Session 6 Direct Service With Children of Battered Women. Children who witness violence in urban communities. Group work with children of battered women. The link between domestic abuse and child abuse.

Between 3.3 to 10 million children age 17 and under are at risk for exposure to intimate partner violence (Carlson; Straus)

Difference depends primarily on how we define abuse

This overlaps, but is far greater than the number of physically and sexually abused children

we are not sure of the overlap between observation of parental abuse and physical/sexual victimization

Estimates range from 30-60% (Edleson) to 75% (Bowker)

child abuse is 15 times as likely in families where DV occurs

other estimates:

between 40% and 75% of women in shelters report co-occurrence of child abuse

they probably under-report their own abusive behavior

two of every three abused children are parented by battered women

most child protection agencies are completely unaware or unconcerned about this fact

two primary definitions of the problem (from Peled)

pathology v. empowerment (same conflict we saw in . . .

O'Leary v. Yllo (on the causes of domestic violence)
Walker v. Bowker (on battered women's syndrome)

medical model: children who witness violence have a syndrome (a la PTSD) requiring therapy

focus on damage done by violence rather than coping skills

views children as passive and helpless

focus directed at inadequate parenting

may suggest mother and man share responsibility for the childs condition, usually re-victimizing the mother

social structural (feminist) model: while the child may be harmed by observing violence, the focus must be on the social mechanisms which foster the violence and on building the child's coping skills

immediate individual intervention with child and parents

a focus on gender roles, values, power, and violence

more ecological but also controversial politics which can alienate helpers & outsiders

IMHO, much of the current literature and practice in this area:

focuses on the negative effects children experience as a result of witnessing violence--pathologizes children and mothers while ignoring batterers

ignores the concern that most abused women have for their children

ignores the fact that most mothers of children who witness DV are actively taking action to protect their children

even when it appears to caseworkers, cops, and judges that they are not
even when they stay with the abuser

blames battered women for the child's witnessing DV

80% of US jursdiction include "mental & emotional injury" as a reportable condition under child protection laws =>

observation of DV can be considered a form of child malteatment by professionals who do not understand the nature of domestic violence

laws are child behavior-oriented rather than parent behavior-oriented, requiring evidence of damage to the child

Grusinski, Brink, & Edleson

The DAP Childrens Program: FORM, CONTENT, DOSE & CONTEXT

Program Form: type of communication used

child group followed by family group
providing information (initial)
activities designed to promote self disclosure (later)
activities per se

Program Content: what the client learns

I'm not responsible
Shame & Isolation: labeling the feelings
expressing feelings
protection planning
how to resolve conflicts
I'm an important person (self esteem)
gender roles: boys and girls, men and women

Program Dose: how program delivered

1 and 1.5 hour groups per week (younger & older kids)
family group follows chld group (perp inclusion depends on victim safety)
10 weeks

Program Context: where the intervention occurs in the case

each group begins with an activity, breaks in the middle, and ends with check-out or evaluation activity
week 1-3 are educational; program content begins in earnest n 4th group

Jeff Edleson (1999)

Childrens witnessing (CW) of adult domestic violence

most common form of CW is using kids in divorce conflict and as spies

putting pressure on the mother to take dad back

3-10 million annual CW incidence estimate from Carlson (1984) and Straus (1992)

Best single figure: 1 in 3 children are CW

78% of children whose parents say the kids do not know about DV report hearing & knowing about DV (O'Brien et al, 1994)

Critique of research

many researchers do not differentiate kids who are CW from kids who are abused
most studies use kids in shelter samples
no national sample

Problems associated with CW

more aggression
less social competence
more likely to be violent
boy CWs more likely to approve of violence
long term problem duration
no support for H that CW more likely to be criminal as adult
child victim and CW are additive in effect
CW effects are different than abuse effects
in general (Spaccarelli, et al, 1994 disagree) boy CW more externalizing, girl CW more internalizing
no effects by race & ethnicity
time reduces effects
M-child relationships moderates effect

Sandra Graham-Berman (2002)

Child abuse (CA) in the context of domestic violence

CA mandated report, not CW
states document CA but don't document DV
difficult to separate the abuse of a child from the abuse of childs mother
In a study of 119 children of abused women, 12% of the children and 70% of the mothers were injured during mothers last DV victimization
overlap of DV & CA: 6% in population, 20% to 100% in clinical samples