NCJ Number
189775
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2001 Pages: 269-290
Date Published
September 2001
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This article examines the direct and indirect effects of domestic violence on preschoolers’ intellectual functioning.
Abstract
The sample consisted of 100 women and their 3 to 5-year-old children (44 boys and 56 girls) recruited from the general community. These participants represented a high-risk group. Twenty-four percent of mothers were unemployed. Average SES and monthly income were very low; thus, the typical family in this study was just below poverty level. Forty-three percent of mothers had experienced domestic violence within the last year, defined by at least one physically aggressive act by an intimate partner. Children who had witnessed domestic violence had significantly poorer verbal abilities than nonwitnesses after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) and child abuse, but there were no group differences on visual-spatial abilities. One possible reason for the lack of significant differences on test scores was that there was not enough power to detect statistically significant differences due to the small sample size within each group. Domestic violence also indirectly affected both types of intellectual abilities through its impact on maternal depression and the intellectual quality of the home environment. The strengths and limitations of this study were that the assessment was done using mothers’ self-reports, only one SES was used, and there were cross-sectional design limitations. Future studies need to continue to examine these issues because this area of adjustment has been shown to be an important predictor for later peer acceptance and emotional health. Further, these types of studies would likely help inform and improve prevention and intervention efforts for child victims of domestic violence. 1 figure, 3 tables, and 69 references.