What are the effects of domestic violence (spousal abuse) on the parties’ children?
Witnessing domestic violence between their parents seriously harms children. • First, there is a high correlation (relationship) between spousal abuse and child abuse; the woman batterer is also likely to physically abuse his children. • Second, witnessing such abuse teaches the children that physical violence between family members is appropriate or typical behavior. As a result, many boys whose witness their fathers battering their mother later become batterers themselves. • Third, research by social scientists have demonstrated that children in violent families experience personal trauma, and as a result are more likely to suffer from various psychological emotional disorders, behavioral problems and feeling of helplessness. • Fourth, children who try to protect the parent who is being attacked are sometimes physically abused themselves. As a result, families with spousal abuse may be occurring are more vulnerable to intervention by children service agencies and, in the event of the
