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Journal Issue: Domestic Violence and Children Volume 9 Number 3 Winter 1999

Mental Health Services for Children Who Witness Domestic Violence
Authors: Betsy McAlister Groves

Endnotes

  1. For reviews of the empirical research on the effects of domestic violence on children, see Jaffe, P.G., Wolfe, D.A., and Wilson, S.K. Children of battered women. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1990; Margolin, G. Effects of domestic violence on children. In Violence against children in the family and the community. P.K. Trickett and C.J. Shellenbach, eds. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1998, pp. 57-101; Peled, E., and Davis, D. Groupwork with children of battered women: A practitioner's manual. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995; Holden, G.W., Geffner, R.A., and Jouriles, E.N. Children exposed to marital violence: Theory, research, and applied issues. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1998.
  2. Individuals exposed to domestic violence in childhood often report adjustment difficulties in early adulthood, including problems parenting their own children. They are also at risk for repeating the pattern of violence in their own adult intimate relationships, with men becoming batterers, and women becoming victims. McNeal, C., and Amato, P.R. Parents' marital violence: Long-term consequences for children. Journal of Family Issues (1998) 19:123-39.
  3. Groves, B., Zuckerman, B., and Marans, S. Silent victims: Children who witness violence. Journal of the American Medical Association (1993) 2:262-65.
  4. Zuckerman, B., Augustyn, M., and Groves, B. Silent victims revisited: The special case of domestic violence. Pediatrics (1995) 3:511-13.
  5. American Academy of Pediatrics. The role of the pediatrician in recognizing and intervening on behalf of abused women. Pediatrics (1998) 6:1091-92; Wolfe, D., and Korsch, B. Witnessing domestic violence during childhood and adolescence: Implications for pediatric practice. Pediatrics (1995) 4:594-99.
  6. See note no. 1, Jaffe, Wolfe, and Wilson, pp. 100-101.
  7. See note no. 1, Peled and Davis, pp. 29-66; Goodman, G.S., and Rosenberg, M. The child witness to family violence: Clinical and legal considerations. In Domestic violence on trial. D.J. Sonkin, ed. New York: Springer Publishing, 1987; Pynoos, R., and Eth, S. Witness to violence: The child interview. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry (1986) 25:306-19.
  8. Committee on the Assessment of Family Violence Interventions, Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council, and Institute of Medicine. Violence in families: Assessing prevention and treatment programs. R. Chalk and P. King, eds. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1998, p. 219. See, generally, Freud, A., and Burlingham, J.C. War and children. New York: Medical War Books, 1943; Garmezy, N. Stressors of childhood. In Stress, coping, and development in children. N. Garmezy and M. Rutter, eds. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983, pp. 43-84.
  9. Silvern, L., Karyl, J., and Landis, T.Y. Individual psychotherapy for the traumatized children of abused women. In Ending the cycle of violence: Community responses to children of battered women. E. Peled, P.G. Jaffe, and J.L. Edleson, eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995, pp. 43-76.
  10. Beeman, S.K. Critical issues in research on social networks and social supports of children exposed to domestic violence. Unpublished paper presented at the Asilomar Conference on Children and Intimate Violence. Pacific Grove, CA, February 1999.
  11. The term mental health interventions is used here to refer to treatment services provided by mental health professionals (such as clinical social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychiatric nurses). These interventions typically seek to ameliorate or prevent problems or symptoms affecting psychological, social, and sometimes physical well-being and functioning. If a young child is the focus, intervention can include parent counseling, behavioral management, and consultation with other persons important to the child's welfare (for example, teachers, physicians), as well as direct work with the child. Depending upon the age and verbal skills of the child, interventions may involve "play" modalities and activities rather than discussion.
  12. National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. Family violence: Emerging programs for battered women and their children. Reno, NV: NCJFCJ, 1998.
  13. Terr, L. Too scared to cry. New York: Harper and Row, 1990.
  14. See note no. 7, Pynoos and Eth, p. 316.
  15. See note no. 1, Peled and Davis, p. 17.
  16. Hurley, D.J., and Jaffe, P.G. Children's observations of violence: II. Clinical implications for children's mental health professionals. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (1990) 35:471-76.
  17. Suderman, M., and Jaffe, P.G. Children and youth who witness violence: New directions in intervention and prevention. In Child abuse. D.A. Wolfe, R.J. McMahon, and R. Peters, eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997; Jaffe, P., Wilson, S., and Wolfe, D.A. Promoting changes in attitudes and understanding of conflict resolution among child witnesses of family violence. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science (1986) 18:356-66; Peled, E., and Edleson, J. Process and outcome in small groups for children of battered women. In Ending the cycle of violence: Community responses to children of battered women. E. Peled, P.G. Jaffe, and J.L. Edleson, eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995. See also note no. 8, Committee on the Assessment of Family Violence Interventions, pp. 218-19, for their overview of existing evaluation data.
  18. See, for example, note no. 1, Peled and Davis; note no. 17, Peled and Edleson; Allesi, J., and Hearn, K. Group treatment of children in shelters for battered women. In Battered women and their families. A. Roberts, ed. New York: Springer Publishing, 1984.
  19. See note no. 17, Peled and Edleson, p. 78.
  20. Pynoos, R.S., and Eth, S. The child as a witness to homicide. Journal of Social Issues (1984) 40:87-108.
  21. See note no. 1, Peled and Davis, pp. 17-19; note no. 17, Peled and Edleson, pp. 80-86.
  22. Roseby, V., and Johnston, J. Clinical intervention with children of high conflict and violence. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry (1995) 65:48-59.
  23. See note no. 9, Silvern, Karyl, and Landis; Groves, B. The Child Witness to Violence Project. Discharge Planning Update (March/April 1994) 14:14-18; Van Horn, P., Best, S., and Lieberman, A.F. Breaking the chain: Preventing transmission of trauma in children through parent-child psychotherapy. Paper presented at the International Society for Traumatic Stress.Studies Annual Meeting. Washington, DC, November 21, 1998; Lieberman, A., Van Horn, P., Grandison, D., and Pekarsky, J. Mental health assessment of infants, toddlers and preschoolers in a service program and a treatment outcome research program. Infant Mental Health Journal (1997) 18:158-70.
  24. See note no. 7, Pynoos and Eth; American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Summary of practice parameters for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (1998) 37:997-1001; James, B. Treating traumatized children. New York: Lexington Books, 1989; Pffefferbaum, B. Posttraumatic stress disorder in children: A review of the past 10 years. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (1997) 36:1503-11.
  25. The diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder in children include, for example, symptoms such as "reexperiencing" the traumatic event (as in reenactment through play, or nightmares); numbing of feelings or withdrawal from activities; emotional changes like agitation or irritability or general emotional distress; and problems in social or academic functioning. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 1994. For application of these criteria to children who witness violence, see Pynoos, R. Posttraumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents. In Psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. B. Garfinkel, G. Carolson, and E. Weller, eds. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 1990, pp. 48-63; see note no. 23, Groves, p. 15.
  26. See note no. 23, Groves.
  27. See note no. 23, Lieberman, Van Horn, Grandison, and Pekarsky, p. 160.
  28. Groves, B., and Zuckerman, B. Interventions with parents and caregivers of children who are exposed to violence. In Children in a violent society. J.D. Osofsky, ed. New York: Guilford Press, 1997, pp. 183-201; see note no. 1, Peled and Davis, pp. 147-68.
  29. Sonkin, D.J., and Liebert, D.S. Legal and ethical issues in the treatment of multiply victimized children. In Multiple victimization of children. B.B.R. Rossman and M.S. Rosenberg, eds. New York: Haworth Press, 1998, pp. 297-316.
  30. Groves, B. Children without refuge: Young witnesses to domestic violence. Zero to Three (April/May 1996) 16:29-34.
  31. Edleson, J.L. The overlap between child maltreatment and woman battering. Violence Against Women (1999) 5:134-53; Cummings, E.M. Marital conflict, abuse, and adversity in the family and child adjustment: A developmental psychopathology perspective. In Child abuse: New directions in prevention and treatment across the lifespan. D.A. Wolfe, R.J. McMahon, and R. DeV. Peters, eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997, pp. 3-26.
  32. Children's Defense Fund. Key facts about uninsured children. March 14, 1998. Available online at http://www.childrensdefense.org/health_keyfacts.html.