Citation

Feerick MM, Haugaard JJ. J. Fam. Violence 1999; 14(4): 377-398.

Affiliation

Child Development and Behavior Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 6100 Executive Boulevard, Room 4B05, MSC 7510, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892-7510; Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1023/A:1022882131610

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A sample of 313 college women completed a questionnaire about experiences with violence in childhood and adulthood and adult adjustment and relationship functioning. Nine percent of the women reported having witnessed some type of physical conflict between their parents. Witnessing marital violence was associated with other family mental health risks, childhood physical and sexual abuse, and adult physical assaults by strangers. Women who witnessed marital violence reported more symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder than other women, after family background and abuse variables were accounted for. Significant interactions between witnessing marital violence and childhood physical abuse were observed for measures of social avoidance and predictability in partner relationships, indicating that the effects of witnessing marital violence depended on the presence of childhood abuse. Implications of these results for research and interventions are discussed.
marital violence - child abuse - effects on children - adjustment.