Domestic Violence: A Cog on the Bio-Psycho Social Wheel of Children

Abstract

Domestic violence includes an entirety of intentional actions or omissions through which physical, psychological, sexual and economic maltreatment is meted out to an individual, by a person which is or have been in a family relationship with the victim. The victims of domestic violence are predominantly women in family relationships but recent studies show that children are exposed to domestic violence. As many as 275 million children are exposed to domestic violence globally. Children are exposed to domestic violence not only when they are victimised but when they witness the actual abuse, hear the threats or see the after math of actual violence or observe the tension in the house. Children have some developmental milestones which they should accomplish at each stage, and exposure to domestic violence robs the child of the ability to accomplish these normal developmental milestones at appropriate time. Exposure to domestic violence in childhood has been linked to adverse outcomes, including difficulties in cognition, low self-esteem, social withdrawal, anxiety; aggression, and delinquency, including continuing the abusive cycle. These negatively affect the physical, social and psychological development of the child. There is therefore a need for urgent and serious interventions, if the society intends to give billions of children worldwide a future devoid of chaos, anarchy and doom.