpredictability, they do not know what is going to happen or what he will do next. Children can also demonstrate more specific fears, in regards to the violence for example, they may fear for their own safety daily or certainly their life.

Violence and domestic violence are very popular issues of social concern of our times. Experts define a few types of domestic abuse, namely psychological, physical, emotional, verbal, sexual, and others, and they all are considered very harmful to families, especially to the youngest members. Abusers who commit domestic violence do so to control their victim, and maintain that control by threatening the victim’s safety and/or that of people they love. To protect themselves from abuse, victims can identify that they are in an abusive relationship work to free themselves from the abusive relationship.

Growing up one may have been told “If a girl/boy hits or is mean to you then they like you”. Growing up with this in mind a child could easily grow up believing physical harm is a sign of love. With the vase society children, can find models in athletes, teachers, parents, television, and media. Because Domestic Violence comes in many forms ranging from race, age, sexual orientation, religion or gender and happens in marriages, co- parenting households, or regular dating relationships, children are heavily exposed. The most common way abuse is shown is through physical harm, mental break downs, verbal threats, and emotional abuse (Webb, C. 2000, October 2). A Domestic violence situation could easily turn in to a learned trait if seen or experienced often and through various ways. Often when asked “Why do you stay” a female may respond “My mother did” or if asked “Why do you abuse your girlfriend/wife” a male may respond “It’s how I was raised”. Using Albert Bandura’s Social learning theory one can see how at a young age if exposed to certain behaviors, a child can take what is observed and later imitate these behaviors. Social learning often happens in two main stages; observation and imitation. Bandura believed that learning is a cognitive process through social context that occurs through observation or direct instruction. These two stages; observation and imitation can mold children differently. If a child is exposed to such harsh and violent actions, it is

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.