Constellation of Family Violence and Their Differential Effects on Children's Behavioral Disturbance

Abstract

Three questions about the effects of family violence on children are addressed in this study: (1) What is the path between a mother's exposure early in her own life to abuse and other severe stresses and the likelihood that her children will be abused?; (2) What is the relationship between different constellations of family violence and their effect on children's general behavioral disturbance?; and (3) Can we differentiate between types of child behavioral disturbance on the basis of different parameters of family violence? Two New York City samples of school children were studied, one comprised of 106 physically abused children identified from the New York State Register of indicated abuse cases, and the other comprised of 85 of their non-maltreated classmates. Results showed that the intergenerational transmission of family violence was best described in terms of indirect effects, that children show general behavioral disturbance as a result of different constellations of family violence, and that it is difficult to differentiate between internalizing and externalizing behavioral disturbance as a function of the family violence variables we studies, although both kinds of disturbance are characteristic of abused children.