Domestic Violence and Psychological Disorders in Children
Domestic Violence and Psychological Disorders in Children
In my paper, I will be discussing how domestic violence is linked to psychological disorders in children. This subject is important to me for many reasons. One is that I come from a home where there was domestic violence and as a child, and now also as an adult, I have dealt with anxiety, which I link to my upbringing. I believe this information is important to the field of Human Development and Family Studies because if you choose to work with children, some of them will come to you with a dysfunctional background and psychological issues such as anxiety, depression, and aggression. While doing research, I found out that domestic violence is a lot more common in the US than I thought. I found that about 50% of all married couples will experience some sort of violence during their marriage (as cited in Katz & Rigterink, 2012). Domestic violence does not only effect the spouses in the relationship, it effects any children too. It is estimated between 3 and 10 million children are exposed to family violence each year (as cited in Kolar & Davey, 2007). These experiences are classified as a form of environmental stress and are shown to significantly increase the chance of developing a psychological disorder (as cited in McCrory, et al., 2011). Children who are subject to domestic violence may not directly see the actions occurring but instead hear the events or are witness to the aftermath, such as, injury to a parent, broken objects, or a parent’s depression (as cited in Meltzer, Doos , Vostanis, Ford, & Goodman, 2009). Children who are witness to domestic violence are said to show a lot of the same traumatic signs as a child who has been subject to physical abuse (Kolar & Davey, 2007). They tend to be more fearful and exhibit signs of depression and anxiety. Children of domestic violence are also said to have more behavioral issues, aggression,
In my paper, I will be discussing how domestic violence is linked to psychological disorders in children. This subject is important to me for many reasons. One is that I come from a home where there was domestic violence and as a child, and now also as an adult, I have dealt with anxiety, which I link to my upbringing. I believe this information is important to the field of Human Development and Family Studies because if you choose to work with children, some of them will come to you with a dysfunctional background and psychological issues such as anxiety, depression, and aggression. While doing research, I found out that domestic violence is a lot more common in the US than I thought. I found that about 50% of all married couples will experience some sort of violence during their marriage (as cited in Katz & Rigterink, 2012). Domestic violence does not only effect the spouses in the relationship, it effects any children too. It is estimated between 3 and 10 million children are exposed to family violence each year (as cited in Kolar & Davey, 2007). These experiences are classified as a form of environmental stress and are shown to significantly increase the chance of developing a psychological disorder (as cited in McCrory, et al., 2011). Children who are subject to domestic violence may not directly see the actions occurring but instead hear the events or are witness to the aftermath, such as, injury to a parent, broken objects, or a parent’s depression (as cited in Meltzer, Doos , Vostanis, Ford, & Goodman, 2009). Children who are witness to domestic violence are said to show a lot of the same traumatic signs as a child who has been subject to physical abuse (Kolar & Davey, 2007). They tend to be more fearful and exhibit signs of depression and anxiety. Children of domestic violence are also said to have more behavioral issues, aggression,
References: Katz, L., & Rigterink, T. (2012). Domestic Violence And Emotion Socialization. Monographs of the Sociery for Research in Child Developent, 77(2), 52-60. Kolar, K. R., & Davey, D. (2007). Silent Victims: children exposed to family violence. the journal of school nursing, 23(2), 86-91. McCrory, E. J., De Brito, S. A., Sebastian, C. L., Mechelli, A., Bird, G., Kelly, P. A., & Viding, E. (2011). Heightened neutal reactivity to threat in child victimes of family violence. Current Biology, 21(23), R947-R948. Meltzer, H., Doos , L., Vostanis, P., Ford, T., & Goodman, R. (2009). The mental health of children who witness domestc violence. child & family social work, 14(4), 491-501.