Impact of Father-to-Mother Aggression on the Structure and Content of Adolescents' Perceptions of Themselves and Their Parents

• NCJ Number: 206850
• Journal: Violence Against Women Volume: 10 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2004 Pages: 1036-1055
• Author(s): Zeev Winstock; Zvi Eisikovits; Orit Karnieli-Miller
• Date Published: September 2004
• Length: 20 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the differential influence on adolescent children of their father's level of aggression toward their mother with reference to the children's perceptions of their parents and of themselves, as well as how these perceptions are interrelated.

Abstract

The study involved a probability sample of 1,014 Jewish Israeli youth between the ages of 13 and 18 (48.8 percent male and 51.2 percent female), who were randomly selected from 56 neighborhoods. Interviews were conducted with approximately 19 adolescents from each neighborhood. The instrument used in the interviews was designed to measure each adolescent's perception of the frequency of his/her father's physical/verbal aggression toward his/her mother. Based on the answers to these questions, the adolescents were classified into three different groups: those whose father was neither aggressive nor violent toward the mother, adolescents whose father was verbally aggressive toward the mother, and adolescents whose father was verbally and physically aggressive toward the mother. The remaining constructs were designed to measure the adolescents' subjective judgment of themselves, their father, and their mother. The findings indicate that in cases in which there was no father-to-mother aggression, adolescents held a coherent image structure of the family members. With the emergence and increase in aggression, the coherence deteriorated. In cases of mild aggression, youths tended to identify with their fathers. As aggression intensified in cases of severe aggression, the children's identification with the aggressor was increasingly difficult, and the youths tended to identify with their mother. Suggestions are offered for intervention with youth and parents in families where there is aggression and violence by the father against the mother. Suggestions are also offered for future research. 2 tables, 1 figure, and 71 references