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13 MAY 2009
NO 1435
Domestic violence and children
Domestic violence is a real and serious problem in North American society. Weir (2000) states in 1993, 29% of respondents who had ever been married reported that they had experienced domestic violence. Only 25% of these Canadian respondents had reported the incident. An estimated 3.3 million children are witness to domestic violence yearly (Osofsky, 2003, Carlson, 1984). As domestic violence is underreported, the number of children who witness violence is higher than those identified (Berkman, Casey, Berkowitz and Marans, 2004). Domestic violence is present in all walks of life regardless of socioeconomic status or culture (Martin, 2002). While much of the research has centered around the effects of abuse on the primary victim, more recent studies focus on the impact domestic violence has on secondary victims. Children who witness domestic violence suffer similarly to those who experience direct abuse. The difficulties experienced by children who have witnessed domestic violence are similar to those shown by children who have suffered direct abuse by their parents. (Jaffe et al., 1986 as cited in Street, et al., 2003). Domestic violence in the home is in some situations recognized as a form of child maltreatment.
Child and youth counsellors work with children and their families through many different agencies and in many different environments. They should be able to recognize signs that could indicate the presence of domestic violence in the family, and understand the impact that it has on all family members. They also require an in depth understanding of the responses of community and societal systems that effect and directly intervene with these families in order to develop a more seamless and multi-system approach.
This would include knowledge of the practices of child protection agencies and the legislature governing the courts when determining issues of safety, custody, abuse and neglect. It is this understanding and recognition of domestic violence that will enable Child and youth counsellors to develop and deliver effective theory-based programming within the social context.
Prevention, early detection and intervention could prevent family breakdown, while increasing the safety of all family members and lessen the impact of domestic violence. The effects of domestic violence on secondary victims need to be reviewed within the child's social context in order to identify opportunities for early intervention.
In preparing this review, literature has been
drawn from the disciplines of sociology, psychology, Child and Youth Care, social work, nursing and the law. The greatest body of research
seems to have been prepared in the social work discipline, however,
because this topic looks at the secondary victims and the many
disciplines that seek to offer support to this population, it was
necessary to include research from other disciplines such as Child and Youth Care, psychology and sociology.
Theory
According to Fraser (1997) there are three levels of social systems that
must be considered when reviewing studies from the ecological
perspective; the Microsystem, where the individual acts and has
relationships such as the family or peer group; the Mesosystem, which is
involved when an individual participates in other systems with acquired
values and beliefs where there is interaction between the Microsystems,
and; the Macro/Exosystems, which affect the individual while a direct
role is not enacted and includes the culture norms of society. This
theoretical perspective offers a useful framework 'for understanding the
risks faced by children and their families' (Fraser, 1997, p. 2).
Child and youth care professionals should be aware of how systems affect each other and the implications of this for intervention. Considering the issue from an ecological perspective allows the Child and Youth Care professional to identify the ways in which domestic violence affects the child or adolescent in different systems and how those systems interact with each other. Studying this population within the social context will assist in the development of effective treatment strategies and programs at different levels. This will help the Child and Youth Care profession to identify methods of working with this population while assisting in defining the role of the Child and Youth Care professional in these situations.
For the purposes of this review, the systems evaluated and considered will be limited to include the family, school, peer group, the social norms and stereotypes of north American culture, the laws relating to domestic violence, the court's interpretation of these laws and the child protection practices.
CHRISTINE GAITENS
Gaitens, C. (2006). Domestic Violence and Children:
The Effects, the Systems and Proposed Child and Youth Care Professional
Intervention from an Ecological Perspective. Relational Child and Youth Care Practice, 19, 2. p. 43.
REFERENCES
Berkman, M., Casey, R.L., Berkowitz, S.J. and Marans, S. (2004). Police in the lives of children exposed to domestic violence: Collaborative approaches to intervention. pp.153-70. In Jaffe, P.G., Baker, L.L. and Cunningham, A.J. (Eds). Protecting Children from Domestic Violence: Strategies for community intervention. New York. Guilford Press.
Carlson, B.E. (1984). Children's observations of interparental violence. pp. 147-167. In A.R. Roberts (Ed.). Battered women and their families. New York. Springer.
Fraser, M. W. (Ed.). (1997). Risk and resilience in childhood: An ecological perspective. Washington. NASW Press.
Martin, S.G. (2002). Children exposed to domestic violence: Psychological considerations for health care practitioners. Holistic Nursing Practice, 16, 3. pp. 7-15.
Osofsky, J. D. (2003). Prevalence of children's exposure to domestic violence and child maltreatment: Implications for Prevention and Intervention. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 6, 3. pp. 161-170.
Street, A.E., King, L.A., King, D.W. and Riggs, D.S. (2003). The associations among male-perpetrated partner violence, wives' psychological distress and children's behaviour problems: A structural equation modeling analysis. Journal of Comparative Family Studies: Violence Against Women in the Family, 34, 1. pp. 23-40.
Weir, E. (2000). Wife assault in Canada. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 163, 3. pp. 328.
