Domestic violence is also identified as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, and family violence, can be said to be the pattern of behaviors that entails the mistreatment or ill-treatment by one partner to another. In order for the act of ill-treatment to be termed as domestic violence, the partners ought to be in an intimate relationship for instance marriage or cohabitation. It is imperative to note early on that domestic abuse may be in the form of physical attack, threats, economic dispossession, coercion, and domineering. Evidently, the abused partner undergoes through a lot mentally as well as physically the same way the children who witness the domestic violence at home (MacGee, 2000). From many researches that have been carried out, it is very evident that millions of kids all over the world are exposed to domestic violence from a tender age at their homes. The bad thing is that although the research indicates that such is the number of kids that are exposed to violence, very little is known on the devastating effects that they go through as they grow; otherwise, such numbers could have gone down in the recent times (Summers, 2002). It is for that rationale that this paper will be endeavoring at elucidating and expounding on the negative effects that domestic violence has on children.
The squabble that not all children who are exposed to domestic violence can experience the many negative effects that are associated with the vice cannot hold water at all. Those who prop up such a squabble assert that protective factors for instance social competence, intellect, and high-self esteem will enable children not to develop negatively as a result of witnessing domestic violence. They do fail to accept the many facts that have been well put through the many researches that have been done on the subject (Pandey, 2008). This can be proved by asking what children need as they grow up, and we all know for sure that the children need a safe and secure place they will call home that will never be secure as long as one partner is being abused by the other. Such kids will never have a sense of stability to help them grow up knowing that the outside world will never be safe, and home will be the only haven for them (Summers, 2002). Partners who are not on the same page will never be able to offer the love and protection that the children deserve from them as they grow up, and that is something that will negatively affect them as they grow. Undoubtedly, the children who undergo or witness domestic violence will have negative effects.
Children who have been raised in abusive families may look fine from outside because that they feel ashamed to talk about it, and they tend to keep it a secret. That makes them develop a terrible pain inside themselves something that results to withdrawal from friends and eventually their affecting their social life. In addition, it makes them become very isolated and venerable for they are famished of love, attention, and care virtues that are very imperative in a child’s growth to adulthood (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2009). This can be attributed to the fact that their mother who is supposed to protect and love them is under pressure herself to survive making her to be absent emotionally from the kids. Similarly, the assuming that the dad is an abusive partner is busy trying to be domineering to the point that he is not present for the kids resulting to physically, emotionally, psychologically forsaken and neglected kids (Pandey, 2008).
Poor school performance is very likely for the kids that grow up in an abusive family. Since talking about their abusive issues at home is shameful, they tend not to talk about as it has been already indicated herein. That is something that consumes their concentration time in class and without a good concentration; poor school performance can be expected and without better performance, many big dreams will be shattered as a result of domestic violence (MacGee, 2000). This is a fact that can be proved by the many scholars that conclude that almost forty percent of those children performing poorly in their school work do come from an abusive family. Furthermore, the poor performance can be attributed to the fact that the kids did not get adequate rest as a result of the commotion at home. Such disturbance as well bringing about the inability to complete assignment’s something that results to punishment at school. In case the children decide not to talk as to why their assignments are not completed, the next thing will be dropping out of school in order to avoid more punishments. In a way, the domestic violence will have brought about many school dropouts (Morewitz, 2004). Immediate negative effects exist for those kids who experience domestic violence, for instance, they will lack sleep and have nightmares, and they will develop a lot of anxieties as a result of a domestic violence. Whining, crying all the time and clinging are the other effects that may be experienced.
Additionally, those kids that are exposed to domestic violence are more likely to experience some setbacks in the development of their brains as, well as their sensory growth. With time, their behavior changes to the point of developing immature behaviors. Such behaviors led to such kids bullying others in the school just by trying to imitate the behaviors their parents show at home. Abuse of drugs and illegal substances, early pregnancy, and involvement of fighting are other negative effects that kids are likely to develop if brought up in an abusive family (American Family Physician, 2002). The children who are unlucky to be brought up in an abusive family learn at their tender age that the use of violence in the better way of dominating and being in control of others. That is something that they will for sure carry on onto their old age something that tends to support the research that concludes that a bigger percentage of the kids brought up in abusive families will in the future end up to have an abusive family themselves (Morewitz, 2004). That makes it a recurrent cycle of violence that is passed from one generation to another. The other negative effect comes in when the violence goes beyond to the point where the kids ends up taking and assuming adult responsibilities may end up endangering their physical development and the feeling of helplessness.
Although public policies and laws have been enacted to protect children against the negative effects of domestic violence in many counties over the world, their effects still cannot be underestimated (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2009). As a result, many kids end up being thieves who just do that to satisfy their needs that are not being met by their ever fighting parents something that results in many underage kids to be arraigned in courts for not only stealing but also other crimes that they committed to satisfy their basic needs. Although it is a long term effect, depression and trauma symptoms can be associated with the effects of experiencing domestic violence from a tender age (Morewitz, 2004). This is because that the abusive way of life those children are exposed to be on record of contributing in a big way to the premature deaths of many kids in the United States for example.
Many proponents of the idea that effects of domestic violence on kids depend on their age but what they ought to realize is that even the older kids do fail to realize that the domestic violence happens for a reason. For them, major lessons such as the importance of patience and dispute resolution mechanisms will have been lost, and that is something that they will carry to their old age (Hester, 2007).That also implies that they will have learned that violence instead of negotiation is the only way to settle any disagreement that may arise not forgetting to mention the physical effects that the children who experience violence at a tender age is immense. For instance, headaches, stomachaches, bedwetting, self-harm done by either taking overdose or cutting themselves, and physical injuries they can get while trying to defend their abused parent are some of the negative physical effects that they can encounter (American Family Physician, 2002). The thoughts of suicide as a way of escaping or getting away from the problems brought about by the violence at home becomes an option kids may opt for, and making it a negative effect that will have been brought about by the violence at home (Hester, 2007). Moreover, sibling to sibling physical encounters will be frequent and likely for those kids who grow up in an abusive family equivalent to the runaways that have been on the rise in many states. Such runaways may be attributed to other factors, but the major one is the domestic violence that the kids are exposed to, and they do so to get away from the troubles of the vice (Summers, 2002).
In closing, it is undoubtedly clear that although various policies and regulations intended to protect kids from domestic violence have been implemented, the vice is still taking place in the majority of the countries over the world. The negative effects of the vice have been clearly elucidated, and it can be deduced that the various policies intended to protect the children have to be tightened to save the kids from all the effects expounded herein. That way, the kids will be able to grow up appreciating life and developing the sense of communal instead of being individuals of complex systems in their adult life. Likewise, the children will be saved the miseries that they may have to endure in case their parents get divorced as a result of the violence between their parents in addition to the mixed feelings that they may experience in an abusive family will have been reduced.
Reference
American Family Physician, (2002). Witnessing Domestic Violence: The Effect on Children. Retrieved 13th February 2014: From http://www.aafp.org/afp/2002/1201/p2052.html
Child Welfare Information Gateway, (2009). Domestic Violence and the Child Welfare System. Retrieved 13th February 2014: From https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/domestic_violence/impact.cfm
Hester, M. (2007). Making an impact: Children and domestic violence : a reader. London: J. Kingsley Publishers.
MacGee, C. (2000). Childhood experiences of domestic violence. London [u.a.: Kingsley.
Morewitz, S. J. (2004). Domestic violence and maternal and child health: New patterns of trauma, treatment, and criminal justice responses. New York [u.a.: Kluwer Acad. / Plenum Publ.
Pandey, S. (2008). Psycho-social aspects of domestic violence. New Delhi: Concept Pub. Co.
Summers, R. W. (2002). Domestic violence: A global view. Westport, Conn. [u.a.: Greenwood Press.
