Crisis intervention type services were initiated in the Battered Women's Shelter in Fayetteville, Arkansas with the purpose of assisting children with their immediate distress and possibly preventing repetition of the violent patterns within families. Services were provided by volunteers or hired staff as funding allowed. The families the shelter…

This commentary identifies critical issues regarding social interventions with families in which both child maltreatment and woman battering are suspected. Addresses several common assumptions of service providers and suggests changes in current practice. (Author)

Utilizes sheltered battered women (n=60) and their 7- to 12-year-old children and nonsheltered women (n=61) and their children, to examine the potential moderating effects of maternal parenting stress on children's adjustment in homes with varying levels of domestic violence. Results indicate that children's adjustment was predicted by parenting…

Investigates why some caretakers act to protect their children from domestic violence while others show passivity. Two themes emerged through interviews with 26 women victims of domestic violence who had children: adultification of children, and psychological traps involving the batterer's role in the children's lives. Intervention recommendations…

Interviews with preadolescents (n=14) and their mothers provide a detailed description of the experiences of children exposed to violence at home. Findings, which are organized into five phases, indicate potential directions for understanding and intervening with children exposed to women being battered. (SLD)

Findings from 204 recently divorced mothers revealed that relationship between exposure to harsh parenting as child and subsequent abuse by husband was mediated by woman's involvement in aggressive/deviant behavior. Concluded that women subjected to abusive parenting tended to develop hostile, rebellious orientation and to affiliate with and marry…

Analysis of data on 3,363 American parents from the 1985 National Family Violence Survey found that marital violence is a statistically significant predictor of physical child abuse and the greater the amount of spousal abuse, the greater the probability of physical child abuse. The relationship was stronger for abusing husbands than for abusing…

Nonoffending mothers' (n=99) self-reported symptom distress was measured across 3 groups of sexual abuse types: incest, relative, and nonrelative. A multiple regression analysis of psychosocial characteristics indicated that a mother's perceived aloneness in facing the crisis and a personal history of adult sexual assault were positively related…

Posttraumatic stress symptoms of 64 children were assessed by their mothers who had experienced abuse during the past year. Of the children exposed to violence 13% experienced posttraumatic stress disorder, 52% suffered from intrusive and unwanted remembering of the traumatic event(s), 19% displayed traumatic avoidance, and 42% experienced…

Investigated relations of marital discord and parental and child behavior for battered women and comparison mothers and their children. Found differences in level of stress and inconsistency in parenting between the groups of mothers. Children from violent families were reported to have more internalizing behavior problems than comparison…

Compared individual and familial adjustment of 40 battered women and their children with that of 40 community families. Abused women were much more distressed than were community women. Found significant differences between children on internalizing and externalizing subscales of the Child Behavior Checklist. Found no between-group differences in…

Explored ability of parenting stress to predict maternal behaviors among low-income women, about half of whom were residing in a battered women's shelter. Assessed parenting stress, maternal adjustment, marital relationship, and responses to typical child behaviors. Found that parenting stress predicts use of positive behaviors like affection and…

Reports on interviews with 20 assaulted women about their concerns for their children and how these concerns affected the decision to leave the assailant. Fifty-five percent of the women's children had witnessed violence, and 90 percent of these children had become involved in the physical or psychological abuse in some way, even after separation.…

This study examined the social interactions and emotional adjustment of 21 preschool children of battered women and 25 same-age children from nonviolent homes. Mothers rated the frequency of their emotional and physical abuse during the past year, their mental health, parenting qualities, and their child's adjustment. Two observers evaluated the…

Recounts author's life as wife of an abusive alcoholic and mother of three preschool children. Describes how, through exposure to Head Start, the author provided her children with a preschool education, gained personal self-esteem, educated herself, left the abusive relationship, and ultimately returned to Head Start as a teacher. (SD)