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Abstract
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This study examines the impact of exposure to family violence on school-aged boys. Boys who had witnessed violence between their parents were compared to boys who had been abused by their parents. The findings indicate that boys exposed to violence had a pattern of adjustment problems similar to those of abused boys and significantly different in severity and type from those of a community comparison group.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The goal of this study by Jaffe et al. was to examine the impact of experiencing and witnessing violence in the home on adolescent boys.
METHODOLOGY:
A quasi-experimental design was employed for this study. A sample of 32 boys who had been exposed to violence was taken from shelters for battered women. This sample was chosen on the basis of these criteria: 1) the boys be between 4 and 16 years old; 2) there was evidence of marital conflict within the last year as measured by the physical aggression subscale from the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) or as determined by the revised O'Leary-Porter Scale; 3) the child have been in visual or auditory range of violent parental conflict at least once during the past year, and 4) no evidence of psychiatric interference among family members. Prospective participants were approached by the staff of the shelters. The mothers who agreed to participate were interviewed and asked to complete the Child Behavior Checklist (CBC) which measured parental ratings of children's behavior problems and social competence. A comparison sample was drawn of 18 male children within the child welfare system who had been physically abused by their parents. The criteria for participation were as follows: 1) the family have had a current family case opened from between 4 and 47 months; 2) the child be a male between 6 and 16; 3) the child was living with the natural or foster parents for the past 6 months or longer; 4) there was no evidence of mental retardation; 5) a current social worker be involved for the last 4 months, and 6) there be one incident of physical abuse, as defined by the province of Ontario, by a parent or caregiver that was recorded in the child abuse registry within the prior 4 years. Mothers who were prospective participants were approached by their social workers. The mothers who agreed to participate were interviewed and asked to complete the Child Behavior Checklist. A third comparison group (N=15) was selected from public response to local advertisements. The criteria for this group were as follows: 1) the family have a child between 6 and 16, 2) there was no evidence of physical violence in the family as measured by the CTS, and 3) there was no evidence of psychiatric disturbance among the family members. The dependent variables for the study were the Total Social Competence score, internalizing behavior problems, and externalizing behavior problems. Internalizing behavior problems was defined as including the child's feeling of being unloved, clinging to adults, complaining of loneliness, and easily being jealous. Externalizing behavior problems included lying and cheating, disobedience at home or school, fighting, and destroying things belonging to self or others. T-tests were used to analyze the data.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
It was found that boys in the study who were exposed to family violence had similar adjustment problems to those shown by children who had been abused and were significantly different from the control group. The exposed group and the abused group showed significantly more internalizing and externalizing problems than the control group (p<.001). There were no significant differences found in social competence. The boys who had been abused demonstrated significantly more externalizing behavior than those boys exposed to family violence. 90% of the abused children and 75% of the exposed children had total behavior problem T-scores greater than one standard deviation above the norm. Only 13% of the control group were in that range. The degree of adjustment problems was found to be significantly different for the abused and witnessed groups versus the control group (p<.001). The findings suggested that exposure to family violence may be as harmful as physical abuse. It was argued that such factors as family stress and disadvantage may contribute to both situations in which children are abused and in situations in which children observe a parent being abused. Another possible reason given for these findings was the overlap of children who are direct or indirect victims of family violence.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors believed that more attention should be given to investigating events in the family that create stress and abnormal adjustment in children. The author suggested that further examination be given to the differential impact of family conflict on boys and girls. The author suggested that when professionals begin to look for factors in children's adjustment problems, the issue of family violence may be hidden.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
N1 - Call Number: F-524, AB-524
KW - Domestic Violence Effects
KW - Domestic Violence Victim
KW - Child Behavior
KW - Child Male
KW - Child Problem Behavior
KW - Child Adjustment
KW - Child Development
KW - Child Victim
KW - Child Witness
KW - Juvenile Behavior
KW - Juvenile Problem Behavior
KW - Juvenile Development
KW - Juvenile Male
KW - Juvenile Victim
KW - Juvenile Witness
KW - Juvenile Adjustment
KW - Male Victim
KW - Male Witness
KW - Early Childhood
KW - Middle Childhood
KW - Late Childhood
KW - Late Adolescence
KW - Early Adolescence
KW - Emotional Adjustment
KW - Social Adjustment
KW - Social Development
KW - Spouse Abuse Effects
KW - Witnessing Spouse Abuse
KW - Witnessing Violence Effects
KW - Child Abuse Victim
KW - Child Abuse Effects
KW - Child Physical Abuse Effects
KW - Child Physical Abuse Victim
KW - Witness Adjustment
KW - Victim Adjustment
KW - Children of Battered Women
KW - Behavior Causes
KW - Partner Violence
KW - Violence Against Women
KW - Psychological Victimization Effects
Language: en |