More and more children are becoming a witness of domestic violence. Being a witness of domestic violence has a crucial effect on their development and behavior in future. This complicated situation is constantly being investigated not only by authorities, but also by psychologists in order to decrease the percentage of the cases, and find out possible ways of solution of rooting out the domestic violence at all.
Recent research shows that more than 15 million children living in the United States are more likely to live in families where a case of domestic violence appeared once a year; and approximately 7 million live in families where there is a frequent possibility of domestic violence (McDonald, Jouriles, Ramisetty-Mikler, Caetano, & Green, 2006). As a result, children who live with a constant view on domestic violence have more behavioral and emotional problems afterward in comparison to children in a non-violent ‘environment’ (Jouriles, E. N., McDonald, R., Norwood, W. D., & Ezell, E, 2001).
In order to improve this situation and save children from being emotionally and physically hurt, the psychologists have developed a list of actions which are determined to solve this situation. The first step is to increase the state of safety, especially the feeling. Children should be asked what they consider being the safety not only them but also for their parent who were abused. A parent who was abused is the first priority so that the child could observe this state and trust the surrounding world, and people who try to help (‘Interventions for Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: Core Principles | National Child Traumatic Stress Network - Child Trauma Home’, 2016).
The next step is therapy. There should be a division between a family therapy and an individual therapy for children. Since children cannot understand everything that is going on, a therapy should be a place where all the misunderstandings should be clarified. From the researches, the psychologists have found out that the most credential factor is a parent-child relationship. This connection helps to survive from being a witness of domestic violence.
There are lots of factors influencing the choice of treatment. T this list we can name – the age, the traumatic reaction, family’s environment, etc. (‘Interventions for Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: Core Principles | National Child Traumatic Stress Network - Child Trauma Home’, 2016). It goes without saying, that to all these factors we can include relationship within a family, a child’s temper and qualities of character, and closeness to a victim of domestic violence.
One of the most important things during this stage is to help children appreciate that they are not alone with the problems within their family. Especially, they should feel this support and understanding from the psychologists. They should believe that every problem has its solution and they are not a fault in this complicated issue.
Additionally, there is a list of additional interventions which were created for children exposed domestic violence - Kids’ Club and Moms Empowerment, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools, and Registries/Publications for Evidence-Based Practices (‘Promising Futures | Best Practices for Serving Children, Youth, and Parents Experiencing Domestic Violence’, 2016).
Finally, to achieve success in the case of Amee and Aaron, we should take into consideration their gender, age and their relationship with parents. As it was mentioned that they are close to their mother, they should have a cycle of a parent-child therapy, so that they understand their mother is in safety now and they can trust the experts who try to help them. Since all the investigations show that the fact that Aaron and Amee were witnesses of domestic violence influence their further emotional development, and behavior, they should participate in group interventions. Moreover, they should have an individual therapy to simplify all the issues which they have faced with. All these actions will help them to cope with the emotions and the further reality that they will have.
References
Jouriles, E. N., McDonald, R., Norwood, W. D., & Ezell, E. (2001). Issues and controversies in documenting the prevalence of children’s exposure to domestic violence. Domestic violence in the lives of children: The future of research, intervention, and social policy (pp. 13–34). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
Interventions for Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: Core Principles | National Child Traumatic Stress Network - Child Trauma Home. (2016). Nctsn.org. Retrieved 9 August 2016, from http://www.nctsn.org/content/interventions-children-exposed-domestic-violence-core-principles
McDonald, R., Jouriles, E., Ramisetty-Mikler, S., Caetano, R., & Green, C. (2006). Estimating the number of American children living in partner-violent families. Journal Of Family Psychology, 20(1), 137-142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.20.1.137
Promising Futures | Best Practices for Serving Children, Youth, and Parents Experiencing Domestic Violence. (2016). Promising.futureswithoutviolence.org. Retrieved 9 August 2016, from http://promising.futureswithoutviolence.org/
