Impact on Children

Children who are exposed to domestic violence may or may not be able to talk about their feelings or concerns.  Children's behaviours are, however, good indicators how well they are coping.

Some behaviours to be aware of in a child who has witnessed abuse:

• school problems such as refusing to go to school, a drop in grades, a conflict with teachers.
• somatic complaints (aches, pains, illness)
• bedwetting, nightmares, difficulty sleeping
• suicidal behaviour
• at increased risk of being physically and sexually abused
• at high risk for post traumatic stress disorder (hypervigilant, outbursts of anger, nightmares, and intrusive remembering of the event

Infants

• difficulty eating and/or sleeping
• slow weight gain
• over 40 % of children (over 18 months) had problems getting along with peers or adults
• unresponsive towards caregivers
• physiological distress (heart rate, galvanic skin response)

Pre-schoolers

• act with infantile behaviour
• show violent behaviour towards toys or peers
• poor health
• excessive screaming

School-aged children - girls

• clingy, dependent, sad, secretive

School-aged children - boys

• fighting with peers
• defiance at school, particularly with female teachers
• destructive behaviour
• begin to report anger about abuse

Adolescents - girls

• depressed and/or withdrawn
• low self-esteem
• if dating, tend to stay longer in abusive relationships

Adolescents - boys

• aggressive behavior
• running away from home
• more likely to become abusive and violent in their own relationships with females
• begin to report sadness about abuse
• high prevalence of witnessing woman abuse in young offender populations

adapted from Sudermann, M.,& P.Jaffe, 'Child Witnesses of Marital Violence' in book by Ammerman & Hersen, 1998