Background: Childhood adversity is linked to a number of adult health and psychosocial outcomes; however, it is not clear how to best assess and model childhood adversity reported by adolescents with known maltreatment exposure. Objective: This study sought to identify an empirically-supported measurement model of childhood adversity for…

Human Options is a non-profit social service agency in Orange County, California which provides services for battered women and their families. This study: assessed the outcomes for graduates of its programs; obtained consumer evaluations of the agency's services; measured the needs for aftercare services; and assessed how the children of program…

This review of the literature on the relationship between domestic violence and adolescent aggression focuses on the added risks to the normative stresses of adolescence when the adolescent's family is characterized by conflict, the role of the family in the child's development of social competence, and warning signs of children affected by…

Examines the effects of different types of domestic violence on adolescent adjustment. High school students (n=935) participated in this study. Results revealed the amounts of parent-child violence and interparental violence witnessed were significant predictors of both externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. Significant effects were…

Objective: To understand to the degree to which a broad variety of victimizations, including child maltreatment, conventional crime, peer, and sexual victimizations, persist for children from 1 year to the next. Design: A national sample of 1467 children aged 2-17 recruited through random digit dialing and assessed via telephone interviews (with…

This document is one of eight in a series of guides designed to help teach and counsel troubled youth. It differs from the others in the series in that it was written specifically for children who are struggling with serious family problems such as substance abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and mental illness. The first of the 20 lessons in…

Compared client families that included maltreated adolescents with control families. Members of client families were more depressed than members of comparison families. However, both client and comparison adolescents were more depressed and had lower self-esteem than their parents. Discusses the relevance of research findings for theories of…

Describes behavioral signs of family violence (i.e., child abuse, wife abuse), assessment techniques, and implications for counselors. (BL)

Describes the work of Help for Abused Women and Children (HAWC) in Massachusetts. Programs and activities for abused adults and teens include a crisis hotline, shelter, advocacy, support groups, legal advocacy, community trainings, workshops, counseling, and a prevention curriculum. An adventure workshop is used to address self-esteem, trust, risk…

This book was written for teenagers and older children who have abusive, alcoholic, or mentally ill parents. Emphasis is placed on young people in such situations using their intelligence, understanding that parents are fallible, viewing the future with optimism, facing reality, and seeing the good in other people rather than assuming everyone…

Interviews with runaways reveals the following stages of a runaway episode: (1) problematic relationships at home, characterized by violence, power struggles, sibling favoritism, and a lack of love; (2) the fight, which includes a transgression and a parental threat; and (3) running away, where the youth must manage fear and handle logistical…

Hypothesizes that marital conflict contributes unique variance of child functioning only when it occurs in front of children. Subjects were 146 mother/adolescent pairs. Results indicated that general family conflict was more predictive of child adjustment problems than marital satisfaction, and marital conflict occurring in front of children was…

A survey of approximately 375 Chinese college students in Hong Kong examined parental abuse toward adolescents. Of the sample, 62.2% had been verbally abused by the parents, 13.2% experienced minor physical violence, and 8.5% reported severe physical violence during the past year. (CR)

The long-term consequences for children of marital violence were investigated using data from parents and their adult offspring over time. Marital violence was distinguished from other marital conflict. Outcome effects on young adults' lives of these and other predictor variables were investigated. Implications for counseling are discussed. (EMK)

Although most of the national concern about violence has focused on major cities, no community is free from violence. Violent acts in suburbs, small towns, and rural areas may not be as severe as in urban areas, yet they exist. The Profiles of Student Life survey of 47,000 students in grades 6-12 included questions about violent behavior. The…