The Effects of Domestic Violence on Children - Research Paper Example

The Effects of Domestic Violence on Children INTRODUCTION Over the years, Domestic Violence (DV) has become a common issue, recognised as a social problem that affects everyday lives of many families in the UK including their children. It is a complex problem, which can be difficult to research because it is viewed from a wide range of perspectives. The Department of Health (1) estimated that 750,000 children in the United Kingdom are affected by domestic violence annually. My desire to work with children and families in my future career prompted the decision to conduct a research into the effects of domestic violence on children. The question I will aim to answer at the end of this research is ‘How does domestic violence affect children?’ The results of this research will serve as an awareness guide on the effects of domestic violence and its dangers to children. It will give an insights about the impacts of domestic violence to children which, will in the development of intervention plans to safeguard children from the trauma experienced due to domestic violence. I will also aim to gain appropriate knowledge in problem solving and analytical skills in order to empower my service users and to bring about changes in lives. This research essay will be based on primary research, and will focus on the effects of domestic violence on children by looking at how children witnessing abuse because of their parent’s violence appear to be harmed either, emotionally, psychologically, socially or suffer from behavioural problems. I will start by giving the background of domestic violence, proceed by discussing the necessity of studying effects of Domestic Violence (DV) on children and elaborate on the reason for choosing this topic. I will include the literature review by drawing from existing research on DV, the methodology I used and the method of data analysis will be discussed. Both qualitative and quantitative will be discussed; however my aim is to use the qualitative method by collecting data using various sources such Athens (journals), Government documents, library materials and internet sources. In addition, I will include the ethical issues, a discussion of implication to social work practice and then a conclusion will be drawn. Research Question: How does domestic violence affect children? Definition and Background of Domestic Violence Recent research has shown that currently there no common definition of domestic violence among researchers; this has led to it being declared a problem, which needs attention (National Crime Council and ESR, 2). However, The Home Office in its National Report on Domestic Violence defines domestic violence as “any incident of threatening behaviour, hostility or mistreatment (Psychological, Physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are or have been close partners or family members, despite of gender or sexuality’’ (Home Office, 2005, 1). Domestic violence is seen as private matter within the family and it is rarely reported. It is considered as a form of abuse, which is hidden, and has adverse effects on the family members, children included. In the past, DV was like as a norm in many cultures where men used to abuse their wives and got away with it. Nowadays, attitude towards DV has been changed and it is regarded as an unjust act or crime (Choi, 47). Despite this change, DV is still a common issue in families, with women and children being the most common victims. METHODOLOGY There are two broad research methodologies, namely: qualitative and quantitative, whereby qualitative research is characterised by the presence of diverse perspectives, and approaches (Hussey & Hussey, 30). It relies heavily on reasons explaining diverse aspects of human behaviour, which governs attitudes and consequently govern decisions. It uses in-depth interviews and focuses on group discussions in gathering required data (Hussey and Hussey, 31). On the other hand, quantitative research is often used to create models, which will be used for predicting a certain effect of a variable on another variable. This method involves numeric data, statistical data or data that can be converted into numbers. Quantitative and qualitative researches have their own strengths and differences, which relates to personal bias, which are more intense in qualitative research. The objectives of qualitative research are to give a measure of these biases and to draw an action plan or a conclusion based on the subjective data. On the other hand, quantitative research tries to eliminate bias or subjectivity. Moreover, qualitative research approaches dwells more on the less tangible aspect of the study, the quantitative dwells more of the scale, and the measurable aspects of the subject research. It focuses on numerical, raw data (Denzin & Lincoln, 427). Additionally, quantitative research results can be easily collected and statistically presented, while it is more difficult to interpret and present the findings or results of qualitative research and the findings. Moreover, qualitative research results can be challenged more easily (Denzin and Lincoln, 427). Lastly, the qualitative research is more flexible, and it allows researchers to compare and contrast data. On the other hand, quantitative research gives more emphasis on inflexibility and researchers use methods such as interviews, or open questions, while in quantitative researchers use surveys and questionnaires. Justification for proposed methodology The research will use the methodology of qualitative research in order to explore on the effects of domestic violence on children, and gather opinions of professionals working with children who have been victims of DV. Through the qualitative research procedure, I will apply the form of structure interview, to ascertain the feelings, experiences and fears of the children that have experienced various forms of domestic violence. Nevertheless, there is need of consciousness while relying on professionals than children who are victims of domestic violence to gain the information I needed for the research. SAMPLING Purposive sampling method will be used to select professionals who will participate in the interview. Purposive sampling will be used for interviewing professionals with the relevant knowledge concerning domestic violence, and those who have experience in working with victims of domestic violence. Whittaker (8) recommends that purposive sampling require knowledge, experience and a discussion of the topic being researched whilst giving a range of different ideas. Therefore, when choosing candidates to interview: I will approach social workers, teachers or professionals who work in children’s centre in order to gain relevant information. METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION The data collection will apply interview as the data collection techniques, whereby there various professionals, who work with children who are affected by domestic violence will be interviewed. Interview is a technique that is best used to understand people’s attitude, beliefs or behaviour. I will use structure interview technique for all professionals to be asked the same questions. Structured interview technique using the same questions helps to avoid any bias, thus keeping my research more reliable. Another reason is that the data collected will be manageable to and easy to interpret. However, there may be a possibility of not getting the required to complete my research if the answers are over simplified. ETHICAL ISSUES Ethical issues are a consensus about key principles guiding researchers in order to control their behaviour during the research process. According to Wisker (80) ethical issues are required in research to respect autonomy, privacy, informed consent, doing no harm, confidentiality, and honesty. Therefore, by applying ethical issues I will consider informed consent, confidentiality to ensure that this research is done in compliance to the BASW Code of Ethics (1). According to Haralambos and Holborn (815), informed consent involves the participants voluntarily agreeing to participate in research. Before I start my research, I will seek permission from the respondents by sending them a consent form to provide information and reasons for my research, so that they can make an informed decision on whether to participate or not. I will inform them about their right to withdraw from the research if they feel uncomfortable to continue, and will ensure that the informed consent is obtained before I start. I will consider confidentiality by keeping the participants anonymous and maintaining confidentiality through their identity and personal details of participants in the interview. I will ensure that all collected information remains confidential, and will not be made available to anyone without his or her consent according to the Data Protection Act 1998. Information will be stored in a well-protected location, and will use passwords to protect files on the computers in order to avoid any unauthorised person gaining access to it. LITERATURE REVIEW The research into the effects of domestic violence on children show that children affected by domestic violence run the risk of incurring significant harm (Humphreys, Houghton and Ellis, 2008); and these effects manifest in several ways including physical, behavioural and psychological dimensions. The evidences from recent research showed that children and young people who live in a home where there is domestic violence experience detrimental effect with both short and long term consequences (Cragie, 34). Most importantly, the impacts of hearing, seeing and being around violence within the home directly affect their physical and psychological health and disrupt their daily lives. As a result, children can suffer anxiety, stress, depression, impaired brain development, fear, angry, withdrawn, educational disruption, poor sleep and trauma (Poupart, 24; Barbado’s, 1). Frederick and Goddard (22) examined the effects of domestic violence on children in their educational environment. They suggested that these children have low self-esteem, problem with cognitive tasks, behavioral problems and tended to have bad academic performance. Byrne and Taylor (185) made the same observation, whereby they noted that children involved in domestic violence might sustain impairment related to academic performance as well as facing other challenges such as struggles with self-esteem, forming and maintaining relationships in later life. In a qualitative study carried out in Northern Ireland, Byrne and Taylor (185), they explored the perceptions of Education Welfare Officers, whereby teachers in post primary schools and social workers on the effects of domestic violence on children, confirmed the adverse effects of domestic violence. These findings were recorded from two forms of responses from children. Firstly, there were the children that were quiet and withdrawn and secondly, those that were loud an aggressive. This can be argued that there is no uniform response to domestic violence. Children may display different level of understanding depending on their experiences, and this will influence their behaviours. In addition, their reactions will depend on other factors such as their race, age or gender. Therefore, it is necessary to recognise that each child is unique because children’s reactions and behaviours would be different. For instance, boys who are affected by domestic violence tend to be clingier and aggressive. Whereas, girls tend to be caress, show insecure attachment either to their mother or anyone (Feldman, 2). One of the important issues highlighted by researchers is the aggression, since it is attributed to children who are involved in domestic violence. Adamson and Thompson (75) cited in (Overlien, 1) that children who had a history to domestic violence reacted with greater emotional intensity to conflict than did children who had not grown up with domestic violence. This is because, children who experience domestic violence in their lives may learn to think that, the forms of violence that they see or hear is the proper way of resolving conflicts. In other words, children who have experienced violence from their family are most likely to be involved in violence to other people. These children tend to use violence, which is learnt in their home, thus becoming the perpetrator of violence in their adulthood (The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 51; Osofsky, 33). Bandura (69) bucks up the above evidences with his Social Learning theory where in his findings on learning aggression, he concluded that people learn their behaviour through modelling, observing, coping and internalising another person’s behaviour and they use it later as a role-model (Ingleby,75). In conclusion, one of the problems faced by researchers in the field of children exposed to domestic violence related to seeming death of a common terminology and appropriate definitions of domestic violence (Holden, 40). This means that researchers need to do more research in order to clarify and establish a valid definition of domestic violence. In addition, it is evidenced that few researchers have focused their discussion on the blacks and minority ethnic communities due to the lack of sufficient research, which is attributed to the ethnic and cultural barriers. Therefore, this does not allow sufficient gathering of data, hence resulting to a barrier in understanding, and inappropriate services to children in these groups (Worral, 56). Method of Data Analysis and discussion of findings In this research, I used thematic analysis to analyse literature. This method is used to search through your data in order to identify, analyse and report any recurring patterns within data (Braun and Clarke, 77). I followed Brown and Clarke’s six phases (Braun and Clarke, 77), which entails familiarizing with data by reading journals, articles, and government reports on the effects of domestic violence on children. I reread them again; then I took note the initial ideas in order to identify the recurring themes. The second phase I generated the initial codes by coding and numbering all the intriguing ideas from the data. The third phase involved searching for themes by grouping the issues that rose into each potential theme. The fourth phase involved reviewing the themes gathering ideas identified in the three themes. The fifth phase involved defining and naming the themes by coming up with definitions and name of each theme. Many themes and subthemes came up, but I sorted out by choosing three themes, which are emotional and psychological abuse, behaviour issues and educational issues. The sixth phase-involved production of the report, which showed that although professional, came up with different views; they all confirm that domestic violence has a substantial physical, psychological and emotional effect on children. IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE According to Mullender (133), impact of domestic violence on children has recently started receiving attention by social work institutions and other childcare agencies. The evidences from the literature have shown various factors that influence domestic violence on children, depend on the level of understand, and their experiences. These complex factors may make it difficult for professionals to support children affected by DV and their families. Therefore, it is necessary for social workers to have awareness of domestic violence, by working closely with the victim’s children and their families, listen to them, and provide them with appropriate support whilst creating a safe environment where the child feels safe enough to discuss their experiences and feelings. Assessment should be carried out individually because children are unique, their experiences and circumstances are different, and the intervention should be based on the child-assessed need. Finding from research carried out by Cragie (34) suggests that, in a situation where there is domestic violence, best practice would be working from a child-centred approach by looking at the impact of that violence upon the needs, and safety of all the children involved. It is necessary for social workers to communicate with other agencies such as police, schools and other organisations that work with children who are victims of domestic violence, have joint assessment in meeting the child needs (DfES, 1). Furthermore, social worker should seek training in order to update their knowledge on new policies, gain knowledge around domestic violence and acquire the skills needed for planning intervention that suit each child. Thus, social workers should bear in mind that safeguarding children is their main priority, hence be accountable in managing risks before children reach the crisis. Barker (156) argues that social workers should ensure that they have prevented children from suffering by ensuring that the child is safe. Moreover, they should also be aware of personal values and actions, avoid any assumptions about wiliness to work in an anti-discriminatory and the anti-oppressive way. This requires them to respect and recognise the culture and background, beliefs and religion, race and ethnicity of children and the families involved in order to impose their values on them. CONCLUSION In conclusion, this primary research proposal has discussed domestic violence and its effect on children. From the findings, domestic violence has both long and short-term effects, which are evident in children in different ways depending on their own experience, age, gender and the level of violence. It is also crucial to remember that domestic violence is recurring issues in families; therefore, social workers should be proactive in providing services, and empowering victim’s children and their families. This research has also discussed the literature, methodology and methods I used; looked at the ethical issues and the implications for social work practice. Works Cited Barker, Richard. Making sense of Every Child Matters: Multi-professional practice guidance. Bristol: Policy Press: 2009 Barnardo’s. Domestic Violence, 2001. Available Online from: www.barnardos.org.uk/what we do/our projects/domestic violence.htm [Accessed 31/07/2012] Braun, Virginia and Clarke, Virginia. “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology”, Qualitative Research in Psychology 3(2), 2006, Available Online from: htt://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1191/14788706qp0630a [Accessed 31/07/2012] British Association for Social Workers. The codes of Ethics for Social Work, Birmingham: BASW, 2002 Byrne, David and Byrne, Thomas. “Children at risk of domestic violence and their educational attainment: Perspectives of Education Welfare Officers”, Social workers and Teachers’’ Child in Practice, Volume 13, Issue 3, pp 185-201, 2007 Choi, Kwan. 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Domestic Abuse, Dublin: National Crime Concil, in association with Economic and Social Research Institute, 2005 Mullender, Audrey, Hague Gill, Imam Umme, Kelly Liz, Malos Ellen, and Regan Linda. Children’s Perspectives on Domestic Violence, London: Sage Publication Ltd. 2002 Mullender, Audrey. Children living with Domestic Violence, NISW/BAAF, 1996 Osofsky, Joy. “Prevalence of Children’s Exposure to Domestic Violence and child Maltreatment: Implications for Prevention and Intervention”, Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, Vol. 6, No 3, 2003 Poupart, Kim. Community Care: Working Together for Best Practice in Social Care, Issue 1678, p.24. 2007 Overlien, Carolina. “Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: Conclusions from the Literature and Challenges Ahead”, Journal of Social Work, Volume 10, No 1. 2010 Royal College of Psychiatrists. Mental Health and Growing up Factsjeet 17, Domestic Violence: It’s Effects on Children, London: Royal College of Psychiatrist, 2004 Welsh Government. Tackling Domestic Abuse: The All Wales National Strategy, 2009 Available on:http://wales.gov.uk/dsjlg/publications/commmunitysafety/domesticabusestrategy/strategye.pdf;jsessionid=5t84QG2DrJsLTn59TGTXvLzbvp1CKhlLJ7DXRNmp6VYZkpwvs0qT!2050729620?lang=en Wisker, Gina. The Undergraduate Research Handbook, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. 2009 Worrall, Anne, Boylan Jane and Roberts Diane. SCIE Research briefing 25: Children’s and young people’s experiences of domestic violence involving adults in a parenting role, 2008, [online], Available from: http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/briefings/briefing25/ [Accessed 10/10/2012] Read More