Inter-Parental Violence: The Pre-Schooler’s Perspective and the Educator’s Role

Abstract

Early childhood educators are likely to encounter youngsters who experience problems at home impeding their abilities to learn and benefit from the program. One such group is children who live or have lived with adult domestic violence. Children yet to begin elementary school are over-represented among groups of young people known to live with inter-parental violence. A qualitative study using clinical interviews of young children was used to develop a model suggesting how key aspects of development among children 3-5 years of age can react to and be affected by inter-parental violence. Focus is on age-appropriate expression of emotions, salience of observations and conflicting messages, a child's focus on outcome versus process, egocentricity and selfblame, learning of gender roles, and delay or regression in development of independence. Implications for the classroom are outlined, including providing a nurturing environment, supporting child adjustment, and helping caregivers. Special contingencies when families are in shelters are also discussed.

Domestic Violence and Education: Examining the Impact of Domestic Violence on Young Children, Children, and Young People and the Potential Role of Schools

“…Indirect abuse can result from inter-parental violence where children are not the subject of direct abuse. However, children witnessing inter-parental violence, and hearing it without necessarily seeing it, can still feel its effects: ‘While often characterized as witnesses to inter-parental violence, which implies a passive role, children actively interpret, attempt to predict and assess their roles in causing the violence’ (Baker and Cunningham, 2009, p. 199, emphasis in original). Indeed, the terms direct and indirect abuse have been interpreted as potentially misleading and perhaps simplistic.…”

“…Among pre-school children it can cause separation anxiety from the non-abusing parent, commonly their mother. Pre-school children’s restricted ability for coping due to their young age means that behavioral and psychological disengagement is one way they react to inter-parental violence (Baker and Cunningham, 2009). Pre-schoolers sensitized to the noise of family violence may cope by tuning out noise, consequently posing difficulties for those wishing to interact with them in the school setting.…”

Evaluating Preschool Children’s Attitudes and Beliefs About Intimate Partner Violence

“…When violence occurs in the home, children may actively attempt to interpret, predict, and evaluate the conflict. This attempt to create meaning from the violence can affect key elements of development among young children, including aspects of self-blame, emotional expression, and gender roles (Baker & Cunningham, 2009). …”

Psychology – Child Emotions The Link between Inter-Parental Conflict and Health Emotional Development of Children

“…Theory on inter-parental conflict and child development is only useful insofar as it can be translated into meaningful practice and engagement [7]. Despite the fact that numerous attempts have been made to create programs that support parents, couples and/or children, few of these programs have actually been subject to rigorous or systematic evaluation [6].…”

“…Parental reports are often used as well to determine how often and how serious conflict is that emerges. These types of data collection methods are quite often far from complete, however, given that they do not take into account a wide variety of factors that affects how a child perceives of the conflict in question [7]. For instance, children have been found to adjust better to conflict when the type of conflict is something that they have witnessed consistently and feel more familiar with [2].…”