Establishing a Relationship Between Behavior and Cognition: Violence Against Women and Children within the Family

The goal of our study is to determine whether a person’s cognitions regarding violence against women and violence against children within the family are associated with recourse to violent behavior toward them; and (2) the extent to which an adult who has a narrow conception of violence against women also has a narrow conception of, tolerant attitudes toward, and biased attributions with regard to violence toward children. Thirty men and 32 women took part in the study. Generally speaking, respondents more easily recognized physical aggression than psychological aggression, rated it more severely, and used it more often against their children than their spouses. Further, cognitions regarding violence against women and of parental violence against children appear to be strongly associated. Our results also suggest that the conception of violence toward women is associated with violence toward children.     

Factors Associated with Co-occurrence of Spousal and Parental Violence: Quebec Population Study

Although the occurrence of both spousal and parental violence within the same family has been documented, there are scarcely any data on this phenomenon for Quebec and Canada. In analyzing the data from the 2004 Quebec survey on family violence in the lives of children, conducted with a population sample of 3,148 mothers, this study pursued two goals: to determine what differences exist between three groups in which family violence occurs (spousal violence, parental violence and co-occurrence of the two) and to better document the factors related to the different types of family violence by developing an explanatory model. Ecological analyses revealed major differences between these three groups in every aspect examined. Our findings support the hypothesis that families in which spousal and parental violence co-occur are not qualitatively different from those families in which only spousal or only parental violence occurs, but that they differ in the severity of the cases reported.     

ADVOCATING FOR COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENTS IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CASES

Many jurisdictions handle domestic violence cases on a one‐size‐fits‐all basis, with a presumption in favor of a finding of child neglect and removal when children are exposed to domestic violence. Such a standard fails to recognize that not all domestic violence is the same and not all families are equally affected. The impact of domestic violence depends on several factors such as the different types of domestic violence the frequency and intensity of the violence, the frequency and extent of the child's exposure, and each family member's unique experiences and characteristics. This view takes the position that parents’ capacity to participate in counseling and services promoting the health and safety of their children varies, as does the appropriateness of children being removed from the home as a result of exposure to domestic violence. Therefore, this Note proposes that states develop a standard for both courts and child protective agencies that carefully examines each domestic violence case using an individualized factual analysis and attempt to mitigate the effects of a child's exposure to domestic violence by means other than a presumption for or against removal (temporary or permanent) in every case.     

Self-esteem of young adults experiencing interparental violence and child physical maltreatment: parental and peer relationships as mediators

This study examined the joint impact of experiencing both interparental violence and child physical maltreatment on young adults' self-esteem. It also tested the hypothesis of parental and peer relationship qualities as mediators in the relationship between childhood histories of family violence and adult self-esteem. Data were collected from a national probability sample of 1,924 college students in Taiwan. Research results demonstrated that experiencing both interparental violence and physical maltreatment during childhood have long-term and detrimental impact on adult self-esteem. This impact was statistically independent of other potential confounding factors. Moreover, participants experiencing dual violence during childhood reported lower self-esteem than those experiencing only one type of family violence or none at all. Male participants who experienced dual violence reported lower self-esteem than female participants who experienced dual violence. Further analyses revealed that parental and peer relationship qualities mediated the joint impact of interparental violence and physical maltreatment on adult self-esteem.     

A history of the use of the concept of parental alienation in the Australian family law system: contradictions,collisions and their consequences

ABSTRACT

This paper presents insights into the history and current deployment of the concept of parental alienation in the Australian family law system. It begins in 1989, when an article on parental alienation syndrome was first published in an Australian law journal. It then traces aspects of the socio-legal and social science research, gender politics, law reform and jurisprudence of the following 30 years, paying attention to moments of significant change. The impacts of major amendments that emphasise the desirability of post-separation shared parenting outcomes in 1996 and 2006 are specifically considered. More recently, in 2012, reforms intended to improve the family law system’s response to domestic and family violence were introduced. The history reveals an irreconcilable tension between the ‘benefit’ of ‘meaningful’ post-separation parent-child relationships and the protection of children from harm. When mothers’ allegations of violence in the family are disbelieved, minimised or dismissed, they are transformed from victims of abuse into perpetrators of abuse – alienators of children from their fathers. Their actions and attitudes collide with the shared parenting philosophy. This is arguably an inescapable consequence of a family law system that struggles to deal effectively with family violence in the context of a strong shared parenting regime.     

Exposure to Family Violence in Childhood and Intimate Partner Perpetration or Victimization in Adulthood: Exploring Intergenerational Transmission in Urban Thailand

Investigators who study intimate partner violence have long recognized a relationship between exposure to violence in the family of origin and subsequent offending and victimization in the family context. This relationship holds not only for direct exposure (i.e., experiencing violence), but also for indirect exposure (i.e., witnessing violence against a parent or sibling). Typically, this relationship has been attributed to a social learning process that results in the intergenerational transmission of family violence. In this study, we explore intergenerational transmission in a sample of 816 married women in Bangkok, Thailand to determine how childhood exposure to violence in the family of origin is related to intimate partner perpetration and victimization during adulthood. Our results show that there are indeed long-term and significant effects of childhood exposure to family violence on the likelihood of Thai women’s psychological and physical intimate partner perpetration. However, these effects appear to be indirect. Additionally, our results demonstrate a direct association between childhood exposure to parental intimate partner violence and subsequent psychological and physical victimization in adulthood.     

History of spouse violence against mother: Correlated risks and unique effects in child mental health

The present study examined mental health risk associated with lifetime occurrence of spouse violence against mother among 303 10 to 12 year-old inner-city children. Maternal report data showed a 30% prevalence rate for lifetime occurrence of spouse violence in this sample. Results of correlational analyses indicated that violence against mother was associated with several other historical risk factors including divorce, parental drinking problems, and incarceration of father. Multiple regression analyses controlling for the effects of demographic and historical risk factors that correlated with violence against mother revealed that violence accounted for significant unique variance in girls' self-reports of conduct problems, but did not account for unique variance in boys' symptomatology. Implications of these results for understanding the effects of violence against mother on children and for the development of empirically based interventions for children in those families are discussed.     

Childhood Abusive and Supportive Experiences, Inter-Parental Violence, and Parental Alcohol Use: Prediction of Young Adult Depressive Symptoms and Aggression

Issues in both the children of alcoholics and child abuse literatures were addressed in an attempt to disentangle the effects on young adults of growing up in alcoholic homes versus abusive homes. Using multiple regression, retrospective reports of parental abuse (emotional, physical, and sexual) and parental support (love/support, independence, and fairness), witnessing violence between parents, and parental alcohol use were used as predictor variables for outcomes noted by both literatures. When the effects of all other predictors were statistically controlled, parental alcohol use was not significantly related to depressive symptoms or aggression. Different abusive and supportive behaviors, depending on sex of parent and sex of participant, were significant predictors of both depression and aggression. Results underscore the importance of including and controlling for inter-parental violence and for different types of child abuse (especially emotional abuse) and parental supportive behaviors in investigations of outcomes related to abusive and alcoholic families. Implications for treatment of individuals from these families are discussed.     

Frequency of Parental Violence Against Children in Chinese Families: Impact of Age and Gender

The present study examines the impact of child and parent gender on parental violence across age span of children and their parents in Hong Kong Chinese families. A randomly selected community sample of 1,019 households was surveyed. Results indicate that, in general, boys experience more frequent parental violence than girls and mothers engage in more violent behaviors against their children than fathers. Parental violence shows a curvilinear pattern with age of children, peaking at age 8 for boys and age 3 for girls. There is a pattern of declining frequency of parental violence as parental age increases across child gender. Fathers exhibit an inverted U pattern of violent behavior against their children, with a peak around age 31–40, while mothers have a steadily declining trend until age 46. Separate parental violence indices are constructed for boys and girls.     

Single Types of Family Violence Victimization and Externalizing Behaviors Among Children and Adolescents

Prior research has provided substantial evidence that child maltreatment and exposure to physical intimate partner violence (IPV) are associated with increased externalizing behavior problems among children and adolescents. However, little is known about the effects of exposure to psychological IPV and exposure to the physical abuse of a sibling. Using a total sample (N = 2,572) and subsample (n = 441) of children ages 3–18 years old, the purpose of this study was to assess whether cumulative types of family violence lead to higher mean externalizing behavior scores and to examine the effects of single types of indirect and direct family violence on children’s mean externalizing behavior scores. Results confirmed that children who experienced any type of family violence victimization had higher mean externalizing behavior scores compared to children with no history of family violence; however, few differences in externalizing behavior scores were found as the number of family violence types increased. Children who experienced indirect types of family violence (e.g., exposure to the physical abuse of a sibling) had higher externalizing behavior scores than children who experienced direct maltreatment (e.g., child physical abuse). Findings from this study suggest that researchers and service providers should adopt a broader conceptualization of family violence victimization and increase the amount of services provided to children who are indirectly victimized.     

‘It’s Not OK’, but ‘It’ never happened: parental alienation accusations undermine children’s safety in the New Zealand Family Court

ABSTRACT

While the public campaign slogan in New Zealand when referring to family violence, is ‘It’s Not OK’, many women in New Zealand report that the Family Court prefers the catchphrase ‘It never happened’. When women and children escaping violence and abuse reach out to the New Zealand Family Court for protection believing the justice system will help them, they often enter an alternative reality where they are not believed and are subsequently made less safe. This is particularly so for those women whose well-founded fears for their children’s safety get reinterpreted as evidence of a deliberate attempt to alienate the children from their fathers. The Backbone Collective, an independent organisation, surveyed New Zealand women about their experiences in the Family Court, finding that many women reported being accused of parental alienation. This paper investigates the sources of these allegations of parental alienation and how they impact mothers and their children. We argue that the use of parental alienation in the New Zealand Family Court is undermining the international rights of children.     

Child physical abuse: prevalence, characteristics, predictors, and beliefs about parent-child violence in South Asian, Middle Eastern, East Asian, and Latina women in the United States

The present study examined the prevalence, characteristics, beliefs, and demographic predictors of parent-child physical violence among South Asian, Middle Eastern, East Asian, and Latina women in the United States. Two hundred fifty-one college-educated women from a middle to high SES (South Asian/Middle Eastern, n = 93; East Asian,n = 72; Latina,n = 86) completed a self-report survey on childhood experiences and beliefs regarding physical abuse. Seventy-three percent of the South Asian and Middle Eastern sample, 65% of the East Asian sample, and 78% of the Latina sample reported experiencing at least one type of physical abuse. Significant differences in characteristics and perpetrators of abuse were found across groups. Demographic factors did not predict physical abuse. Experiencing physical abuse was the only predictor for acceptance of physical discipline and as a parental privilege or right across groups. Implications of alternate cultural models of family violence based on beliefs and exposure to violence are discussed.     

Risk Factor Models for Adolescent Verbal and Physical Aggression Toward Fathers

Using a French-Canadian population-based longitudinal data set, we examine the impact of socioeconomic factors (paternal education and family structure); inherent individual factors (child gender and developmental trajectories of physical aggression from early to later childhood, problematic substance use), family environment (concurrent parent-child involvement, parental problematic substance use), and prospective and concurrent parenting process variables (mean parental supervision at puberty, concurrent punishment practices) as predictors of adolescent-directed aggression against fathers (in the last 6 months). A childhood behavioral pattern characterized by physical aggression showed the highest risk of adolescent-directed verbal and physical aggression toward fathers, regardless of sex. In terms of parental practices, verbal (and not corporal) punishment in the last 6 months significantly predicted aggression toward fathers. A childhood life-course of violence is likely to culminate in aggression toward fathers during adolescence. Beyond this risk, it seems that harsh verbal punishment by parents builds up the odds of child-directed aggression against fathers.     

Scale of negative family interactions: a measure of parental and sibling aggression

This article examines a measure of received emotional, physical, and sexual aggression within the family: the Scale of Negative Family Interactions (SNFI). Unlike traditional familial violence scales that measure parental aggression alone, the SNFI simultaneously measures sibling violence for a more comprehensive examination of familial aggression. Although a variety of scales may be used in researching parental abuse, the SNFI is uniquely intended for (a) examining sibling violence while controlling for parental aggression, (b) examining parental abuse while controlling for sibling violence, and (c) comprehensively examining family violence to include aggression from both parents and siblings. Test-retest and internal consistency reliability were demonstrated, and evidence for validity is presented. In addition to offering a measure of sibling and parental aggression, the SNFI has the advantages of including everyone in the role of parent or sibling and of measuring a wide variety of emotional, physical, and sexual aggression within the family.     

Parental and Others’ Responses to Physical Sibling Violence: a Descriptive Analysis of Victims’ Retrospective Accounts

Although sibling abuse may be the most common form of family violence, relatively few studies have been conducted on this topic. The current exploratory study addressed this gap in the literature through analyses of thematic categories in sibling abuse narratives gathered from an online survey of sibling violence victims. All data was collected via an online survey. Participants who reported being victimized by physical sibling violence were asked to reflect on how others—family members, professionals, and friends—responded to knowledge of the abuse. Results demonstrate a need for general education about sibling violence, particularly for parents who might minimize or normalize their children’s violent conflicts. Additionally, parents need assistance in developing appropriate responses to sibling violence, as participants often perceived their parents to be ineffective at preventing or stopping the abuse. Finally, this study suggests that negative or unhelpful parental responses can be as harmful as the sibling violence itself.     

Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: Making Trauma‐Informed Custody and Visitation Decisions

This article explores the risks for young children and the challenges for courts that emerge when parents who are victims or perpetrators of intimate partner violence seek court decisions on child visitation or custody matters. We focus particularly on children age five and younger, a group that is disproportionately represented in families affected by intimate partner violence, and especially vulnerable to its traumatic impact. We examine the literature on children's response to violence between their parents and the literature on parental alienation, a counter‐charge that may arise when one parent alleges violence as a reason to limit the other parent's access to the children. We look at challenges faced by both mental health professionals and courts involved in custody determinations and make policy recommendations to help courts make trauma‐informed decisions that best serve children.     

High Conflict Divorce,Violence, and Abuse: Implications for Custody and Visitation Decisions

Today, judges are faced with the daunting task of determining the best interests of the child and making appropriate custody awards to that end. The best interests of children becomes a critical question when domestic violence is involved; yet, determining what constitutes domestic violence is often debated. Research is often divided on what constitutes domestic violence. One body of research focuses on conflict, another focuses on domestic violence. What the first group identifies as intense emotional distress and disagreement, the other identifies as abuse. Judges making custody determinations in such cases are faced with the difficult challenge of distinguishing between a divorce with “high conflict” and a domestic violence case with ongoing abuse. This article will summarize the legal, philosophical, and historical understandings of the “high conflict” family and its potential impact on children. It will also provide practical judicial guidelines for making the important distinction between high conflict and domestic violence and subsequently crafting appropriate and safe child custody awards.     

Sociocultural causes of family violence: A theoretical comment

During the past decade, family violence has been increasingly reported and discussed by the mass media, as well as having become a subject of scholarly investigation in several academic disciplines. While there is an impressive number of empirical studies dealing with various aspects of family violence, they tend to focus on samples of the victims of such physical and sexual abuse. This paper seeks to supplement their findings by presenting a theoretical analysis of certain major sociocultural changes that have seriously weakened the moral standards that are the primary sociocultural deterrents of family and other interpersonal forms of violence. These changes include widespread residential mobility, the weakening of parental authority, and the impact of the themes of violence and sexuality that are emphasized by the mass media and popular culture.     

Long-Term Follow-Up of Young Children Placed in Foster Care: Subsequent Placements and Exposure to Family Violence

This study examined the quality or characteristics of permanent placements at 6 years of age for 254 children who had been removed from their homes prior to attaining 3.5 years of age (mean = 13 months). Although the primary objective when removing children is protection, subsequent permanent placements are prioritized by federal legislation with a stable family environment, especially one with the biological parent(s), being preferred. Three a priori comparisons (i.e., reunified vs. nonreunified, adopted vs. foster care, relative vs. nonrelative foster care) were conducted for caregiver and child reports of exposure to family violence. The results indicate that both reunified children and their parents report more family violence (witnessed and child victimization) than do nonreunified children and their caregivers. Adoptive parents did report that they used more minor violence in disciplining their children than did foster caregivers, but their children reported witnessing significantly less physical violence in the home. Recognizing that the development of children removed from their homes because of maltreatment is likely a function of both the maltreatment as well as the quality of subsequent family experiences (i.e., violence exposure), implications of the findings for determining placements are discussed.     

Effects of Family Violence on Child Behavior and Health During Early Childhood

Looking at families where children have been abused/neglected in early childhood, this study examined measures of child behavior and health to see if they tended to be worse when domestic violence is or has been present in a family. Further, caregiver and family characteristics as well as other case factors were examined, as possible moderators or mediators of the effects of domestic violence. Results indicate that domestic violence, of the type and severity occurring in our sample, does not have a direct effect on child outcomes by Age 6, when other associated variables are taken into account, but has considerable indirect effects. There is a pronounced impact of domestic violence on family functioning, the caregiver's general health and well being, and the quality of the caregiver's interaction with the child, which in turn are significantly associated with decrements of child functioning related to behavior problems and health. Some implications of this study for research in the area of domestic violence and child maltreatment are discussed.