What is the psychological effect of domestic violence for children?
Domestic violence comes in the form of sexual, physical emotional or verbal abuse. This violence can affect any person regardless of their ethnic background, social status or education level and can have a lasting mental affect which can lead to continued abuse or perhaps fatal injuries. Though most domestic violence victims are battered, they could feel that the abuse is an expression of love or they could be afraid to seek help. Adults that have a history of being victimized or the children that have witnessed of domestic violence in the past, tend to either continue being victim’s or become abusers as adults.
Domestic violence affect’s men, women and children psychologically in different ways. It has a lasting negative effect on the entire household despite of who’s the abuser, the victim or the witness. Children that are exposed to domestic violence in their household could become afraid of the abuser and become resentful towards the victim. Children could also become accustomed to such behavior and began to feel that the behavior is normal. Eventually they could develop tendencies to express their feelings through anger while displaying animosity towards their peers or others that they come in contact with.
In conclusion, domestic violence could become a memory that may affect children from childhood up until they become adults. Children that witness this type of behavior tends to act out the same aggression that they witness or can develop a great deal of stress and depression. As a result, more interventions should be implemented during the early stages of witnessing the changes of the child’s behavior and some form of therapy may be required.