The Psychological Impact/Effect Of Domestic Violence On Children

When people think of domestic violence, emphasis is usually laid on how much it hurts the adult victim, but what most people don’t realize is that children also experience domestic violence and this affects their physical and emotional health and wellbeing.

So whether the child is the one experiencing the abuse directly or is watching the abuse being done to someone else, it kind of warps that child physiologically. The effects of domestic violence on children have a tremendous impact on the well-being and developmental growth of children witnessing it.
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Children who witness domestic violence in the home often believe that they are to blame, live in a constant state of fear, and are 15 times more likely to be victims of child abuse. Research shows that children exposed to domestic violence tend to experience the following; ongoing anxiety and depression, emotional distress, eating and sleeping disturbances, physical symptoms, such as headaches and stomach aches, find it hard to manage stress, low self-esteem, self-harm, be aggressive towards friends and school mates, feel guilt or blame themselves for the violence, have trouble forming positive relationships, develop phobias and insomnia, struggle with going to school and doing school work, use bullying behaviour or become a target of bullying, difficulty concentrating, find it hard to solve problems, have less empathy and caring for others, suffer from depression, be homeless, abuse drugs and alcohol, engage in risk-taking behaviours, experience or use violence and be controlling and manipulative in relationships, the list is endless.
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The trick here is the physiological effect it has on children either makes them go overboard or withdrawn. Overboard in the sense that they become abusive, hurt others, inflict pain on others, bullying, they tend to do what they have seen the people around them do; it now becomes like they have a twisted reality of how life should be. On the other hand, they can become withdrawn, and these are the ones that end up with an inferiority complex, fear of becoming like their parents, or doing what they saw, that they don’t know when they become overly possessive and aggressive, lack of self-esteem and the likes. Either way, you look at it, the effect or impact of abuse on children is never good.    Trending video of the day;

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