Domestic Violence and Child Aggression

描述(申请人提供)：拟议研究的主要目标是促进我们对家庭暴力和儿童问题之间关系的理解，重点是儿童的攻击行为。我们计划解决现有研究在概念和方法上的一些重要限制，这些限制限制了我们解释或概括关于这一主题的知识的能力。此外，我们还将研究将家庭暴力理论化以对儿童产生有害影响的途径；重要的是，我们将评估家庭暴力男性对儿童问题的贡献(超出其家庭暴力的影响)。参与者将是1000名7-9岁的儿童、他们的母亲和母亲的伴侣(在母亲和伴侣共同生活的家庭中)。样本将由三个在人口统计学上可比较的群体组成。第一组将包括400名儿童，他们的母亲因最近的家庭暴力而寻求庇护。第二组将由400名儿童组成，他们的母亲最近经历了家庭暴力，但没有寻求庇护。第三组将包括200名未遭受家庭暴力的儿童。每个家庭将参加为期12个月的3次评估；评估将间隔大约6个月。评估将包括对家庭暴力的衡量、与家庭暴力直接相关的邻近背景变量、家庭环境变量、假定为调解家庭暴力与儿童问题之间关系的儿童反应、母亲和伴侣的情绪功能和育儿，以及儿童的攻击行为和内在化问题。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The primary goal of the proposed research is to advance our understanding of the relation between domestic violence and child problems, with an emphasis on children's aggressive behavior. We plan to address a number of important conceptual and methodological limitations of existing research that constrain our ability to interpret or generalize knowledge on this topic. In addition, we will examine pathways by which domestic violence is theorized to exert its detrimental effects on children; and, importantly, we will evaluate the contribution of domestically violent men to child problems (beyond the effects of their domestic violence). Participants will be 1000 children aged 7-9 years, their mothers, and mothers' partners (in families in which mothers and partners live together). The sample will be comprised of three demographically comparable groups. The first group will include 400 children whose mothers sought shelter because of recent domestic violence. The second group will consist of 400 children whose mothers experienced recent domestic violence but have not sought shelter. The third group will include 200 children not exposed to domestic violence. Each family will participate in 3 assessments over a 12-month period; the assessments will be spaced by approximately 6 months. The assessments will include measurements of domestic violence, proximal context variables directly related to the domestic violence, family milieu variables, child responses hypothesized to mediate the relation between domestic violence and child problems, maternal and partner emotional functioning and parenting, and children's aggressive behavior and internalizing problems.