Effects of Children Witnessing Wife Abuse

Effects on Children of Witnessing Maternal Abuse

As early as 1985, Wolfe, Jaffe, Wilson and Zak reported that diverse types of research (e.g., qualitative studies, quantitative studies, retrospective accounts, correlational research) were suggesting that children's exposure to maternal physical abuse resulted in negative consequences that lasted not only across the children's growing up and adolescent years but also well into their adulthood. According to the authors, these consequences included the following:

(1) Poor social adjustment, behavioral problems and lowered levels of social competence among boys;

(2) The internalization of behavior problems among girls; (3) An increased tendency for boys to grow up and become wife abusers themselves; and

(4) An increased tendency for girls to select abusive spouses and to then delay seeking help for the problem f

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s were said to be factors such as greater endorsement of the need of men for constant reassurance of love and approval and the belief that wives must provide attention, affection and unquestioning support of husbands even when it conflicts with the wives' needs. What the just-cited research shows is that the tendency for boys witnessing abuse to become abusers themselves is not a direct linear correlation. Rather, a number of personal and interpersonal variables input into the appearance of the abusive pattern. An extremely interesting study of the effect of children witnessing maternal abuse on adult abusive behavior was conducted by Langhinrichsten-Rohling, Neidig and Thorn (1995). As noted earlier, the tendency is, for male children who witness maternal abuse, toward an increase in the likelihood of abusive behavior as adults; however, this tendency is not generally observable for girls who have witnessed their mothers being abused. However, in some cases, both the boys and the girls will evidence abusive behavior as adults. An examination of this phenomenon was conducted in Langhinrichsten-Rohling et. al's (1995) study using a sample was composed of both female and male perpetrators of spousal violence. All subjects in t
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2564
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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