Domestic Abuse Hurts Kids
 by Gregory K. Fritz, MD, Bradley Hospital
medical director and Hasbro Children's Hospital child and family
psychiatry director. Fritz is also editor of the Brown
University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter, where
this article first appeared.
Although domestic violence, mainly men beating
women, has been a fact of life for many centuries, it only has
appeared as a legal issue in the past three decades in the
United States. Before then, domestic violence was considered a
family matter best handled privately-police policy, for
example, discouraged arrest in domestic-violence cases.
Since the women's movement of the 1970s,
domestic violence has come to be recognized as a serious social
problem demanding the attention of the courts, police
departments and social-welfare agencies. Despite the progress,
however, domestic violence is still viewed as affecting
primarily adults. Traditional services such as battered women's
shelters do not provide access to needed care for the majority
of exposed children.
A recent issue of "The Future of
Children" (Vol. 9, No. 3, Winter 1999), the David and
Lucile Packard Foundation has pulled together a series of
articles that highlight the impact of domestic violence on
children. Typical of this excellent series, the articles'
thoroughness and breadth shed needed light on a shadowy area
often overlooked.
Research estimates that 3.3 million to 10
million children in the United States are exposed to domestic
violence each year. Though clearly large, the number is
imprecise-a reflection of the lack of accurate data on the
nature and scope of the problem. Without more extensive and
reliable information on the prevalence of exposure and its
impact on development, these children will remain largely
invisible to professionals and policymakers.
Acknowledging the limitation of the database,
it is nonetheless clear that exposure to domestic violence can
damage a child's physical, emotional, social and cognitive
development. Infants, school-age children and adolescents are
all affected, with differences in responses stemming from their
developmental levels. Very young children exposed to violence in
their families show excessive irritability, sleep disturbances
and regressive behavior. Older children may show anxiety,
depression, decreased academic performance and lower levels of
social competence and self-esteem.
The impact appears to be especially severe on
adolescents, who show higher levels of aggression, conduct
disorder, truancy and revenge-seeking. In cases of extreme
exposure, children may experience symptoms of post-traumatic
stress disorder similar to what is seen in children living in a
war zone.
Children's dependence on their parents means
that when one parent is the perpetrator and the other is the
victim, the child's needs inevitably suffer. The battered
parent rarely can provide adequate emotional support for the
child, and ongoing contact with the batterer, which often
occurs, is a constant stress. Domestic violence is usually not
an isolated problem in an otherwise well-functioning family. In
30 to 60 percent of families in which domestic violence occurs,
child maltreatment is also present.
Traditional services such as battered women's
shelters do not provide access to needed care for the majority
of exposed children. Child-care professionals, including
teachers, pediatricians and mental-health workers, often lack
training related to domestic violence and its impact on
children.
New laws intended to help children in some
areas may have unintended negative consequences for children
exposed to domestic violence. For example, laws designed to
minimize a child's time in foster care may result in premature
adoption if the battered parent requires too long to get back on
her feet. Laws promoting family reunification may backfire in
cases of domestic violence if children are returned to a violent
family situation. Recognition of the problem is the first step,
but more research, new models of intervention and sustained
commitment are essential to mitigate the impact of domestic
violence on children.
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