Citation

Gully KJ, Koller S, Ainsworth AD. J. Emot. Abuse 2001; 2(4): 5-18.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1300/J135v02n04_03

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study explored whether homeless children experience an adverse effect from exposure to family violence after explaining variance due to alternative explanations. Homeless mothers (N = 109) and one child, ages 4 through 17, per mother participated by completing questionnaires and tests. The results showed that exposure to family violence is related to an adverse effect on children, beyond the adverse impact associated with the alternative explanations investigated in this study (i.e., maternal marital status, maternal education, maternal hospi-talization for mental health problems, maternal detoxification or hospi-talization for substance or alcohol abuse, gender of the child, age of the child, ethnicity of the child, residential moves during the prior two years, aggregate time homeless during the prior two years, a history of physical abuse for the child, intelligence of the child, the extent that the child is physically nurtured, and expectations that the child has for personal control). Additionally, there were three less central, but important results: (1) the rating provided by mothers about the extent to which their children had been exposed to family violence agreed with the independent rating provided by their children; (2) the data suggested that exposure to family violence might better correlate with subsequent behavioral problems when the extent of the exposure is considered; and (3) the results indicated that externalized more than internalized behavioral problems may be an outcome from exposure to family violence.