| This study evaluated
the impact of a preventive intervention program designed to reduce
the impact of domestic violence and the risk of repeated violence
for children. The goals of the study were to test the efficacy of a
10-week intervention for mothers and children in women-abusing
families and to determine which mothers and which children are best
served by the program. The researchers compared three groups of
children made up of at-risk samples of 6- to 12-year-olds.
Sixty-two children participated in the child-only intervention
group, 61 children participated in the child-plus-mother
intervention group, and 58 children were in the nontreatment group.
Children in the child-plus-mother group had mothers who also
participated in a support group for battered women. The behavior
and progress of each child and mother participating in the program
were evaluated at specified intervals. After 10 weeks of
intervention, overall change in the child's behavior, attitudes,
and knowledge of domestic violence was greater for those
participants in the child-plus-mother treatment group and less for
those in the nontreatment group. The intervention, therefore, was
successful in reducing children's behavioral problems over the
evaluation period. Specific change in children's attitudes and
knowledge about domestic violence and their emotional adjustment
after a 6-month follow-up has yet to be calculated. Results of the
research are expected to provide important links between the
negative emotional outcomes in children created by domestic
violence and intervention programs that reduce those
psychopathological outcomes. |
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