In a family where there is domestic violence, children are very often the victims too.
Extensive international research has shown that witnessing domestic violence has the potential to harm children not only in the short term, but the harmful effects can continue even up to adulthood.
Children find it very distressing to see the parents they love hurt each other. Living in a state of chronic stress and constant unpredictability affects how their brain develops and their ability to deal with anger and stress. It can make them prone to more anxiety and depression and affects their concentration at school to the extent that it impedes their learning. One of the most devastating impacts of living in a family where there is domestic violence is that children are at risk of psychologically losing their parents – for when parents are frightened or frightening, they find it hard to take care of their children and their children might not be able to trust them. Unfortunately, children living in domestic violence also struggle with other forms of child abuse.
The Commission on Gender-Based Violence and Domestic Violence has recognised the importance of looking at what is happening with children in such families in Malta and has commissioned the Department of Child and Family Studies of the University of Malta to conduct a research study to obtain the prevalence rate of children witnessing domestic violence and experiencing other forms of abuse. Dr Clarissa Sammut Scerri led this first-of-its-kind study with Dr Ingrid Grech Lanfranco, both academics from the Department of Child and Family Studies, and Ms Lara Pace and Ms Maria Borg. The findings were presented during a conference yesterday. The EU Commissioner, Hon. Helena Dalli, Hon. Minister Michael Falzon, Hon. Jonathan Attard, Hon. Byron Camilleri, and Hon. Parliamentary Secretary Rebecca Buttigieg attended the conference together with other esteemed guests.
The prevalence study was a quantitative survey with a representative sample of 433 respondents aged between 18 to 24 years old, who were asked about their retrospective childhood experiences of witnessing domestic violence, suffering child maltreatment, neglect, peer and sibling victimisation and sexual victimisation.
The findings indicated that the most frequent type of victimisation were children witnessing domestic violence, children suffering maltreatment and children experiencing peer and sibling victimisation. On average, females up to the age of 17 years of age experienced a more significant number of victimisations during childhood than males.
With respect to children witnessing domestic violence, a total of 52% of respondents have witnessed domestic violence and indirect victimisation. Out of these, the most frequent type of witnessing domestic abuse and indirect victimisation was witnessing physical violence on objects belonging to a parent/guardian, punching the wall or throwing something (42.5%) or witnessing violence by a parent/guardian on a sibling ( 30.5%). A total of 21.2% of respondents indicated that they have seen one of their parents/guardians get pushed, slapped, hit, punched or beaten up by another parent or their boyfriend or girlfriend. A similar percentage of respondents (20.3%) stated that they saw one of their parents/ guardians threaten to hurt another parent, and it seemed that they might get hurt.
As for experiencing child maltreatment, a total of 61.4% of participants reported suffering experiences of child maltreatment during childhood. The most frequent types of maltreatment were psychological/ emotional abuse (45.0%) and physical abuse by a caregiver (43.0%). Child maltreatment was significantly related to witnessing domestic violence. A total of 64.7% of the respondents claimed that their biological or adoptive father also happened to be the same perpetrator of physical abuse on the other parent, whereas 28.0% of the respondents who have been physically abused have identified their biological or adoptive mother as the perpetrator.
Finally, regarding peer and sibling victimisation, a total of 75.3% of the participants reported experiencing at least one type of victimisation by their peers or siblings. The most frequent types of victimisation were relational aggression by peers (57.7%), peer or sibling assault (46.4%) and physical intimidation by peers (37.4%). Peer and sibling victimisation were significantly related to witnessing intimate partner violence, witnessing family violence, child maltreatment and neglect.
The findings give a strong message that children witnessing domestic violence deserve visibility and need to be given priority across different sectors and departments in policymaking, service development, service delivery and research. Focus needs to be on continued collaboration across all sectors in order to prioritise early intervention in all forms of child abuse, especially in the cases of children witnessing domestic violence, child maltreatment and peer and sibling victimisation. Attention must be given to females who have shown up to be at risk for almost all forms of child abuse. Finally, a violence prevention strategic plan in line with WHO’s evidence-based violence prevention strategy also needs to be high on the agenda.
