Introduction
From conception, children are continuously learning; learning does not end with childhood but it is part of human life. Through learning, children develop socially, emotionally, and their personality is shaped by the experiences they face.
For an appropriate child development, a child needs love and care from both parents. In case of families experiencing domestic violence, the social and emotional development of children brought put in such families is adversely affected (Emery, 1989). This paper discusses the effects of domestic violence on children; it will concentrate on building a table of dependent and independent variables.
Emotional development
Children need to grow in environments that reinforce good behaviour and grow their emotional well-being; however, domestic violence has been an issue in many societies in the world but considered as a family matter, it is only of late that legal proceedings can be taken on an offender.
Since women movements in 1970s, domestic violence has become a legal matter calling for police, courts and judicial process intervention. In cases where children are exposed to such violence, then they become emotionally troubled:
In the above, case them the dependent variable is children emotions while the independent variable is domestic violence:
Emotions (E) = f (domestic violence (D.V.))
Childhoods and teen violence
When one is talking of domestic violence, what comes in mind is wife or husband violence; in most case women are on the receiving end, they are subjected to physical, psychological and emotional violence. However the scope of domestic violence extend far beyond this believe to include child abuse and the effects that such abuse have on a child. The most common types of violence within the family are wife abuse and child abuse.
Violence in this sense may include slaps, pushes, sexual abuse, battering, and use of abusive words. A research conducted by in United States of America, shown that each year over 3.3 children suffer from domestic violence. The recognition of this is affected by lack of data that can be used for the analysis. The effect is mostly psychological, emotional and sometimes physical.
The most noted one is physical and thus emotional and psychological remains not recorded (Carretta, 2008). Children are sometimes the subject of war and they suffer from beatings and physical injury; when such a case happens, then the child is more likely to become violent at his later stages in life; this creates another relationship of domestic violence and violence of children and teens:
Violence among children and teens (V.C.T.) = f (domestic violence (D.V.))
Child behaviour development
The environment they are brought up in shapes the behaviour of children; in case his families are violent, the behaviour that the child will develop is likely to be inclined to that angle (Fantuzzo, Fusco, Mohr & Perry, 2007).
A family is a sociological unit, which includes parents and children. The environment that he grows in will shape the kind of behaviour that a child has the relationship is as follows
Children behaviour (C.B) = f (domestic violence (D.V.))
Self-esteem
The family as the simplest unit of a society moulds children self-esteem; self-esteem means the self-value that human beings hold (Anderson & Aviles, A2006). If a child is brought up in a violent family, his/her sense of esteem is lowered. The relationship will be as follows:
Child’s self-esteem (C.E) = f (domestic violence (D.V.))
The above data can be summarised in the following table:
References
Anderson, T., & Aviles, A. (2006). Diverse faces of domestic violence. ABNF Journal, 17(4), 129-132.
Carretta, C. (2008). Domestic violence: a worldwide exploration. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing & Mental Health Services, 46(3), 26-35.
Emery, R. (1989). Family violence. American Psychologist, 44(2), 321-328. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.44.2.321.
Fantuzzo, J., Fusco, R., Mohr, W., & Perry, M. (2007). Domestic Violence and Children’s Presence: A Population-based Study of Law Enforcement Surveillance of Domestic Violence. Journal of Family Violence, 22(6), 331-340.