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The Stunning Effects of Domestic Violence on Children and Youth

Children
• In a national survey of more than 6,000 American families, 50% of the men who frequently assaulted their wives also frequently abused their children.
• Men who as children witnessed their parents' domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own wives than sons of nonviolent parents.¹
• Children who witness domestic violence are more likely to exhibit behavioral and physical health problems, including depression, anxiety, and violence towards peers.² They are also more likely to attempt suicide, abuse drugs and alcohol, run away from home, engage in teenage prostitution, and commit sexual assault crimes.³
• A study of 2,245 children and teenagers found that recent exposure to violence in the home was a significant factor in predicting a child's violent behavior.⁴
• The U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect suggests that domestic violence may be the single major precursor to child abuse and neglect fatalities in this country.⁵
• Slightly more than 50% of female victims of intimate violence live in households with children under age 12.⁶

Youth
• In a survey of high school girls, 8% reported that at some time a boyfriend or date had forced sex against her will.⁷
• Forty percent of teenage girls age 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend.⁸
• During the 1996-1997 school year, there were an estimated 4,000 incidents of rape or other types of sexual assault in public schools across the country.⁹

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¹ Strauss, Murray A., Gelles Richard J., and Smith, Christine. 1990. Physical Violence in American Families; Risk Factors and Adaptations to Violence in 8,145 Families. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
² Jaffe, P. and Sudermann, M., "Child Witness of Women Abuse: Research and Community Responses," in Stith, S. and Straus, M., Understanding Partner Violence: Prevalence, Causes, Consequences, and Solutions. Families in Focus Services, Vol. II. Minneapolis, MN: National Council on Family Relations, 1995.
³ Wolfe, D.A., Wekerle, C., Reitzel, D. and Gough, R., "Strategies to Address Violence in the Lives of High Risk Youth." In Peled, E., Jaffe, P.G. and Edleson, J.L. (eds.), Ending the Cycle of Violence: Community Responses to Children of Battered Women. New York: Sage Publications. 1995.
⁴ Singer, M.I., Miller, D.B., Guo, S., Slovak, K & Frieson, T., The Mental Health Consequences of Children's Exposure to Violence. Cleveland, OH: Cuyahoga County Community Health Research Institute, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, 1998.

⁵ U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect. (1995). A nation's shame: Fatal child abuse and neglect in the United States: Fifth report. Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, p. 253.
⁶U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates: Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 1998.
⁷ The Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Girls, November 1997.
⁸ Children Now/Kaiser Permanente poll, December 1995.
⁹ U.S. Department of Education, Violence and Discipline Problems in U.S. Public Schools: 1996-1997.

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