Research With Children in Shelters: Implications for Clinical Services

• NCJ Number: 122305
• Journal: Children Today Volume: 15 Issue: 2 Dated: (March-April 1986) Pages: 21-25
• Author(s): H M Hughes
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 5 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Characteristics of children who experience family violence include nervousness, poor academic performance, confusion over differences in home and school environments, and fantasies about a different homelife; these children also exhibit certain gender-specific and age-related behavior patterns.

Abstract

Interviews with mothers in several battered women's shelters revealed that their children used extreme coping behaviors including aggressiveness, withdrawal, suicidal gestures, and headaches and stomachaches. Further research, using standardized, well-validated instruments to measure psychological and mental functioning, has identified subgroups of children and mothers, formed by a combination of different variables: the amount of violence observed, their abuse status, and the mother's mental health. The studies indicate that the adjustment of children in shelters is poorer than children of similar economic circumstances who do not live in violent environments. Domestic violence appears to have a greater impact on children who are of preschool age, are boys, have witnessed high levels of violence, have been abused, and have mothers who suffer from depression and anxiety. Intervention for preschool children would usually occur through the mother; in addition to shelter crisis intervention, advocacy, and general parenting education, supportive interventions, therapy, and individualized parenting suggestions are recommended. Service providers can intervene directly with school-age children, paying attention to their different levels of adjustment, distress, and usual problem-solving styles. Shelter workers should probably divide the children according to ages and developmental levels, as well as abuse status. These children need to learn nonviolent methods and strategies for solving problems and appropriately assertive ways to interact, as well as ways to relax and to learn social skills.