The effects of family and community violence on children

This review examines theoretical and empirical literature on children's reactions to three types of violence--child maltreatment, community violence, and interparental violence. In addition to describing internalizing and externalizing problems associated with exposure to violence, this review...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of psychology 2000-01, Vol.51 (1), p.445-479
Main Authors: MARGOLIN, G, GORDIS, E. B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult-child relations
Analysis
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child abuse
Child abuse & neglect
Child Abuse - psychology
Child Behavior Disorders - psychology
Child Development
Child psychology
Children and adults
Domestic violence
Evaluation
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Learning. Memory
Mental Disorders - psychology
Psychological aspects
Psychological research
Psychology, Pathological
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychometrics
Psychopathology
Spouse Abuse - psychology
Violence
Violence - psychology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This review examines theoretical and empirical literature on children's reactions to three types of violence--child maltreatment, community violence, and interparental violence. In addition to describing internalizing and externalizing problems associated with exposure to violence, this review identifies ways that violence can disrupt typical developmental trajectories through psychobiological effects, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cognitive consequences, and peer problems. Methodological challenges in this literature include high rates of co-occurrence among types of violence exposure, co-occurrence of violence with other serious life adversities, heterogeneity in the frequency, severity, age of onset, and chronicity of exposure, and difficulties in making causal inferences. A developmental psychopathology perspective focuses attention on how violence may have different effects at different ages and may compromise children's abilities to face normal developmental challenges. Emphasis is placed on the variability of children's reactions to violence, on outcomes that go beyond diagnosable disorders, and on variables that mediate and moderate children's reactions to violence.
ISSN:0066-4308
1545-2085
DOI:10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.445