Article Summary
Lang, J.M., and Smith Stover, C. October 2008.
Symptom patterns among youth exposed to intimate partner violence. Journal of Family Violence 23(7):619–630.
Children and youths exposed to violence often display a wide range of symptoms, the authors say. The authors note that many children exposed to interpersonal violence (IPV) have shown signs of impairment in a variety of areas including: internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, academic functioning, and socialization. They detail a study they conducted to better understand symptom patterns in youth exposed to IPV. It included 74 mothers, with a child ranging from 2 to 17 years old, and who had placed calls concerning domestic violence. The researchers ran a binary logistic regression on the data obtained to test the effects of exposure to multiple traumatic events. They hoped to identify and group exposed youth into four symptom patterns: typical, asymmetrical, general distress, and acute. The authors conclude that for each additional exposure to a traumatic event, a child’s likelihood of being in either the “general distress” or PTSD clusters increased by 1.7 times. The authors stress the importance of helping the mothers along with the children in these cases—for the benefit of the child. They note that treatment of the mother’s depression is linked with significant improvement in the child’s functioning even when there is no direct child intervention.
Follow us on Twitter
Connect with the Safe Start Center community of
outreach and support. 24 hours a day.
