Exposure to household tension and domestic violence can be incredibly traumatic. This can lead to a lot of mental health issues.
This article will be updated with further research and sources soon.
Sources
DEVELOPING THE COVERT TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE SCALE (COTES): A RETROSPECTIVE EARLY PSYCHOSOCIAL TRAUMA ASSESSMENT TOOL
Tiffany E. Vastardis PhD, LMHC, CCTP, CMHIMP
Clinical Education Specialist • Florida Residential Clinical Training Liaison • Mental Health Researcher • Licensed Psychotherapist • Clinical Trauma Specialist • Integrative Medicine Practitioner
Exposure to Household Tension and Domestic Violence
A study conducted by Vahedi, Krug, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, and Westrupp (2018)
suggests that a link exists between witnessing interparental conflict and externalizing
problems, such as those falling under the symptom spectrum for a diagnosis of Conduct
Disorder (CD), including: physical aggression, disobedience, cheating, stealing, and
vandalism. Findings from an Icelandic study suggested interparental discord lends to
susceptibility to social and emotional problems in both males and females. Specifically,
in family court scenarios, such experiences lent to false confessions in both males and
females under interrogation (Drake, Sigfusdottir, Sigurdsson, & Gudjonsson, 2015).
Emotional divorce between legally married parents, or the lack of emotional investment
into marital relations, bore more severe emotional and behavioral consequences on
affected children than did legal divorce, in an Iranian study (Hashemi & Homayuni,
2017).
Witnessing acts of violence and domestic abuse and/or intimate partner violence
within the household is prevalent amongst North Americans. One Canadian study,
through an evaluation of legal documentation, estimated that at least 1,059,000 children
had been exposed to acts of interparental violence. Furthermore, the same study
presupposed that those children were also exposed to risky coping behaviors on behalf of
their parents, including the use and abuse of sedating prescriptive medications and bingedrinking (Kaukinen, Powers, & Meyer, 2016), further threatening the consistency of care within their household. Finally, a study conducted by Dargis and Koenigs (2017)
suggested an association between exposure to domestic violence in childhood and the
expression of psychopathic traits in a population of incarcerated males.
