The Effects Of Family Violence On Child Behavior And Health During Early Childhood

Violence affects a healthy family’s relationship, state of mind and well-being, in other words, it’s normal functions. Because of violence, children are forced to endure and cope with mental, physical and emotional trauma leading to a display of impacts on health, development, and wellbeing. The effects build up over time and can impact on every aspect of their life.  How many children and innocent lives must suffer from something unnecessary? Imagine walking into a home late at night to find a child hiding in a corner, with a bloody face and cuts all around their body saying they were self-inflicted or making up other silly excuses like falling down the stairs out of extreme fear. Up to 75% of all acts of domestic violence occurs between the ages 18-24. No child should ever see domestic violence as normal because the moment that happens a future perpetrator has been born. We need to take a stand and refuse to let domestic violence become something we ignore.

This article provides a good introduction for practitioners working with children who witness family violence. The article summarizes the effects domestic violence can have on children such as; aggressiveness, depression, anxiety, learning disabilities, and sleep deprivation. The author stresses the importance of proper identification and assessment of children exposed to domestic violence. There are four goals of intervention described in this article: reducing the child’s sense of isolation, helping children to understand their

How does domestic violence between parents and parental figures affect the children who witness it? This is a question often asked by Sociologists and Psychologists alike. There have been studies that prove that children who witness domestic inter-parental violence experience mental health problems, issues with gender roles, substance abuse, the committing of crimes and suicide/suicide attempts later in their lives. This paper will explore all five of these 'effects' of domestic violence on children and show that there is evidence of a clear relationship in which increasing parental violence is associated with increasing outcome risks (Fergusson & Horwood, 1998, p.8).

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.

Domestic violence also greatly impacts the family structure and the relationships between the members. Domestic violence threatens both the relationship between the child and their mother and the child and their father. Children who are exposed to domestic violence do not have an emotionally available parent to foster their development and have a 30-60% higher risk for being abused by the perpetrator (NCADV, 2007); when the father is the perpetrator of the violence, he often knows little about his children, their interests, and progress in school (Crosson-Tower, 2009, p. 84). The mother’s parenting style may also be damaged from domestic violence; the perpetrator may not allow the mother to take care of her children properly or soothe them when they are upset, which can cause the children to believe their mother does not care for them. When a mother is constantly traumatized by domestic violence, it can be more difficult for her to be present and attentive in her children’s lives due to depression, anxiety, and lack of sleep (Centre for children and families in the justice system, 2009). Domestic violence has an impact on the ability for a family to function. The perpetrator may sow divisions between the members of the family by turning them against each other, or favoring one child over the others. There may also be role reversals in families who experience domestic violence; parentification of the children and infantilizing of the mother may

The finding was on women who experienced violence between their partners and had children in care during the relationship, 59% reported their children had been witnessed in the violence at home. Even though, results came out mixed and not clear. But the study had indicated children who exposed to domestic violence, their attitude and behavior are often reflected by what they see at home. Furthermore, they included different type of impact it has on child such psychological and behavior (Richard, 2011). When talking about consistencies, this study made a perfect consistency with the subject that my research is going to focus on. Also, agreeing with their hypothesis on later on impact for child witnessing abusive behavior between parents. Researcher did a further study on different approach as designing or suggesting the prevention and treatment on this

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).

Most of the time, the criminal is the father, grandfather, or stepfather, and the victim is usually a female in the same family, although males are molested as well. Most of the victims do not report the crimes because they feel afraid, ashamed, and are too young to seek help. Physical violence in children cause physical and psychological effects in all children that experience abuse by a family member in most cases (Margolin, 1998). Furthermore, cases that involve children that are abused by family members cannot be calculated because most cases are not reported which leads to miscalculation in cases that are not reported.​​​​Violence in the home results in serious threats to children’s development worldwide. An estimated, thirty-three percent of women, are assaulted by their husbands or male family members in front of their children. In most countries, children’s exposure to women abuse is not evaluated however, young people who surveyed, witnessed incidents of physical domestic abuse against their mothers or stepmothers (Pepler, 1989). In addition, the United States was evaluated that as many as ten million children were exposed to violence between their parents each year. Then, children under the ae of twelve are

As seen in the previous studies, children living in domestic violent homes not only have to face the direct violence that is happening at the moment, but also have to face the indirect change that is brought after the violence has occurred. Using a sample of 100 women and their children ages 3-5, the study conducted by Huth-Bocks, Levendosky, and Semel (2001) examined maternal psychological functioning and its impact of the quality of the home environment in a domestic violent household. After observing these indirect variables, assessments were made to determine if domestic violence had indirect affects on children’s intellectual functioning (Huth-Bocks, Levendosky, & Semel, 2001).

Other limitations may include location- a child who had experienced these forms of maltreatment and lives in a difficult neighborhood may experience more severe behaviors than children who live in affluent neighborhood. Previous sociological research suggests that people with higher socioeconomic status are less likely reported for domestic disputes, so abuse can go unreported more often, which would mean our sample may include more children from less affluent families who may live in poverty. The data may be harder to collect considering the sensitive nature of this study and the confidentiality

Domestic violence has grown to become a prevalent issue within households in the United States. Being such a great issue, we come to question the percentage of children affected and the impact it has on their social development and interaction with others. It is crucial for us to understand and recognize the long term effects that domestic violence can have on adolescents.

Many women stay with an abusive partner for five main reasons: social background, financial problems, lack of family support, traditions and values (Gharaibeh & Oweis, 2009). Violence against women is a severe problem that creates a negative environment. As a result, other individuals living in the family are also negatively affected when there are sudden changes in a household. Moreover, society needs to acknowledge these negative impacts that occur within the household against women. When violence is perpetuated within families, children often observe their parents and thus reflect violent characteristics in their behaviours; thereby, such features can be passed on for generations. In addition, a positive environment must be enforced for families that are affected by domestic violence; understanding the negative effects is the first

In introduction this paper is going discuss, based on psychological theories, what impact and effects witnessing domestic violence can have on children. The purpose of this paper is to further an understanding on explaining its consequences based on a few psychological theories. It will begin with defining what domestic violence in order to get a clear indication on what it actually involves and further presenting a sample papers studying the question, on its impact and effect, it is suggested to have on children, in order to produce a paper with both high validity and reliability. Then moving onto presenting various psychological theories which on could considered relevant to the topic in question. By further engaging in a discussion in attempt to highlight and acknowledge several aspects regarding its consequences.

Through this article, we learn that infants who experience domestic violence have trouble sleeping and eating, while older children develop a change in behavior and anxiety (McFarlane et al. 2003; Hornor, 2005). Boys who experience violence in the home tend to be more aggressive and disobedient. While on the other hand, girls who experience violence in the home tend to be more introverted and depressed. Nonetheless, both genders are impacted negatively by domestic violence.

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.