The Impacts of Violence on Children Essay

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The Impacts of Violence on Children It has not ever been considered right to assault another human being under most circumstances, and this still stands true. Our courtrooms see thousands, if not millions, of cases a year dealing with this very issue. In our country 3.3 million children live in homes where assault and abuse occur frequently. This means 29.4% of children with married parents have to face the reality of domestic violence and intimate partner violence (IPV) on a daily basis (Barg). The effect of witnessing this violence has a crucial impact on developmental processes, standard skills, and stress disorders. As I began my research I originally thought studies would start with ages referring to children that were at least old enough to attend school, but I was wrong. In a study that began with infants, conducted by many different researchers, I realized the effects could take place on a child of any age. To qualify for the study these children had to have been exposed to IPV in their home within the last year, and they were then compared to children that were not exposed to IPV. The study had shown that infants that had experienced abuse were more anxious and disorganized. They had also shown attachment issues, eating and sleeping disturbances, irritability, and lack of response. While these infants were struggling with all of these things the non-exposed infants showed none of these effects (Rudo pg97-98). The same study continued to follow these children as they started preschool. In school they
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Sarina Brooks/2 continued to show diversity from non-exposed children. The young children had somatic complaints, and school phobias. Many of them also suffered from insomnia. The insomnia made it more difficult for them to focus on their studies and it also affected standard skills such as their motor skills. Unfortunately, as these children went on to kindergarten things did not get better. They still showed lack of concentration and troubles in school. As the children continued to grow older and became adolescents school continued to be harder for them. They not only had an issue with concentrating, but many of them began acting out and withdrawing from school. The issues they were dealing with at home were also following them into their studies and their social life. Many of them became distant from friends and started getting involved in violent dating themselves.
I spoke with a personal friend who dealt with IPV in her home, and I asked her how it affected her social life as it had with the kids in the study. She responded with a story:
It was my birthday and I was in the fifth grade. I had many friends at school and my mom suggested having a birthday party at my house. I was so excited! We were going to have cake and watch movies and have a slumber party that lasted all night! As we were in the living room starting a movie there was a knock on the door. I didn’t think anything of it so I ran to answer it, but my mother stopped me. She told me not to answer it. I didn’t ask questions I just went back to the living room to join my friends. Moments later I heard banging all over the house. It started at the front door, then the front windows, and then it moved to the back windows, and the back door. For me this was normal, but I realized for
Sarina Brooks/3 others this wasn’t right. The cops soon showed up to my house and I was so embarrassed! The cops were called fairly often at our house, typically for some sort of abuse, but I tried to hide that part of my life from others. Luckily none of my friends knew earlier that day he had hit my mother and that was the reason he was locked out and the police were called. Nevertheless it affected my social life and I never wanted friends over again! The story was proof for me that the affects of IPV and domestic violence really did affect their children.
Another study was done by a man conducted by, Carlson, he looked into the effects of
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