Effects of Domestic Violence on Children

In a home of violence children are at high risk for injury due to intervening in a violent episode. Children live what they learn and abuse is a learned behavior. The dynamics of abuse as it affects expectations of relationships, problem solving, if it goes unchallenged can continue into adulthood.

Child's Worldview is damaged, the home is a place of security and trust and violence in the home gives a child no refuge against the ills of the world.
sense of safety - values of behavior - understanding of their deen - keeping secrets - cause of shame and anxiety

Loss of distinction between anger and violence
Poor impulse control, limited tolerance

Increased deceptiveness
Lying, stealing, cheating
Take on adult responsibility
Overachievers / Discipline problems

Some facts:

In homes where partner abuse occurs, children are 1,500 times more likely to be abused.

Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, Family Violence: Interventions for the Justice System, 1993.

63% of all domestic violence offenders had either seen their mothers abused or had themselves been abused as children (San Francisco Family Violence Project, 1981).

Each year, an estimated 3.3 million children are exposed to violence by family members against their mothers or female caretakers.

American Psychl. Ass'n, Violence and the Family: Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family (1996), p. 11

A child's exposure to the father abusing the mother is the strongest risk factor for transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next. – Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family, APA, 1996

More information on domestic violence and children to come...