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Morehead High School

Effects of Witnessing Domestic Violence in Children Development
Ayra Murguia
English IV Honors
Mrs. Castle
21 November 2016

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Effects of Witnessing Domestic Violence in Children Development

Even though children oftentimes are regarded as passive witnesses of domestic violence,
domestic violence can affect their development.
I.

Health
A. Mental Health
1. Development of anxiety, depression, etc
2. Guilt
B. Emotional Health
1. Incapacity to regulate emotions
2. Internalizing and Externalizing emotions
3. No coping skills
C. Physical Health
1. Child Abuse
2. Changes
3. Intervening between parents

II.

Reckless Behavior
A. Flight or Fight Response
1. Quick response to anger
2. Hypervigilance of situations
3. Survival Strategies
B. Behavioral issues
1. Aggressiveness or withdrawal

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2. Manipulation and criminal behavior

3. Drug addictions and sexual relationships
III.

Harmful Relationships
A. Victim
1. Becoming victim
2. Acception of Abuse
B. Abuser
1. Gender Stereotyping
2. Think abuse is acceptable
3. Abuse is a learned behavior

IV.

Counter Argument- None of these always affect child

A. Other factors
1. Environment
2. Parenting
B. Not Main Target
1. Parent Victims
2. No Trauma

V.

Reply:
A. Interparental abuse still affects child
1. Indirect abuse
2. Direct abuse
B. Decision Making

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1. Active in helping and protecting family

2. Stop treating children as afterthought of Domestic Violence

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Ayra Murguia
Mrs. Castle
English IV Honors
November 21, 2016
Effects of Witnessing Domestic Violence in Children Development
Every year, more than 3.3 million children experience domestic violence in their
surroundings. This is indeed saddening, that that many kids witness this event that could be
traumatic and affect them while they are growing up. Domestic violence is defined as the
repeated physical, sexual, emotional, economic and/or psychological abuse of one partner onto
another designed to intimidate, control, hurt or manipulate. When domestic abuse is spoken
about it is mostly about men abusing women, not the other way around or even thinking about
the children that witnessed such events unless child abuse is brought up. Even though children
oftentimes are regarded as passive witnesses of domestic violence, domestic violence can affect
their development.
Even though the child may not always be the main target of domestic violence and are
most often seen as just witnesses, children who witness domestic violence can develop issues
with their health. Witnessing domestic violence affects their mental, emotional and physical
health, even if they were not physically abused their mental health is severely compromised
(Frank,5). This also increases the chance of children developing mental issues that stay into
adulthood. Many children develop mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression or post-traumatic
stress disorder or PTSD because they were witnessing the violence. Domestic violence can also
cause sleep disturbances, night terrors, intrusive memories, flashbacks, separation anxiety,

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hyperactivity, emotional detachment and constriction (Groves), which will later turn into
behavioral or attention problems. Children can become aggressive or withdrawn due to
witnessing domestic violence in the home. They develop anxiety and depression in different
forms that affect the way they live. As well as having self-image issues and an increased sense of
hopelessness. The trauma that the abused parent has endured affects the child too, as the mental
issues they developed are seen by the child. This sometimes results to the child to develop the
same mental illness. Children developed negative patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving
because of what they witnessed and some even developed these feelings out of guilt of not being
able to help their abused parent. May exhibit aggression, fearfulness, over compliance, low
self-esteem, fear, distrust of close relationships, conflict with taking sides, the guilt of escaped
punishment and fear of the future, psychosomatic complaints, problems with authority, victim
blaming, abuser blaming or self-blaming (Szyndrowski). This is due to viewing domestic
violence, especially at an early age. Witnessing domestic violence at such an early stage of life
will induce the child to view the world as dangerous and unpredictable leading them to feel
helpless and unsafe. The kids that survive domestic violence usually are diagnosed with a mental
illness due to the trauma they endured. Infants and toddlers can start suffering from symptoms of
witnessing domestic violence. Also kids under the age of eleven are three times more likely to
develop PTSD than an adult who witnessed the same thing (Thompson). The feeling of being
betrayed, parental stress, trauma endured and they attachment of parents impact the internalizing
and externalizing behaviors in children which lead to increased levels of anxiety and PTSD.
Since children are malleable when they are young witnessing domestic violence alters the way
they think and feel as well.

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While their mental state can be compromised in their emotional state is too. Usually,
children who witness domestic violence often cannot regulate their emotions very well. This
incapacity results in the child having poor adjustment with peers. They experience outbursts of
emotions as a result of not being able to properly express them. The emotional skills children use
to comfort themselves in normal situations are often lacking or poorly formed. They will also
lack or have poor communication, cognitive and problem-solving skills. The coping skills
children are supposed to learn for adulthood are not fully developed as stated, children exposed
to domestic violence exhibit higher levels of anxiety, depression, externalizing problems and
difficulties with peers than kids from nonviolent forms (Katz,L 1), these children often keep
their emotions to themselves until they lash out or always show their emotions not controlling
them. They can internalize potentially destructive concepts that will restrict them in being able to
help themselves. It is important to identify what triggers a child as to develop good coping skills
and teaching children what to do when their personal space has been violated. These conflict
resolution skills are often not healthily developed in children and as such, they react violently or
not at all in negative situations which compromise their health. Children who learn these skills
will rapidly adapt to stressful while using healthy methods as well as becoming less likely to try
and control others using domestic violence. The ability to regulate emotions emerge at ages four
to six since domestic violence affects the way express and regulate their emotions children often
learn different skills to help them cope, which are most often unhealthy.
Having witnessed partner violence in their homes, childrens physical as well as mental
and emotional health is affected. Children who witness domestic violence are often also victims
of child abuse. They experience other forms of maltreatment such as psychological, sexual and

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emotional abuse besides just physical abuse. Fifty to seventy-five percent of the time domestic
abusers also abuse their children. One fourth of females and one-sixth of males are sexually
abused before the age of eighteen. Seventy percent of sexual assaults reported the kids are under
ten years old and forty to sixty percent of children who witness interparental abuse are victims of
child abuse. Twenty-seven domestic homicide victims are kids, which ninety percent are under
the age of ten (Thompson). These saddening statistics are truths that children who deal with
domestic violence in their home have to deal with. Dealing with domestic violence affects the
long-term development and cause disorders. The physical health of a child may become
jeopardized due to abuse being directed to them as well as their abused parent. These children
often exhibit negative development and biological changes due to harsh environmental
conditions. Children may lose a basic trust and repress natural curiosity that drives learning and
exploration of the environment and the developing brain may be directly affected by changes in
neurotransmitter hormones and regulation of autonomic nervous system has been reported
(Groves). Children may have a developmental regression in which they stopped being able to do
something they previously could, for example, a child that was able to use the toilet may start
bedwetting again due to domestic violence. They become traumatized from witnessing repeated
abuse to family members. Childrens health also comes into danger when they try to intervene
between their parents. The health of children deteriorates because they live in fear and terror of
their abusing parent as well as often being victims of child abuse from trying to intervene the
abuse. (Frank, 5). Children will deliberately try to change parental behaviors, beliefs, and
attitudes even if they get harmed in the process to keep their family together. Childrens overall

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health becomes compromised while in this traumatic event, but it is not the only thing that
affects the development of the child.
Even if they are not always the main target of domestic violence, just witnessing it can
cause developmental setbacks such as inducing reckless behavior. One of which is the flight or
fight response is always activated for these children. Whereas children are supposed to feel safe
at home, in domestic violence situations childrens flight or fight response is always activated.
There is another response that has biologically developed in children to cope with harsh
environments. Childrens ability to suppress Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) is an
adaptive response. In infancy, reduction in RSA during challenging situations is related to better
state regulation, greater self-soothing, and more attentional control. Yet some children not only
fail to suppress RSA but also may, in fact, exhibit RSA augmentation. It was found that infants
who showed increases in RSA during the presentation of a surprising stimulus were more
attentive to the stimulus than infants who showed decreases in RSA. This was interpreted their
findings to suggest that RSA augmentation may reflect heightened attentiveness and the ability
to detect environmental change (Katz, L 3). In other words, kids with the RSA ability to
increase it had done so because they had to stay attentive of their harsh environment. These kids
become hypervigilant of their surroundings to even mild forms of negativity. The hypervigilance
to negativity children develop due to domestic violence in their homes. This allows them to
identify anger faster than other children and they show attention toward angry faces more
compared to others. Living in domestic violence situations children developed hypervigilance to
negativity to scan their environments for cues to threats so they can detect it early on and have a
plan of action. This way they can check their own safety and support as well as preparing for

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danger. When faced with situations that are unfavorable situations kids will develop strategies
that help them cope and survive stress that is formed from the situation. Seeing as children in
domestic violence situations are often powerless to stop it, they teach themselves strategies to
manage the negativity and increase functions of control and self-efficiency. Against their odds,
children form ways to protect themselves from the violence in their homes and guard themselves.
Reckless behavior also ties into the behavioral issues the children may have from dealing
with domestic violence in the home. Children who are exposed to domestic violence are twice as
likely to behave in aggressive ways, victimize others and be a part of abusive behaviors. They
invade personal boundaries of others and engage in destructive behaviors. They can act out and
mimic aggression from the abusing parent. Children from domestic violence homes often exhibit
conduct problems because that is all they have witnessed and see hostility more so to guard
themselves they show it as well. These children are better at recognizing manipulation and
resisting it as well as using it on others. They blame others for their problems and lash out in
many cases. Some of these children partake in riskier behaviors such as using drugs, sexual
relationships and criminal behaviors. This can affect their sexual and reproductive health as they
can risk early pregnancy and STDs. Domestic violence is associated with sexual risk-taking, sex
before age fifteen, multiple partners, unplanned pregnancy, induced abortion, STDs and sexual
dysfunction in children and adolescents (Pond). This also ties into suicide attempts, school
dropouts, drug abuse and other risky behaviors. Children who grow up in domestic violence
homes are fifty percent more likely to abuse drugs and eighty percent more likely to run away.
Females are six and a half more likely to be sexually assaulted and become pregnant. Males are
four times more likely to be abusive in a relationship, twenty-five more times likely to commit

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rape and six times more likely to commit suicide. Males also have seventy-four percent chance
of committing crimes against others and sixty-three percent of people ages eleven to twenty that
are in prison where put in there for murdering their mothers abuser. In some cases, the family
may be religious and the abusing parent may use the religion to justify their actions. They can
use religious ideas to intimidate and maintain control, justifying physical abuse as punishments
from a religious figure. This can affect how children view religion and they may act out to rebel
against such ideas in risky ways. The development of the children in domestic violence situations
is impeded by the risky behaviors and reactions of the environment they have to protect
themselves.
Domestic violence affects the development of children as they grow up that can cause
them to go into harmful relationships. Children could either become the victim or the abuser. As
the victim, they could potentially accept abuse easier than a child who did not come from a
domestic violence home because they experienced it as a child and most likely think that it has to
be accepted. They allow the abuse to continue because they feel like they are missing something.
Statistically, those coming from domestic violence homes have more chances of going into the
same situation as adults. Females ages sixteen to twenty-four are three times more vulnerable to
domestic violence, every fifteen seconds a woman is beaten to death by an abuser. More than
one-half of a million people are victims of nonfatal violence committed by their partner.
Eighty-five percent of those victims being female and fifteen percent being male (Frank, 4).
Through these statistics, it is clear anyone can become a victim, especially those who witnessed
the same time of abuse in their homes growing up. It is more likely though that a female who
comes from a domestic violence home to become accepted and used to that treatment. The

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common thought feeds into this as, Gender role stereotypes make men out to be strong and
women feeble(Seelav, 7), reinforcing the idea that the victim cannot do anything in their
situation just as they could not as children. They fear not being able to meet the demands of
their abusers, feel helpless, have unquestioning obedience and loss of their self due to the
maltreatment they suffered (Tierney, 3). This also leads to the victim becoming passive due to
not being able to get away from abuse. While being a victim of domestic violence if the female is
to get pregnant, it is more likely that their child is born with birth defects due to the abuse
suffered by the mother. To ties this all together children who come from domestic violence
homes, especially females, are susceptible to becoming victims of domestic abuse as adults.
Domestic violence affects the development of children as they grow that can cause them
to become an abuser in a harmful relationship. Those that come from domestic violence
situations are also susceptible to becoming abusers. Males are usually the ones to abuse the
females. It should be considered however that this is not always the case and that females can be
just as deadly as males. Female domestic violence offenders have gone up by one hundred and
fifty-nine percent. Preconceived ideas of gender roles have led people to believe that woman can
not abuse men, which is not the case. These rigid gender roles have become one of the reasons of
domestic violence. As the women know the men can be powerless to stop them, they take
advantage of societys view that they cannot harm men. This also leads to male victims to not
speak out for fear of being prosecuted or humiliation. Nonetheless no matter the gender all
domestic violence abusers that grew up in domestic violent homes have common traits. Anyone,
especially those from domestic violent homes, can become an abuser. One-half of people that
abuse came from abusive households or witnessed domestic violence (Frank, 4). These people

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use domestic violence to control and dominate their partners because they think that it is ok to do
so. Most abusers like the victims lack something that they try to replace with the violence. They
have poor coping skills, aggression problems and are manipulative in the way they try to control
all intimate relationships. The children growing up in this environment will think they are at right
to control their partner and that their partner has a duty to comply with all of their demands.
They will believe that it is ok to violate the rights of others because it will benefit them. They
will manipulate their partner and often use the abandonment issue against them to not leave.
They abusers could also use religion to legitimize their behavior and to control their partner
further by instilling fear. The abusers who witnessed domestic violence in their homes as
children become better at using abuse to control as using abuse is a learned behavior. They learn
that abusive behavior is acceptable and will imitate such behavior. Children repeatedly exposed
to domestic violence at the early age of three learn violating rights of others in an effort to
subjugate, humiliate or control others is socially acceptable (Frank, 5). This is due to gender
identity and the basic core of personality before the age of three is still shaping itself. Due to this,
it is important not to subjugate children to traumatic experiences at an early age. As children
grow up in domestic violent homes have a greater chance at also becoming abusers as adults.
The argument with domestic violence affecting the development of children is that not all
of these will pertain to them. In the industrialized world, the United States is the most violent
country and the people have become desensitized by it as they are exposed to it daily. This
includes the children where two-thirds of the child population has been exposed to domestic
violence abuse and homicide. It is not a rare thing to witness, even if it is a rarely discussed
topic. Domestic violence can happen to anyone, no matter which social class, although it is more

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often reported in the lower class. This could be due to higher status people fear embarrassment
and loss of their status if they do report it. This could also go for male victims. Nevertheless,
domestic violence is prevalent in most US families where up to fifty percent of married couples
experience it at some point and forty-fifty percent of separating couples report it. Children view
domestic violence and other violent acts occur almost regularly, so most have become
desensitized by it as well. They may concentrate on the behavior of victims or the actions of the
police to see how things are dealt with, but other than that it does not affect them. The parenting
a child receives is often why a child does or does not grow up traumatized. Of course, bad
parenting, such as abusive or nonexistent parenting affects the child and may cause them to
become traumatized. Parenting that shows awareness and ability to help children manage their
emotions can buffer the effects a violent environment has on the child adjustment (Katz, L, 2).
It is the parenting that is given to a child that affects how they develop the most. Parents who
help children control their emotions have kids who show fewer symptoms of trauma. Parenting
that helps develop the childs abilities and skills in a healthy, positive way and ensures the
childs belief system helps the child develop positively. This is to say it is important for parents
to have a good relationship with their children as their presence and teaching buffers effects of
the environment on the child.
An argument can be made that even though they do witness domestic violence in their
homes, children are not the main target of that abuse. In domestic abuse between partners, it is
one hurting the other and the child becomes the witness. One of the parents is the victim, not the
child. The victim is often the one blamed for everything by the abuser, society, and even the
children. In some domestic violence situations, the children blame the victim instead of the

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abuser leaving the victim without any support. The trauma that is experienced by the victim
could also not affect the children as some come out of domestic violence homes unaffected.
Even if they witness a traumatic event not all children become traumatized by it, some just
continue on, others do not (Thompson). The way a child adjusts to what violence they see is the
parents duty to help. Children are passive in these situations as they are not directly affected by
interparental abuse. All children are different and so it cannot be said that every single child will
become traumatized when they see domestic violence because that is not the case. As the
children have already been exposed to violence in the outside world and if not traumatized by
that then they most likely are unfazed by it happening in the home.
To counter these arguments, it can be stated that violence is violence and can still affect a
child. Domestic Violence is more traumatic because the child is nearby and knows the victims
and abusers and may depend on them for love, support, protection and in the home where the
child is supposed to be safe (Groves). The violence seen in the child stills affects them whether
indirect or direct abuse. While it is true that in interparental violence the violence is between the
parents, not the children as well. This is still construed as a form of abuse albeit indirectly.
Domestic violence is harmful to a child to even witness because it can give them false views of
how to treat others or how others will treat them. Children may try to intervene and even help,
but ignoring their advice will also hurt them. As well as parents who are the victims as they are
traumatized they may become insensitive to the childs feelings. The damage they suffer is
sustained in silence oftentimes as people forget they can become affected by just witnessing it.
Unless child abuse is mentioned most people do not realize that an abuser also hurts the children
that are around when the abuser harms the victim. Verbal or emotional abuse is easier to carry

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out and affect children as well. Exposing children to domestic violence is a form of abuse as
one-third of those children become abusers or victims themselves as adults. Direct abuse of
domestic violence is that of child abuse which most certainly harms and traumatizes a child.
Either way the indirect and direct abuse of domestic violence has a long-term effect on childrens
development.
Another counter to the argument is that children want to have active roles in the family
and make decisions. While it is conventional for people to think that they are just passive
witnesses who come out unaffected and blame abused parent that is highly untrue. Children are
not just molded by adults in their lives and society, but accept the circumstances that they are in
and influence as well as modify those circumstances. Children actually play an active role in
helping the abused parent leave their abuser. Children actively support their mom and siblings
and wish to play direct roles in decision-making about domestic violence in the home (Katz, E,
1). Children are actually capable of making decisions and taking actions that will benefit their
situation. It is important for these children to be taken seriously and listened as they influence
their family life. Kids in domestic violence situations can all react differently, though, some will
be more supportive and others will try to take active roles in decision making. To them, mutual
support and problem sharing between everyone is healthy and normal. Grown ups think they
should hide it, and shouldnt tell us, but we want to know. We want to be involved, and we want
our moms to talk with us about what they are going to do- we could help make decisions (Katz,
E, 2). If these kids do not seek out help it is because they are protecting their abused parent,
siblings, and self. This is often because they perceive the threat to be too high. They will most
likely support and protect the abused parent and siblings instead of themselves. The children

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have developed coping strategies that they share and encourage other children to use in domestic
violence situations. They also encourage others to be active and support their abused family
members. These children also cannot get over their own trauma until they know their family is
safe. They are also damaged by domestic violence and it is important to insure them of the
validity of their traumatic experiences. They should also be seen as individual survivors of
domestic violence, not just family members or witnesses. The notion to barely think of the
children in domestic violence situations should be abandoned.
In conclusion, in domestic violence not only is the abuser hurting their partner, but also
any children who witness them do it. In domestic violence most people think of the adult abuser
and the victim and only see the children as witnesses who came out unscathed unless there was
child abuse involved. Domestic violence does affect children in various, different ways as they
grow up. So even though children are oftentimes regarded as passive witnesses of domestic
violence, domestic violence can affect their development.

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