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the role of counseling
effects of witnessing domestic violence on children lifetime
the role of counseling
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Thinking about the System of Care philosophy and any possible ways to improve the intervention, Telger felt like they already do a great job. However, she is constantly trying to improve herself by continuing her education, which The WARM Place helps fund and assist with. She stressed that people need to know that continuing education is extremely important. When I described our Vulnerable Child I and II class with her and how we learn about TBRI and nurture groups, she seemed to understand the importance of taking a year to teach the material thoroughly for participation in camp. She mentioned that she feels like a well oiled machine after 20 years of working for The WARM Place and would not change much about the intervention and treatment process. Telger believes that it is important to get help quickly but because the help they offer is in a group setting, people sometimes need a month or two to get ready to face their grief in front of a group. She mentioned that although The WARM Place focuses on grief, she would like to study and learn more about trauma itself.
Literature Review
With homicide rates increasing, child witnesses to parental homicide rates are increasing. According to the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention, 60% of adults report experiencing difficult family circumstances during childhood and 26% of children in the United States will witness/experience a traumatic event before the age of 4. According to the same organization, people who have experienced trauma are 15 times more likely to attempt suicide and 3 times more likely to experience depression. The trauma of witnessing a parental homicide is emotionally draining and leaves children scarred (Zeanah & Burg, 1984). Ko...
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...ell being in terms of their adaptive and coping strategies.
Oliver is very lucky in the sense that John is seeking treatment for himself and his son promptly after the initial traumatic experience. Oliver also learned a lot from his mother who was a psychologist. It seems that Lilly instilled autonomy, hope, and a sense of resilience in Oliver. While Oliver was traumatized by witnessing the murder, it is important to remember that John needs to seek treatment as well. He now has to play both mother and father roles for Oliver and make many life changes in terms of work and business trips. The psychologist who works with Oliver and his father needs to prepare Oliver for any possible testimonies he may be required to make in order to incarcerate the perpetrators. The journey to recovery will be long but it is crucial for Oliver’s well-being as a child and as an adult.
There is a broad spectrum of crimes that are committed day to day. When one thinks of murder, parental murder against children is not at the forefront of the mind. Filicide, or the murder of one’s child, is a crime that is common but not mentioned often. About 500 filicide cases happen each year, which has been close to the same number for about a decade (Orenstein, Brown University, 2014). Also according to studies, boys were 58.3 percent more likely to be killed than girls. Looking at statistics from the National Institute of Health, as of 2004 in the US, 311 of 578 (53.8%) children under the age of five were murdered by their parents. From 1976 to 2004, maternal filicide accounted for 30 percent of all children under the age of five while
Child abuse does not discriminate against a child because of age, sex, religion, or socioeconomic background. Every child is vulnerable to abuse. Parents today face the possibility that someone they know or a stranger may hurt or take advantage of their children. Research indicates that as many as one out of every four children will be the victims of some kind of abuse (National Child Abuse Statistics). Furthermore, one of the biggest ironies of child abuse is that the family, a child’s primary source of care, love, and security, can also be their most taunting experience. This was the case of 17 month old baby, Peter Connelly. Throughout his short life span, he suffered from neglect and physical abuse that ultimately caused his death. Child abuse is a serious problem that is being taken too lightly.
In conclusion, it is clearly shown that domestic violence has a negative effect on the children who witness it. An expanding body of research suggests that childhood trauma and adverse experiences can lead to a variety of negative health outcomes (Anda & Chapman & Dube & Felitti & Giles & Williamson, 2001, p.1). In fact, childhood stressors such as witnessing domestic violence and other household dysfunctions are highly interrelated and have a graded relationship to numerous health and social problems (Anda & Chapman & Dube & Felitti & Giles & Williamson, 2001, p.2). It is obvious and clearly shown that the children who witness domestic abuse have serious long term mental effects.
There are many sad scenarios that come to mind when thinking about the victims of domestic violence. With this particular issue, the victims are impacted mentally and physically. A situation that comes to mind is one of a little boy hiding under his bed. He is in a neighboring room and can hear furniture moving and screams of his mother in agonizing pain. He understands that he is too small to intervene on his mother’s behalf and too scared to confront his father. What is he left to do? The young boy calls 911 with the hopes that they could step in and end his mother’s pain. The boy’s father repeatedly abused his mother and insisted that she stay in her place and never considers ending the relationship. This fictional situation is one that occurs everyday in every corner of our country. Domestic violence incidents in 2005 accoun...
...negatively affect a trauma survivor’s ability to maintain relationships with family members (Schwerdtfeger & Goff, 2007). The research in this area suggests that traumatized adults may be emotionally or functionally (or both) unavailable for their infant, increasing the likelihood of enhanced symptomatology within the child. Parents with a trauma history may “pass on” their trauma symptoms or reactions to their children, either through the children’s direct exposure to the parents’ symptoms or through the parents’ potentially traumatizing (e.g., abusive) behavior. Additionally, depression, anxiety, psychosomatic problems, aggression, guilt, and related issues may be common in the children of trauma survivors. These findings suggest the complexity of understanding the effects of trauma that may impact family members across generations (Schwerdtfeger & Goff, 2007).
Today child neglect is the largest part of child abuse in the United States, and almost two-thirds of all reported cases in child protective services is neglect (Dubowitz). Before the 1970’s child abuse mostly referred to physical abuse; however, now it encompasses physical, emotional, and sexual abuse as well as neglect (Compton’s). Physical abuse is when a child is hurt by getting hit, punched, kicked, or any other form of beating by an adult (Compton’s). This abuse will only harm the child physically and though it is horrific and can lead to long term effects it will normally only lead to violence. Emotional abuse is when an adult is hateful to the child by calling him names, and another form of emotional abuse is when an adult is punishing a child in a way that will cause him mental trauma (Compton’s). Emotional abuse is terrible for the child’s self-esteem however they can go and learn that they are important to the world by their contributions. Sexual abuse is when a child is touched inappropriately or molested (Compton’s). This is detrimental to a child but in most cases the child will block this out for when they grow older it is like it never happened which will cause no harm to their mental state. Neglect is when an adult will not seek medical help for their child and will not provide them with food, shelter, clothing, or emotional support (Sullivan). This is where the real trauma takes place on a child. The child will not suffer from being hit but they suffer from starving until someone is kind enough to feed them or they die from malnutrition. The child will not suffer from a parent calling them names but they might never know if their parent knows their name or cares to even speak to th...
Childhood trauma has a significant impact on the life of a child. It affects the child’s overall functioning and development, including emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and social elements. (Perry, Pollard, Blaicley, Baker, & Vigilante, 1995). An overwhelming number of children experience some type of trauma in developmentally critical years which, as previously mentioned, has a major impact on the various aspects of their functioning- specifically their development. Trauma can present itself in a multitude of forms. It may occur that the child lives or lived in a state of poverty or that he suffered a significant injury or the loss of a parent or caregiver. A disheartening number of children experience neglect or abuse in its various forms;
According to research, 275 million children are annually exposed to domestic violence around the world (Miller et al., 2012). Ghasemi (2009), Martinez et al. (2009), and Owen et al. (2009) suggested that children exposed to domestic violence could experience a variety of internalizing and externalizing problems that can lead to negative outcomes. Internalizing problems such as anxiety and depression are commonly observed in children who are living with domestic violence (Moylan et al., 2009; Owen et al. (2009). Further, cognitive development can be affected by children’s exposure to domestic violence (Thornton, 2014; Graham-Bermann et al., 2010). Trauma symptoms can be developed early in life when children are exposed to violence at home (Martinez-Torteya et al., 2009). Moreover, children feel that the violent incidents are their fault and they blame themselves (Ghasemi, 2009; Owen et al., 2009). For instance, children tend to forget the domestic violence occurrence or express emotions though play to deal with the domestic violence events (Georgsson et al., 2011). Research illustrated that children are likely to develop physical problems such as bedwetting and sleep problems when exposed to violent acts (Thornton, 2014; Ghasemi, 2009). Likewise, physical development can be delayed and impacted because of domestic violence (Thornton, 2014; Ghasemi, 2009). Researchers found that children’s externalizing issues such as aggression, substance abuse, and inappropriate behavior at school are commonly observed in children that are impact with domestic violence (Ghasemi, 2009; Moylan et al., 2009; Owen et al., 2009). Additionally, children will display poor academic performance because of the reoccurring exposure to viol...
A silent epidemic in America is the all too common childhood exposure to interpersonal traumatic stressors (D’Andrea, Ford, Stolbach, Spinazzola, & van der Kolk, 2012). Approximately 6.6 million children were reported to Child Protective Services (CPS) in 2014 with alleged abuse or neglect (ACF, 2014). Parents are the culprit of eighty percent of all children who endure maltreatment (van der Kolk, 2005). According to Fratto (2016), maltreatment is abuse and/ or neglect by a parent or caregiver. Children who have been exposed to emotional and physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, or witness to war can affect the development of a secure attachment between the child and caregiver (Cook et al., 2005). Evidence shows children
When a child witnesses domestic abuse it can have many different effects on the child. From my research I found that one of the most common effects on the child were mental health problems. In one study, conducted in New Zealand, young people that reported high levels of exposure to inter-parental violence had elevated rates of mental health problems (Fergusson & Horwood, 1998, p.1). Some of the least severe mental health problems included anxiety, inability to focus, and nightmares (Brescoll & Graham-Bermann, 2000, p.2). But these problems, which appear to be less severe, can also be the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Brescoll & Graham-Bermann, 2000, p.2). In a study conducted in 2001 the results indicated that higher levels of symptoms indicative of post traumatic stress were associated with children who have witnessed domestic violence (Hill & Nabors & Reynolds & Wallace & Weist, 2001, p.1). ?Children who have witnessed domestic violence are more likely to develop symptoms associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; that is, high levels of an...
Everyday, a child witnesses an act of violence. Not on television but in their own home. "Family and home are not havens in which a child finds nurturing and safety, but rather a battleground where fear, anxiety, confusion, anger, and disruption are significant threads in the tapestry of home life," Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing. Children of family violence are often abusers or victims of abuse themselves. Family violence is a cycle that is very hard to stop. A home is supposed to be a safe place where children learn how to love and relate to others. If they are constantly seeing violence in their parent's relationship, then they assume that a normal relationship is also filled with violence. Often, children do not understand why the violence occurs and may be afraid to share their emotions because of fear. They may associate love and pain together, because this is witnessed in their home. This could lead to psychological problems and confusion about relationships. Children who witness family violence tend to have behavioral, interpersonal, and emotional problems.
There are many different types of victims we have discussed over the course of this class, but we’re only going to talk about two types in the following paper. These two types of victims are common just as any another victim across America. These include sex assault victims and child abuse victims, which are both primary victims in cases. The two share a tie together, both are a victim of abuse and can cause lifelong consequences, but they also pose many differences as well. Many questions arise when talking about victims, for example why is a child or adult being abused and what are the life altering affects to these actions. Throughout this paper we discuss both sexual assault victims and child abuse victims and compare and contrast between the two.
Throughout the course of one’s lifetime, there are countless events that shape the personality, actions and mentality of that individual. Some of these events will affect the individual in a positive way allowing great life opportunities, while other events will unfortunately affect the individual in a negative way which can lead to disorders. Among the various events that can affect a person, one of the most common occurrences that some children witness early on in their lives that deeply affect their long-term mental health is being a witness to domestic violence. Research and observations that were studied revealed that there are multiple factors that can contribute to a child witnessing domestic violence. The more categories that the child falls into, the more likely they are to develop mental health issues later on in their life (Meltzer, Doos, Vostanis, Ford, and Goodman, 2009). The research conducted by Meltzer et al. (2009), was used to study the factors that were intertwined with domestic violence, as well as to better understand the needs of children who have witnessed the violence at a young age.
When the topic of abuse comes up, many different forms of abuse pop into individuals heads. Whether its Physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse or even drug abuse, the list just keeps going. Now take all those different forms abuse and imagine them happening in a family. A father physically abusing his children, a mother verbally berating her daughter about her body image, a child growing up in fear. According to the research by David Wolfe in the Journal of Consulting and clinical Psychology, that the number of children that have suffered a physical injury due to physical abuse is between 1.4 and 1.9 million annually. With such a high number of physical abuse happening to children, one can imagine how high the number of all the
One of the most obvious and damaging results of child abuse is death; however, research illustrating the effects on a growing child who has been abused has demonstrated many other lifelong negative factors (Felitti, Anda, Nordenberg, Williamson, Spitz, Edwards, Koss, Marks, 1998). In consonance children who suffer from abuse can show signs of depression, social withdraw, and even violent behavior. As a child grows older, they may suffer from poor physical health, such as high blood pressure, obesity, stress, and psychological disorders and disabilities (Herronkohl, T., Hong, Klika, and Herronkohl, R., 2013). Child abuse and neglect have also been associated with depression, anger disorders, and post-traumatic