Significant harm and children's experiences of domestic violence

This is the first of two papers concerning children and domestic violence, both of which draw on findings from a Department of Health commissioned study of children suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This paper discusses the ways in which children appear to be harmed by witnessing violence between their parents or parental figures. A brief review is offered of the literature concerning the developmental and behavioural effects on children who have lived with domestic violence. Selected findings from the research study are then discussed. Out of a cohort of 105 maltreated or neglected children, 49 were discovered to be regularly witnessing violence between parents at home. The emotional, social and behavioural effects on 28 children who were studied in detail are presented, through three case studies. Examples are offered of the way in which professionals overlook, discount or downgrade the harm to the child from this hostility. The emotional impact on the child of living with domestic violence rarely forms part of the assessment of significant harm made at the child protection conference; nor does it feature in subsequent plans to protect the child.     

Entry into marriage and parenthood by young men and women: The influence of family background

We investigate the influence of family background on early entry into marriage and parenthood among white, Hispanic, and black men and women ages 14 to 22 in the first (1979) wave of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Family background is highly associated with early entry into marriage for whites of both genders and female Hispanics and also with early entry into parenthood for all groups except black males. Large group differences in family characteristics explain most of the difference between white and Hispanic women in early marriage and parenthood and about half the difference in early parenthood between black and white women but do not explain the observed variations among other race-gender groups.