The Effects of Domestic Violence on Child Behavior

The Effects of Domestic Violence on Child Behavior

The United States Department of Health and Human Services found parents and other caretakers mistreat 900,000 children in the case of child abuse (as cited in Moylan et al., 2010). Children can be abused directly or indirectly. Indirect abuse can be exposure to violence enacted by the mother or father towards each other (Baldry, 2007). As for direct abuse, this can include physical, sexual or psychological abuse done personally to the child. Research conducted by Jaffe, Sudermann, & Reitzel, and McDonald & Jouriles, shows that children growing up in a family that displays violence are at increased risk behavior problems (as cited in Jouriles, Norwood, McDonald, Vincent, & Mahoney, 1996).

“Numerous studies, done by Herrenkohl et al., Stenberg et al., and Wolfe et al., have demonstrated that children exposed to domestic violence and/or child abuse are more likely to experience a wide range of hostile psychosocial and behavioral outcomes” (as cited in Moylan et al., 2010). According to Putnam, abusive children can become harmful to others, attempt to harm themselves or commit suicide, or become depressed, compared to non-abused children (as cited in Baldry, 2007). The pressure of being physically abused can put a toll on a child’s life. The subject of abuse is not something people just bring up into conversations and the child might to afraid to talk to someone about it. Some children might feel that taking their own life would be the best way to get away from the situation.

Parents are not always aware of what they do effects their children. Some “mothers tend to underestimate the amount of violence their children have been exposed to” (Baldry, 2007). Parents might th...

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...ed by peers?. Swiss Journal of Psychology/Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur Psychologie/Revue Suisse de Psychologie. Vol.65(2), 107-116.

Moylan, C. A., Herrenkohl, T. I., Sousa, C., Tajima, E.A., Herrenkohl, R. C., & Russo, M. J. (2010). The effects of child abuse and exposure to domestic violence on adolescent internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Journal Of Family Violence, 25(1), 53-63.

Sternberg, K. J., Lamb, M. E., Greenbaum, C., Cicchetti, D., Dawud, S., Cortes, R. M., Krispin, O., & Lorey, F. (1993). Effects of domestic violence on children's behavior problems and depression. Developmental Psychology. Vol.29 (1), 44-52.

Wolfe, D. A., Jaffe, P., Wilson, S. K., & Zak, L. (1985). Children of battered women: The relation of child behavior to family violence and maternal stress. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Vol.53 (5), 657-665