Childcare

Introduction

The term domestic is defined as systematic way on the ground of abusive behaviour within the relationship which is used for gaining, maintaining control as well as power over other person (Alaggia and Maiter, 2016). Domestic violence incorporates physical, psychological, sexual, financial and emotional abuse. Domestic violence has an impact on the individuals who are perpetrators, children and exposed. Other than domestic violence, family relationships also have severe impact on the development of the children. The factors like parental separation, remarriage of father or mother and multiple family transitions are having severe impacts on the development of children and affects children outcome (Cook et al. 2017).

Domestic Violence and Children Abuse

It is being globally accepted that children who are living with the domestic violence may experiences dangerous threats like neglecting, physical as well as sexual abuse. For instance, according to the study conducted by NSPCC, young individuals, who are experiencing the domestic violence in the United Kingdom, have increased to 4.4 times in the last five years (Cook et al. 2017). The frequency of co-existence of domestic violence as well as child abuse may be considered in numerous ways. The first way is violent adults might not discriminate in between various members of family. Secondly, adult victims might not be capable of meeting the physical, emotional as well as supervisory requirements of their child due to their injury and poor condition of mental health (Alaggia and Maiter 2016). Thirdly children might be injured while they try to intervene as well as when they are being carried by adult victim during assault.

Impact of Domestic Violence on Children

Numerous literatures provided overview on the significant research that has confirmed that children who are being exposed to the domestic violence are being highly affected both in immediate as well as long term. The literature also established the connections between exposure towards the domestic violence and the adverse outcomes that are being confronted by the children (Thornton 2014). The series of meta-analyses on the literature signified that exposure is very much related with the subsequent range of social, emotional as well as behavioural problems. This pathway is complex as it involves the reaction of the children on what is being observed and heard by them. Reduction in the parental warmth as well as caring within the household, where there is occurrence of violence as well as protective factors, ameliorates the negative impacts (Alaggia and Maiter 2016).

The robust evidence on the ground of the impact regarding domestic violence is children’s psychosocial outcomes that are achieved from the meta-analyses conducted on 118 literatures. The analysis reflected poor outcomes on the dimensions of development and behaviour of the children when they are being exposed to domestic violence. The literatures also reflected that a one year child can also manifest the distress in the response of verbal conflicts in between the parents (Alaggia and Maiter 2016). Children experiencing the domestic violence are reported to have issues on emotional as well as behavioural factors. Children who are being abused physically reflect significant level regarding the behavioural and emotional disturbances (Holt et al. 2017). It is also being observed that, individual children react in various ways after they experience the domestic violence. Some children might externalise their feelings as well as confusions by exhibiting their behaviour aggressively as well as exhibiting anti-social behaviour. On the other hand, some children may internalise their behaviours and suffer from depression of high level, anxiety as well as trauma symptoms.

Witnessing the domestic violence as a child

It is easy in overlooking the children’s problem who is being involved with domestic violence within their families. The parents trying to keep the children out from the domestic violence but this has an impact on witnessing the domestic violence and the effects are highly detrimental. Witnessing the events of domestic violence necessarily means the children will be in the range of visibility of the events, but they can also hear it. Researchers have concluded that, if the children are hearing the domestic violence then they can also describe these traumatic events and thus, this event affects them very badly. Studies exhibited those children’s psychosocial outcomes after being exposed to the domestic violence is significantly worse to that of the children who have not experienced these events (Kimball 2016). The effect of witnessing this event varies to a great range within the individuals. Domestic violence can have numerous impacts in the development of the children. These impacts can initiate in the early stages of their life and it is being continued in their adulthood (Thornton 2014).

Impact of witnessing the domestic violence as a child

Witnessing the domestic violence as well as confronting has impact on social, psychological, physical as well as emotional development of the children. These impacts are unending and the researchers reflect that this impact can initiate prior to the child’s birth due to the distress confronted by the mother at the time of pregnancy. Social as well as emotional development has an impact on the mind as well as on behavioural regulations like mental activities, intellectual abilities as well as behaviours (Vander Kolk 2017). Psychological as well as physical development affects the body like structural differences within the brain, body, orientation of sex as well as ageing. It is being reported in a literature that, children, who can even sense the perceived threat for their caregiver, are likely to have negative emotional outcomes as well as pessimistic behaviour and different types of childhood stressors. In these types of children, the fundamental symptom are fearfulness, aggression towards their peers and hyper arousal as compared to the children who have not experienced this exposure (Kimball 2016).

Children look for their caregiver for the fundamental requirements like self-regulation model and safety. The researchers inferred that, risk in one of the above stated areas may have adverse impact on the development of the children. In this regard, the requirements for providing constant care-giving to the children in the non-violent environment are important for the development of the children (Cook et al. 2017). The caregiver relationship is considered to be traditional as the relationship is providing love, nurturance as well as support to the children, but violent environment may have strong effects on the bond as well as damage the relationship (Vander Kolk 2017).

Child witnessing as well as experiencing the domestic violence are more prone to confront the health issues. Literatures have exhibited that emotional, behavioural as well as cognitive implications to children exposed to domestic violence incorporates irritability, fear when they are alone and have poor development of language, sleeping problems, immaturity, antisocial behaviour, poor concentration, anxiety, aggressiveness, low tolerance of frustration, depression, eating problems, being withdrawn and violent behaviours (Izzaguire and Calvete 2015). Infants also have the tendency to have sleeping as well as eating disorder, which results loss in weight and poor weight gain.

Children are reaching the pre-school age and are witnessing or expressing the domestic violence basically exhibits the behaviour of withdrawing themselves from the society, having high level of anxiety as well as they are very much afraid in taking any important decisions in their life (Izzaguire and Calvete 2015). However, when the children is reaching the schooling age, witnessing and experiencing the domestic violence is having impact in their educational capabilities, which can make them in poor development of their career. Children witnessing and experiencing the domestic violence in the schooling age is considered to have a high level of negative situation in their lives, as this can tremendously affect their career and resulting in permanent damage in their lives (Vander Kolk 2017). In a research it is being exhibited that the parents of the children reporting about domestic violence is performing at an average of less than 12.2 percentile as compared to the students who are not confronting any domestic violence issues (Song et al. 2017). Thus, it can be comprehended that how much the event of domestic violence can have detrimental effect on the children and resulting in ruining their career. It is being inferred that young boys confronting the issues of domestic violence exhibits externalised behaviours like aggressiveness, disobedient and antis-social behaviour (Howell et al. 2016). These behaviours are exhibited by the young children that are dangerous and possess high threat for the society. On the other if young girls are confronting the issues of domestic violence then they exhibit internalised behaviours like anxiety, high level of depression, eating problems (Izzaguire and Calvete 2015).

Children show emotion array when they are coping with experiencing and witnessing the domestic violence. The emotions incorporate sadness, fear as well as anxiety. It is also seen that other coping strategies are also exhibited by the children facing the domestic violence. Therefore, it is very much critical in comprehending the response of children’s skills for different types of experiences of domestic violence and the relation of these skills with their well-being. There are variations in the method of coping that are being utilised by children (Song et al. 2017). The methods incorporate problem focused as well as emotion focused. The problem focused method is defined as the coping method that is concentrating on solving the problem. Emotion focused method is defined as the way of acting for altering the stress level that are being experienced. It is also defined as an attempt in managing emotional distress that is being highly connected with the domestic violence. However, children might not have any physical feeling due to the event of domestic violence, but they experiences negative psychological effects, which is highly dangerous for their career (Howell et al. 2016). According to researchers, physical abuse also accounts for the sense lose as well as loss in body integrity of the children.

While discussing about the traumatic events with victim and that victim is especially children then inevitably will cause the children in experiencing profound grief. Loss as well as grief that are being experienced by the children may lead to detrimental effect for the children (Bottoms et al. 2016). Domestic violence is liable for creating extreme instability within the children with numerous factors that can affect children. It also causes chronic stresses within the children that yields to psychological responses and lead towards the stress-related symptoms (Bottoms et al. 2016). Children witnessing as well as experiencing the domestic violence exhibits behavioural, cognitive as well as effective responses of coping as well as the fear for their experience is very much evident.

Coping up with the Domestic violence

It is very much evident from numerous researches that every child, who have been exposed to the domestic violence, does not suffer from the poor outcomes. Secure attachment to the non-violent parents and with good caregiver are being considered as the significant protective factors for mitigating the trauma as well as distress experienced by the children due to domestic violence (Bottoms et al. 2016). Thus practitioners as well as service providers require in developing the interventions, which seek in repairing as well as promoting the positive attachments, in between parent and children as well as in between significant adults that is the grandparents. Limited studies exhibited the analysis of the own strategies of children in order to cope up with the domestic violence. However, this does not signify that children required in coping up with the domestic violence but they required in utilising the coping mechanism for surviving from the domestic violence (Howell et al. 2016). In this specific context, coping is defined as the constant change in the behavioural as well as cognitive efforts for managing the external and internal changes faced by the children due to the domestic violence. It is very much fundamental for the children in utilising various strategies at various times. It has been seen that the younger children utilises the method emotional focused coping and not the problem focused coping (Hines, 2015). However, it is being identified in the research that the method of emotional focused coping is connected highly with issues of health at a higher level and for a long term.

Theory explaining the Domestic Violence

Children experiencing as well as witnessing the domestic violence can be explained through Attachment theory and Social Learning theory.

Attachment theory

Attachment theory provides significance to develop brains on behaviours as well as emotions all through the individual’s lifespan. The leader of the attachment theory is John Bowlby. John Bowlby’s contributions are being rooted within the psychodynamic thoughts. The work incorporates attachment, separation and loss (Bowlby 2017). The leader provides emphasis on the attachment behaviour as it is considered as the social behaviour’s class and is significant as well as equivalent to the parental behaviour. Attachment theory helps to provide the usefulness in enhancing the comprehending power regarding domestic violence as well as its impact on children development. This theory can provide the utility concept as it helps to promote the ability for comprehending the relationship significance, attachment as well as affect the insecure attachment on relationship (Clifford, 2017). Moreover, this theory helps in offering better comprehending power of caregiver role and thus it can provide the guideline of the conceptual power regarding the systematic review of the literature (Hines, 2015).

Social Learning Theory

Social Learning Theory is considered as the theory that incorporates the behavioural thoughts, which considers both internal as well as external processes of thought. With the help of Social Learning Theory, the significance of modelling and communication for the children as well as for the children’s development growth is being reflected (Hines, 2015). Through the conduction of research as well as experiments it was being identified that children will often model behaviours that are happening around them. In 1961, a famous study was being conducted by the researcher Albert Bandura, where he studied the children in Stanford University Nursery School by utilising the doll named BOBO (Clifford, 2017). In this study, the researcher acts aggressively toward the doll in front of the children and the children saw it. When the children were being left alone with that doll they started modelled that behaviour and this extended the aggression behaviour towards the doll. This study exhibited significance of witnessing and experiencing of children and the contribution of this experience and witness in their behaviour (Kolkstein et al. 2016).

Impact on Family Relationships

Domestic violence’s impacts assists in explaining the difficulty, which is experienced by the parents on parenting as well as on the family relationship. According to the theory of attachment, in the relationship of parent and child, the role of the parent is to provide protection to the child. Domestic violence results in affecting the family relationships. Children’s attachment towards the parents starts decreasing (Howell et al. 2016). They do not feel that affectionate towards their parents. This affects their psychology by inducing enormous amount of stresses within their brain. For example, if the violence is occurring in between their parents on a regular and frequent basis, this will affect them and will induce enormous pressure on the children. As stated in the Social Learning Theory, how the behaviour of children is being affected by the thing they experience or witness. Thus this has a serious effect on the family relationship as well as on the children (Kolkstein et al. 2016).

Summary

Domestic violence is considered to be a serious issue within the families. In this literature, it is being reflected that when the children get exposed to domestic violence it imposes huge burden on the children across all the developmental stages of their life and also on the cultural as well as socio-economic background. The family relationship can be maintained by the parent by not exposing the violence in front of the children.

Reference List

• Alaggia, R. and Maiter, S., 2016. Domestic violence and child abuse. Cruel but not unusual: Violence in Canadian families, pp.99.
• Bottoms, B.L., Peter-Hagene, L.C., Epstein, M.A., Wiley, T.R., Reynolds, C.E. and Rudnicki, A.G., 2016. Abuse characteristics and individual differences related to disclosing childhood sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and witnessed domestic violence. Journal of interpersonal violence, 31(7), pp.1308-1339.
• Bowlby, R., 2017. Growing Up with Attachment Theory—A Personal View. Psychodynamic psychiatry, 45(4), pp.431-439.
• Clifford, M.D., 2017. Four Events in the Life of John Bowlby: Their Contribution to the Development of Attachment Theory. Attachment, 11(1), pp.51-72.
• Cook, A., Spinazzola, J., Ford, J., Lanktree, C., Blaustein, M., Cloitre, M., DeRosa, R., Hubbard, R., Kagan, R., Liautaud, J. and Mallah, K., 2017. Complex trauma in children and adolescents. Psychiatric annals, 35(5), pp.390-398.
• Hines, L., 2015. Children’s coping with family violence: Policy and service recommendations. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 32(2), pp.109-119.
• Holt, S., Buckley, H. and Whelan, S., 2017. The impact of exposure to domestic violence on children and young people: A review of the literature. Child abuse & neglect, 32(8), pp.797-810.
• Howell, K.H., Barnes, S.E., Miller, L.E. and Graham-Bermann, S.A., 2016. Developmental variations in the impact of intimate partner violence exposure during childhood. Journal of injury and violence research, 8(1), p.43.
• Izaguirre, A. and Calvete, E., 2015. Children who are exposed to intimate partner violence: Interviewing mothers to understand its impact on children. Child abuse & neglect, 48, pp.58-67.
• Kalkstein, D.A., Kleiman, T., Wakslak, C.J., Liberman, N. and Trope, Y., 2016. Social learning across psychological distance. Journal of personality and social psychology, 110(1), p.1.
• Kimball, E., 2016. Edleson revisited: Reviewing children’s witnessing of domestic violence 15 years later. Journal of Family Violence, 31(5), pp.625-637.
• Song, A., Wenzel, S.L., Kim, J.Y. and Nam, B., 2017. Experience of domestic violence during childhood, intimate partner violence, and the deterrent effect of awareness of legal consequences. Journal of interpersonal violence, 32(3), pp.357-372.
• Thornton, V., 2014. Understanding the emotional impact of domestic violence on young children. Educational & Child Psychology, 31(1), pp.90-100.
• Van der Kolk, B.A., 2017. Developmental Trauma Disorder: Toward a rational diagnosis for children with complex trauma histories. Psychiatric annals, 35(5), pp.401-408.