Citation

McDonald R, Jouriles EN, Briggs-Gowan MJ, Rosenfield D, Carter AS. J. Fam. Psychol. 2007; 21(2): 176-184.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, US. rmcdonal@smu.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/0893-3200.21.2.176

PMID

17605540

Abstract

In this study, the authors examined whether witnessing violence toward a family member increases the risk for adjustment difficulties among children in the 1- to 3-year age range, beyond the risk attributable to witnessing nonviolent, angry adult conflict. Participants were 1,152 caregivers of 1- to 3-year-old children, randomly selected from birth records and recruited from the community. Caregivers indicated whether their children had witnessed violence toward a family member and/or angry adult conflict. They also completed a comprehensive measure of child adjustment difficulties. Exposure to violence toward a family member and exposure to angry adult conflict were each uniquely associated with increased risk for adjustment problems. These results emerged after accounting for pertinent demographic variables and for caregiver distress variables.

Language: en