Intergenerational effects of witnessing domestic violence: Health of the witnesses and their children

Abstract

Studies that explore intergenerational effects of witnessing domestic violence during childhood (“witnessing”) are lacking. We examined effects of witnessing on general health status for adults who witnessed domestic violence during childhood and their children. Cross-sectional data from population-based phone interviews conducted in Philadelphia during 2012–2013 provided health information for 329 parents and children, and parent's witnessing exposure. We used propensity scores to predict parent's witnessing status using childhood confounders; response models included inverse probability of treatment weighting and population weights for standardization. Separate standardized multivariate logistic regression models provided average treatment effects and 95% CIs for associations between childhood witnessing and below average health for: 1) adults who witnessed and 2) their children. Sensitivity analyses guided interpretation. Standardized models showed no differences in average treatment effects for below average adult health for witnesses vs. non-witnesses [0.04 (−0.12, 0.19)]. Conversely, children whose parents witnessed had considerably higher probability of having below average health than children whose parents did not witness [0.15 (0.02, 0.28)]. An unmeasured confounder would need 3.0-fold associations with both exposure and outcome to completely remove observed effects, indicating a moderate relationship. However, the lower confidence bound could cross 1.0 in the presence of a weaker unmeasured confounder having 1.2-fold associations with both exposure and outcome, while controlling for our same measured confounders. Witnessing during childhood did not affect adult health in our population, but we found moderate evidence supporting harmful intergenerational effects of witnessing on health, with parent's witnessing exposure affecting their child's health.

Armed and (potentially) dangerous: exploring sheriffs' perspectives of police militarization

“…Even in incidents where physical harm of officers, offenders and witnesses is avoided, deleterious consequences from these tactics can appear. Research suggests that witnessing violent acts or aggressive behavior in policing efforts has long-term, and potentially devastating effects, particularly on children (Forke et al , 2019). Finally, there is concern that these aggressive tactics are disproportionately used against minorities, thus furthering the distrust and anger toward police (ACLU, 2014) in these disempowered groups.…”

“…It is not just physical risk that increases with the use of these techniques and tools. There are long-term mental health effects for the witnesses of incidents of police militarization, especially on children who may be collateral in the execution of this approach (Forke et al , 2019). Given the aura it creates about the police and the fact that these techniques are deemed to be discriminatory in their application, a decline in public trust may be a result (ACLU, 2014).…”

The Model of Systemic Relational Violence: Conceptualizing IPV as a Method of Continual and Enforced Domination

“…Relational violence has a negative outcome on the entire family unit. A study in the United States has shown that witnessing relational violence as a child can cause negative health effects in future generations [23]. Over the course of one year in the Unites States, approximately 20,000 children received residential domestic violence services, and an additional 23,000 adults received advocacy and support [20].…”

On the Intergenerational Transmission of Health Inequality

“…Violence or abuse is intense negative stress (70). Moreover, cumulating evidence showed that abused parents are at increased risk for perpetuating maladaptive parenting practices, which would be transmitted to generations to come through not just intimate (71,72), but also the underlying uncontrollable epigenetic mechanisms (73).…”