NCJ Number
176499
Journal
Journal of Aggression Volume: ltreatment and Trauma Issue: Dated: Pages: 1 (1997)-244
Date Published
1997
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Although the negative impact on children exposed to spouse abuse is well documented, little empirical research is available to guide clinical intervention; this article reviews the research literature pertinent to these detrimental influences on children's adjustment.
Abstract
The review identifies factors that mediate the consequences for children exposed to spouse abuse. These variables include those that are child-related as well as factors that are situational/contextual. Child-related factors include temperament, self-esteem, cognitive abilities, coping abilities, attributional style, gender, and age. Situational/contextual factors include more or less stable factors related to the child (e.g., past experience with violence and perceived emotional climate of the family); and marital conflict factors such as frequency, intensity, duration, content, resolution, overt, covert, and age at onset. The author presents several theoretical/conceptual models to explain how this impact on a juvenile's psychological and emotional functioning occurs. These models suggest both direct and indirect mechanisms of influence. Direct mechanisms include the modeling of aggressiveness and stress in the family. Indirect mechanisms include characteristics of the parent-child interaction (quality of attachment and emotional availability of mothers) and disciplinary practices (disrupted, harsh, negative). Recommendations regarding clinical interventions are delineated based on these models as well as the available literature on the treatment of children of battered women. Suggestions related to appropriate types of treatment, including symptom-specific and mechanism-specific interventions, are offered. 3 tables and 73 references