Narrative Literature Review: Domestic Violence’s Impact On Children’s Mental And Emotional Health

HLSC4300 Literature Review

Background information

It has been identified that domestic violence has negative impacts on the young people and their families. However, in certain cases, the young people are more affected, as revealed from the cases when they become the perpetrators of domestic violence, at a later stage in their life. Hence, interventions are required to lower the severity of these conditions , thereby eliminating the adverse impacts created on the physical and mental health of the children and adolescents. Domestic violence could also lead to problems in brain and behavioural development among children and young adults. This can get manifested in the form of disordered eating patterns. Children who witness domestic violence try to resort to several coping mechanisms that have long term adverse effects on their health and wellbeing.

Domestic violence is a form of abuse made by one person against another, within a domestic setting. The term domestic setting refers to households, where individuals are bounded in a marriage setting, family setting or ‘co-habilitation’. In most cases, an individual commits domestic violence against his/her partner. However, domestic violence is also common towards children, parents, and elderly people. Domestic violence can be in any form such as, physical, emotional, verbal, and sexual abuse (Pahl, 2016). On a global basis, women are the main victims and demonstrate more susceptibility of experiencing severe forms of domestic violence within the household setting (Sapkota, 2012). However, a crucial consequence of domestic violence is its potential negative impact on the children who live and grow in the houses that are ruled by domestic violence. The environment of these houses is unpredictable and filled with tension, fear and anxiety that significantly affect the emotional and psychological level of the young people or children. A survey conducted by NSPCC revealed that around 6% of the children in the UK have been exposed to severe domestic violence at some point of their childhood. In some cases, the children are still living with varying levels of the domestic violence (Somerset Intelligence, 2018).

Witnessing domestic violence imposes both a short-term and long-term effects on the development of the young people. Some of the reactions that the young people display in case of domestic violence are helplessness, grief, fear, ambivalence, terror, worry, sadness, shame, anger and numbness (Domestic Violence Prevention Centre, 2018). These persistent reactions can damage the cognitive and mental ability of the young people as they might suffer from emotional and behaviour problems. Some short-term impacts of domestic violence on young people of the age group 13-18 years include anxiety, withdrawal, depression, poor communication skills, poor self-image, eating disorder, low academic achievement, low self-esteem, violent outbursts and physical injuries (Welfare and Hollin, 2011). According to Devaney (2015), domestic violence can be in the form of emotional and psychological abuse, which is difficult to measure and quantify. The extent of this type of abuse is disturbing as the controlling tactics of the perpetrator inflicts the belief that the victim is at fault. Some long-term effects of the domestic violence on the young people include anti-social behaviour, high levels of teenage pregnancy, alcohol and drug abuse, youth crimes and suicidal ideations. It must be noted that the domestic violence is a devastating crime that has the potential to shatter and ruin the lives of both the victims and their family (Ogbonnaya and Pohle, 2013). Therefore, there is an immediate need to identify the young people at risk of harm due to domestic violence and efforts must be taken by the government for early intervention to address the problems faced by the young people. The purpose of this research is to identify the impacts of the domestic violence on the young people of age 13-18 years in the UK.

Justifying the research topic

Domestic violence is a burgeoning issue, which has multifaceted impacts on the victim. It creates negative impacts on the health of the victim and also affects the society and the existing criminal justice agencies. However, there are mounting evidences that have explored the effects of domestic violence on children and young people. Domestic violence is not considered as a recently recognised phenomenon, since it has been identified as a major public concern, for the past three decades. Even with an increase in awareness and political consensus, there are latent cases of domestic violence that are not reported publicly. Over the years, a comprehensive idea about the impact of the domestic violence was gained which helped the researchers to conduct studies upon the children and young people. Based on the results reported by British Crime survey, it was found that more than 50% of the households that reported domestic violence included children of ages sixteen years and younger (Devaney, 2015). According to the “Royal College of Psychiatrists”, children and young adults can develop several complex problems as a result of witnessing domestic abuse. These include becoming depressed or anxious, developing sleep disorders, having flashbacks and nightmares, physical symptoms like wetting the bed and tummy aches. Temper tantrums, becoming aggressive or isolating themselves from social company, low self-worth, and indulgence in drug abuse are other common manifestations of these incidents. (women’s aid, 2018). Apart from these manifestations as evident in children and young adults witnessing physical abuse, they may be directly targeted by the perpetrator. As per Stark and Flitcraft, (1988), child abuse is preceded by the infliction of physical abuse on the mother. However, the extent to which a child will be impacted by domestic abuse depends on the time of abuse, the age of the child, whether the child is subjected to physical abuse besides benig a witness to domestic violence, secure attachment with a parent figure and coping skills of the child. The context of this research is to explore the different impacts of domestic violence on young people aged 13-18 years, which would be an indicator for the UK government to assess the needs of these people and ensure providing them support and protection from domestic violence.

There have been researches that focused on the domestic violence by exploring the role of the parents in the reaction of the young person, within the family. Stanley et al. (2012) had studied the perspectives of the parents and young people experiencing domestic violence in two places in England. Each of the victims, perpetrators and young people depicted feelings of guilt and shame that prevented them from disclosing the incidents of domestic violence. The very reason for the non-disclosure of the domestic violence can be attributed to the sense of powerlessness of the children and young people during the incidents of domestic violence. The results of the domestic violence have often led to conflicts in a parent-children relationship, which in turn invokes changes in the dynamics of separation and contact between the children and parents (Johnston and Campbell, 2011). While understanding the impact of the domestic violence on young people aged 13-15 years, the changes in cognitive abilities have been highlighted by many researchers. Tsavoussis et al. (2014) have indicated in the study that domestic violence causes pyschosocial maladaptations in children and young people, which are related to post-traumatic stress disorder. In short, the impact of the domestic violence is such that it would have adverse effects on the brain development of the young people (Voelkle and Lindenberger, 2014).

Literature search strategy

The aim of this research is to assess the impacts of the domestic violence on young people, belonging to the age group of 13-18 years, residing in the UK. The research also aims to explore the strategies that can be implemented to stop these incidents of domestic violence.

The objectives of this research are:

• To determine the extent of domestic violence in recent years, in the UK
• To analyse the impact of domestic violence on young people of age 13-18 years, living in the UK
• To identify the causes of domestic violence on the young people and the interventions that can reduce such situations

A well-structured search strategy is one of the efficient and effective ways to gather extensive evidences on the subject being explored. The search of relevant information becomes especially important for secondary research studies, in order to make sure that apt and relevant information is collected. Focussing on the research topic is important in order to search relevant data. In this case, the topic which has been extensively searched for, through various databases and journal articles is the impacts of domestic violence on young people, aged 13–18 years, in the UK between 2015 and 2017. The most important purpose of a literature search is to formulate the question by studying the vast body of literature available and identifying gaps in them. The key words used for retrieving relevant articles and the inclusion and exclusion criteria assume key importance in a literature search.The literature search usually takes into consideration the possible phrases, key words, wildcard variations and headings of subjects.

The duty of the researcher is to adapt the search strategy, according to the demands of the research study. It can be a time-consuming and exhaustive process. Hence, breaking up the search strategy into main key words and phrases can be beneficial in planning and managing the entire process. It is not always easy to find appropriate information by searching with exact terms or phrases. Therefore, using alternative term(s), having similar meaning can be helpful in yielding relevant information. In this particular research study, the topic was fragmented into key terms and phrases such as ‘domestic violence’, ‘young adults’ ‘UK’ and ‘impacts’ ‘age group’, and ‘13-18’. Use of alternative key words and those with similar meanings helped to maximise the findings of the literature search. However, the researcher faced one particular barrier while conducting the literature search. Owing to the fact that PubMed does not allow use of wildcards in literature search, the researchers made use of truncations or stemming, wherein an asterisk (*) was used at the root of a word, in order to maximise the outcomes of the literature search. Some instances of this truncation search are domestic violence* and young adults* (Shanman, 2017). Different databases make use of different key-words or subject heading combinations. Therefore, customising the key word and heading combinations is imperative for gaining access, to relevant information. Phrases have also been used in this particular literature search, in order to get reliable information related to the research topic. Wildcards have also been helpful in yielding varied and multiple results. Showing similarities with truncation, wildcards use a symbol as a substitute for a letter of any other word. The use of wildcards is helpful for words that are spelled in diverse ways, although they yield the same meaning at the end.

Objectives of the study

The given research topic was based on a social phenomenon. Thus, databases containing numerous articles on this social phenomenon were searched. However, since domestic violence on young adults can lead to several psychological as well as medical consequences, medical databases such as BMJ and PubMed were also accessed. The researcher used MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms for this purpose (Kim, Yeganova and Wilbur, 2016). The use of Boolean Operators also helped to yield relevant outcomes. Boolean operators such as “AND, NOT and OR” were used by the researchers for different term combinations like “domestic violence AND young adults in the UK”, “impact of domestic violence AND young adults in the UK”, “domestic violence AND 13-18 year olds in the UK”, “domestic violence AND the UK”. Using the Boolean operator “AND” in PubMed, BMJ was helpful since a large amount of information was available, contrary to use of a smaller database. The “OR” boolean operator helped to search articles by alternative terms so as to enhance recall (Raychev, 2015).

Use of “OR” had helped to widen the boundaries of the literature search, as it covered a wide variety of synonyms and thus, enabled the retrieval of more specific and a wide range of information. Capital letters had been used for the boolean operators as PubMed and BMJ are case-sensitive databases. Another important criterion is the fact that there are different kinds of databases, which contain multi-disciplinary journals like JSTORE and “Subject Specific Databases”, full of journals that be narrowed down to the specific subject being looked for. Unfortunately, for databases such as JSTORE the scope of search is narrowed down to peer-reviewed journals only.

In order to carry out the literature review, the researcher mainly used the online database, which specialises on fields related to social, medial issues. Databases like that of Medline, PubMed, BMJ, JSTORE and PMC were used in order to gather the required documents. The researcher made sure that while using these databases, English language was preferred while searching the keywords, mentioned above. In order to collect relevant journals for the work, the researcher made sure that the abstract of the articles were thoroughly reviewed. To be more specific about the searches, the researcher focused on PubMed extensively for retrieving the data and information on the impact of domestic violence in young adults. The following results have been obtained from the search made on PubMed.

One of the biggest advantages of using PubMed was that, it has a large number of scholarly journals, which provided the researcher the scope of retrieving relevant articles required for this research. Apart from that, PubMed comprises of more than 22 million citations and abstracts, which allowed the researcher to collect all of the required journals, which matched the criteria of this research. In addition, the researcher ensured that the sections ijn PubMed that contain articles on life sciences and behavioural sciences were thoroughly searched, while extracting the databases. Furthermore PubMed is a government sponsored database, which providesfree access to full text articles and PDF versions as well (National Library of Medicine, 2017). Apart from that there are few other databases including Google scholar, Emerald Insight, which offers journals and reports, not specifically related to t health, life sciences, and medicines Thus, diverse research articles could be extracted from these databases.

Discussion subchapters

The usage of Google scholar to extract the required materials and peer-reviewed journals was helpful, as it contains millions of options to choose from. However, the researcher used several filters while extracting the articles, such as, articles that were published on or after 2015, as the research focused on determining impact of domestic violence on young people, aged 13 – 18 in the UK, between 2015 and 2017. Furthermore, the researcher also made sure that only journals were collected from Google scholar and the books and reports were left out. Since Google scholar has collection of journals from different databases like PubMed, BMJ, Willey it made the search easier (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2018). 

While carrying out the search strategy for the study, the researcher has made sure that meta- analysis was taken into consideration. It is evident use of Meta-analysis, allowed the researcher to combine individual studies, so as to produce a holistic overview of the impact of domestic violence on target population. Hence, the databases helped the researcher to retrieve appropriate data, which in turn provided appropriate supporting documents for the literature and findings. To consider appropriateness of a study for the research topic, it is essential to suggest proper inclusion and exclusion criteria, to facilitate the search process.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria are defined as the set of characteristics, which are used in order to identify prospective subjects that would be included or excluded from the study. A relevant inclusion criteria helps in optimising the overall validity of the study, by improving the quality of the work along with minimising trates of error and decreasing chances of unethical practices. The inclusion criteria for the literature search is given below:

• Articles published in English
• Abstract reviewing
• Full text articles
• Articles published on or after 2015
• Articles that contained information on childhood domestic violence in the UK
• Articles that contained information on witness of domestic abuse or violence in the UK
• Articles that focused on disclosure of direct exposure to, or witnessing of domestic violence by adolescents aged 13-18 years in the UK

• Articles that focused on domestic violence among adults and aged people
• Articles that contained information on domestic violence before 2015
• Incomplete manuscripts
• Only abstracts
• Non-English articles

In this context, it was necessary to include information related to the impact of domestic violence on the young adults and between 2015 and 2017. The search criteria included keywords like ‘domestic violence’ and ‘young people’.In addition, the interventions that lowered rates of domestic violence on the young adults had also been highlighted in this .Thus, the inclusion criteria contained all articles that had the aforementioned key terms, were published in English, on or after . Hence, it indicates the fact that inclusion and exclusion criteria had been of help in narrowing down the search strategy, thereby making it easier for the researcher to determine the appropriate things to be incorporated in the research. The researcher searched more than 20 journals to sort out 6-7 of the most relevant journals to be used in the research, so as to determine the impact of domestic violence on the young adults aged 13 – 18 in the UK.

In order to understand the impact of domestic violence on the young adults, the work of Russell et al. (2016), had been reviewed. While searching with the aforementioned key words, the researcher obtained at least 20 search hits in the first page, related to this article. The boolean operator ‘AND’ helped in extracting this article. Another major attribute of this article was that it provided details on behavioural change and changes in eating patterns. The result of this research reveals that, domestic violence and that occurs for a prolonged period of time is likely to affect the behaviour of young adults and adults. Moreover, it also increases tendency of the people to get addicted to junk food, thereby resultingin obesity..

Reference list

The study conducted by Russell et al. (2016),focused onadults and young adults to a limited extent. Onthe other hand, Howarth et al. (2016) focused their study on children and young adults solely, and tried to determine ways to lower = impacts of domestic violence. Their research was based on mixed method approach, where the secondary data, was collected from databases like MEDLINE, Cochrane, and PsycINFO. The keywords that had been used in this context included ‘interventions’ and ‘strategies to lower the impact of domestic violence’. In addition, key words like ‘symptoms’, ‘effects of domestic violence’ had also been used. The researcher has selected this paper from a list of 20 articles that were retrieved when the terms ‘interventions’ and ‘symptoms of domestic violence’ were used. 

An article on understanding the emotional impacts of domestic violence on young children by Thornton (2014) had also been extracted to identify the emotional impacts of domestic violence on young adults,exposed to domestic violence. Search terms such as, ‘domestic violence’, ‘emotional impact’, ‘young children’, and ‘young adults’ helped in retrieving this article. When these search terms were given in the database as an input, this paper appeared at the first attempt, which made the researcher exclude use of any boolean operators, in the search strategy. The article helped in the identification of emotional impacts created by domestic violence. This can be attributed to the fact that excessive exposure to violence, torture, in combination with high pitched voices are more likely to result in the onset of depression and other mental health issues among the victims, which can be prevented with the implementation of appropriate interventions.

On the other hand, the study by Tizro et al. (2018) focused on youth aggression and violence against parents. It identified that the young people could be both victims and perpetrators. Hence, it was important to consider both the aspects of the study, to understand the impacts of violence on the families as well, in addition to young adults. The journal article was extracted with the use of specific keywords like ‘aggression’, ‘domestic violence’, ‘youth’, ‘family dynamics’ and ‘trauma’. Owing to the fact that the relevant research article did not appear in the first attempt, with the use of only search terms, boolean operators were used as wellto combine the keywords such as, ‘domestic violence’ AND ‘family dynamics’.

An article titled “The Management of Disclosure in Children’s Accounts of Domestic Violence: Practices of Telling and Not Telling” by Callaghan et al., (2017) had been selected as it provided qualitative information about the experiences of domestic violence among young people. This particular study explored the perspectives of children and young people on their own experiences of domestic violence and provided areflection on their capacity to withstand it. This particular article was retrieved with the use of key phrases such as, ‘domestic violence among young adults’, and ’domestic violence in the UK’,. The abstract of the selected article was thoroughly read in order to identify the key elements . The article had taken into consideration the perspetives of children and young people who had themselves been subjected to domestic abuse that established its authenticity.

Boolean operators such as “domestic violence AND young people”, “young people in the UK AND domestic violence”, “impact on young people AND domestic violence”, “young people AND account of domestic violence” were used for retrieving this article. The search strategy yielded 10 results, of which, an abstract reviewing of thefirst ten articles, made the researcher select the aforementioned one.

Similar findings were presented by another article by Fox et al., (2014), titled “Young Teenagers’ experiences of domestic abuse”, that elaborated on the experiences of domestic abuse by teenagers. The article identified gender as an important fulcrum on which, hinges the experience of domestic abuse. The article stated that girls are twice more likely to be victimised than boys,. The key words used in this context were ‘domestic abuse’, ‘dating’, ‘teenagers’,  ‘relationships’, and ‘violence’.The boolean operator “AND” helped to yield articles focussing on the prevalence of domestic violence among young adults, falling in the age bracket of 13-18 years, in the UK. In other words, the search hits provided the researcher with the opportunity to explore all the relevant articles for the literature review. After searching with the help of Boolean operators, 20 articles were retrieved. 15 abstracts of 20 articles were reviewed to eliminte the irrelevant studies. The relevance of this article can be attributed to the fact that it established evidences  that there is no peak age of experiencing domestic abuse, it may be as early as 16 years of age.

Another article that had been selected for the literature review was “Research Review: The Impact of Domestic Violence on Children” by Devaney, (2015). The key words used to search this article were ‘domestic violence’, ‘child abuse’, ‘impact on children’, ‘coping mechanisms’, ‘toxic stres’, ‘brain development’, ‘child protection’, and ‘intervention’. The boolean operators ’AND’ and ‘OR’ were used to conduct a thorough and well-structured search. The introduction of the article was thoroughly read in order to gain an insight into the details of the study. This article focuses on the mental, physical, emotional and psychological effects of domestic violence, which results in an impairment of the social life of people having suffered domestic abuse. It took into consideration children and young adults who had not only suffered, but also been exposed to domestic violence.

Various key phrases and terms used for extracting this article included ‘impact of domestic violence on teenage wellbeing’, ‘toxic stress built up in children being subjected to domestic abuse’,. Although these key terms might not have a direct bearing upon the research question were used in order to optimise the results of the search strategy. Statistical data that supported the findings helped in estimating the precision of the results..

The literature review helped in identification of severaltheories that explain the adverse consequences of domestic violence on child growth and development. It has been identifed by a number of developmental theories that infants develop by forming attachments with at least one parent. As per attachment theory, children form close relationships with parental or guardian figures. Mental respresentations or workable models frame their individual worth, depending on the availability of people and the willingness of parents to provide them protection and care. Domestic violence severely compromises on the child’s need for stability and security, in the form of unavailability of the main care provider. Domestic violence also makes a child more vulnerable to getting exposed to a hostile domestic environment. This makes the children develop poor attachments, which in turn reflects in the form of personality disorders. Other research studies have also focused on the consequences of domestic violence on the brain development of children. The brain of a child develops over successive periods, through the development of particular neural pathways. The foundation of later behavioural outcomes are laid at early stages of life, which if  not detected at early states, might result in  difficulties later on. Evidences reveal that young children with disturbed childhood usually score low, in parameters of cognitive development. The neural pathways development are simultaneously shaped by the envionmental acculturation and genetic make-up of the individual. It has also been revealed that certain stressors cause more harm to child development, than others. Domestic violence leads to prolonged activation of the stress management mechanism of the child which leads to toxic stress.

In certain instances such as, experiences of domestic violence , the child’s stress levels are comparatively higher due to an elevation in levles of stress hormones . This brings about alterations inimportant brain chemicals, thereby leading to an inner psychological state of turmoil that disrupts the normal development of brain. Such disruption most often results in impariments in memory, self-regulation and learning. A prolonged and persistant activation of stress management mechanism could also lead to adverse effects on the metabolic and immune system, leading to adverse consequences later in life. Therefore, children with higher levels of exposure to toxic stress can have more physical illnesses in later life, such as, hypertension, diabetes andcardiovascular diseases, along with a greater propensity to mental illnesses such as, anxiety, depression, substance abuse,. It has also been identified from the reviewed literature that experiences of domestic violence, during childhood induces eating disorders in adults. Study findings reveal that the percentage of adults with violent and unhappy childhood exhibit greater tendencies to low vegetable and fruit intake, when compared to adults who had a happy and violence-free childhood. Median value for regular vegetable and fruit consumption for adults was found to be four, with exceptional cases of participants who suffered due to unhappy childhood (Russell, Hughes and behaviours, 2016). The adults who have had an unhappy childhood are also more probable to develop pathogenic behaviours in later life, like drug abuse and smoking, which increases probability of earlier death (Devaney, 2015). Thus, it is evident from the above findings that an unhappy and violent childhood leads to problems in brain development in children along with adverse consequences for future behaviour. Hence, there is a direct relationship between behavioural issues and childhood domestic violence.

Research findings have provided direct evidence for the impacts of domestic violence andassociated abuse on all ages, cultures and classes of people. However, in most of the cases, young people have been found to demonstrate an increased likelihood of getting affected with the incidents, compared to their adult counterparts, as the former are at an extremelyvulnerable stage of their lives. Devaney (2015) identified that that domestic violence has a significant impacts on the social wellbeing, health andpsychology of the young people. The most prevalent forms of domestic violence are psychological and emotional abuse, which are not measurable and difficult to prove. Thus, the children exposed to domestic abuse, are far from watching the abuse passively, as they experience the violence with all of their senses, which is equivalent to being subjected to domestic violence itself. Often it is seen that the young people who are subjected to domestic violence from their childhood are more likely to become perpetrators of violence, which has been highlighted by Gabriel et al (2018) in their research paper, “Give me some space^: exploring youth to parent aggression and violence”. The research proposed that young girls who are more subjected to parental violence at homes are less likely to become violent, as compared to boys. Girls are considered to be more likely to internalise the trauma or distress, whereas boys tend to externalise it. Hence, it is seen that the girls tend to abuse verbally as an after affect of being subjected to domestic violence, while, the boys are prone to physical aggression. Hence, young boys become more inclined to beating their parents and threatening them, in the course of their lives. Apart from that, it has been found that, as adolescent boys grow older, they are more likely to display a violent and aggressive behaviour towards their fathers, thereby making their fathers a target for CPV, as compared to their mothers. Thus, the findings suggest that gender is highly associated with the severity of domestic violence and is passed on unknowingly, from one generation to the other.

It has also been identified that there is a link between high rates of domestic violence and indulgence in criminal activities, among the young people. These are secondary impacts of domestic violence, which have a detrimental effect on the people and the society, at large. The process through which the young people become the perpetrators of domestic violence has been facilitated by their parents as well. In relation to parental influence, the authors have suggested that parenting styles have a significant impact on domestic violence. Children of parents who are overly permissive or lacking in warmth are more likely to adopt maladaptive or aggressive coping tactics. Moreover, socio-economic disadvantage, family life, and other compounding factors like substance misuse etc, have also been identified as significant risk factors towards making the young people prone to perpetrators of domestic abuse. Hence, it is essential for the family to take steps in negating their familial disputes, so as not to make the children drawn to domestic abuse in the long run. Through this theme, the objective 2 of the study has been fulfilled, which aimed at analysing the impacts of domestic violence on the young people living in the UK.

It has been identified from the literature review that children who experience of domestic violence usually lack the verbal skills necessary to speak about their feelings, and rather prefer to describe their feelings through interpersonal enactments such as, play or drawing. The adverse impact of domestic violence on family dynamics makes it all the more distresing for children to process their emotions. As revealed in an article by Thornton, (2014) play activities and drawings of children revealed the coping strategies that were used by the affected children to deal with the reality. Some of the coping strategies include attempts to remain attached to the adults, increasing self-reliance and considering themselves responsible for victimisation of their mothers. The children depicted themselves in their drawings with overwhelming smiles, which was identified as a method to make themselves amiable and also increased their possibilities of being loved. While this resulted in some of the children trying to work very hard at school, some others consistently made up stories of their illnsses, in order to stay back at home. One child revealed an increasing desire to keep her mother close, which got revealed in an increasing number of her stories ending with the mother-daughter duo spending a lot of lone time, while other characters in the story disappeared. Children portrayed stern responses in their stories, where they intervened to stop domestic abuse. Most of the children represented scenes of violence in their stories, which indicated that they considered it to be a natural part of their family life. However, coping mechanism might not always be a negative thing, as evident from the study by Devaney, (2015) where attachment to a non-violent parent was considered to be a positive coping mechanism tha was recommended by practitioners. However, emotionally focused coping likely produced negative health outcomes in the long-run. Thus, it is evident from the above discussion that coping strategies employed by children are short-term defence mechanisms, which impair their physical and mental wellbeing. However, in cases where they are consistently subjected to domestic violence, practitioners could tap the benefits of the identified coping strategies.

It has also been identified from the literature review that combination of several factors such as, limited emotional literacy and verbal skills, an environment of intimidation, secrecy, created by domestic violence and the emotional unavailability of the primary caregiver deter children from speaking out about their problems. Therefore, all these factors make them a disempowered group. Their disrupting effect on family dyanamics undermines the containment, required by young children for the proper management and processing of their emotions and security. Thus, disempowerment of this group of children suggests their search for coping strategies to deal with the stress of witnessing domestic violence.

Theme 4- Disclosure of domestic violence and intervention is likely to lower the impact on young people

The by Howarth et al., (2016) reveled that mood swings, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder are common among young adults who have experienced domestic violence, from a young age. Apart from that, lowered self-esteem has also been witnessed among the young people. However, psycho-educational interventions to parents and the children are some of the possible ways to control the impact of domestic violence. It has been identified in the research that the most direct way to prevent negative impacts of domestic violence against the young people is to end the violence. However lack of interventions have increased the rates of domestic violence, thereby taking a toll on the physical and mental health of the vulnerable population. The researcher has pointed out that the most common approach that could be taken in order to reduce or prevent the harm associated with domestic violence is by providing direct services to the children or their parents, after the abuse has taken place. In addition, community based advocacy is also a promising strategy for reducing the frequency and severity of domestic violence, among the young people. However, it needs to be understood that once these strategies are implemented, replication of these strategies are needed to ensure its effectiveness and to get appropriate results.

Callaghan et al., (2017) pointed out that disclosure of the experiences of domestic violence, by children and young people is particularly important. Failure to listen to such disclosures results in an increase in risks of severe mental drawbacks. The research finding established the fact that voices already silenced by coercion and violence in the family could further become silenced, by a failure to hear what the target population has to say. Hence hearing out the thoughts and opinions of the children can facilitate the development of measures to combat the situation. Nonetheless, ignorance of such opportunities might result in a failure to prevent domestic violence incidents.

Upon creating appropriate provisions for disclosure of the experiences of domestic violence, young people become more relieved and feel positive about overcoming the situation. However, lack of knowledge among parents, regarding the impacts of domestic violence on children, or denial of the impacts, are likely to affect readiness of parents in engaging themselves or allowing their children to be subjected to several interventions. This acts as a significant barrier in preventing negative impacts of domestic violence. Hence, interventions should determine the cause of domestic violence in the households and the extent to which young people are subjected to them. Thus, through this theme the third objective focused on determining the cause and interventions to tackle the domestic violence has been achieved. Parental support has been identified to play an integral role in this process. However, involvement of the community, schools, and high schools are also essential to provide all round support, with the aim of lowering the impacts of domestic violence and its elimination from the society.

Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion

It becomes evident from the above findings that domestic violence has adverse consequences for the development of children. This can be associated with the fact that development of neural pathways occurs during successive stages of child developmnt in. However, an improper devlopment of neural pathways could lead to pathogenic lifestyle behaviours such as, drug abuse, smoking, alcoholism, and other adverse lifestyle habits. Furthermore, disturbed childhood is a direct predictor of eating disorders that develop in adults,determined by the low consumption levels of vegetables and fruits. Thus, it could be argued that apart from the short-term emotional effects of domestic violnce on young children, there are several long-term lifestyle impacts, evident from their behavioural patterns in the future.

Children use various coping stratgies to deal with domestic violence, experienced at home. These get manifested in their play and drawings, as evident from the above findings. The children consistently portray attachment with their mother through their drawings, which is a coping strategy used to deal with the real life scenario. Similarly, portraying themselves as the mediator in case of domestic violence and making themselves lovable in their drawings, are direct manifestations of their internal psychology, wherein they often take responsibility of the violence and also consider themselves to be the reason of the sufferings of their mother. Although these coping mechanisms help them to deal with the present situation, it generates adverse health consequences in the long-run. Furthermore, the inability to speak out about their experiences of domestic violence andincidents that they were a witness to, disempowers those children. They lack emotionl literacy and adequate verbal skills, necessary to express their feelings. Additionally, the atmosphere of secrecy and intimidation, created at home makes them all the more vulnerable and prevents them from stating their problems. Thus, it becomes evident that children with domestic violence experiences at home are often disempowered and unable to live normal lives, like their peers, which in turn impacts their brain development, as they consistently have to deal with toxic stress.

It has also been identified that domestic abuse is likely to affect all the family members greatly. However, the impact is high on the children and young adults. It has been identified from the research carried out by Gabriel et al (2018), that young people when subjected to domestic abuse to a great extent, become more likely to become perpetrators of domestic abuse. They show an increased tendency of initiating actions that lead to domestic abuse. However, the severity of turning into perpetrators is much less among girls, when compared to boys. Girls are found to use abusive languages, while the boys manifest aggressive behaviours due to prolonged subjection to domestic abuse that involves their parents.Boys also display an increased tendency of showing abuse behaviour towards their fathers that include hitting and punching, in comparison to their mothers. This can be related to the fact that children are most often influenced by the power domination demonstrated by their fathers. Hence, it can be pointed out that parents play an important role in keeping their children safe and preventing them from indulging in abusive or violent behaviour/activities. Thus, parents should acknowledge the fact their role in promoting domestic violence and put a stop to all actions that reflect the same. Counselling and community based advocacy are promising strategies aimed towards reducing the frequency and severity of domestic violence. Moreover, implementation of appropriate interventions and listening to the disclosure of domestic violence experiences, make the children feel relieved and positive about overcoming the situation. Hence, children and the young people should be provided with chances of narrating their experiences. The adults need to provide the scope of hearing, which if not utilised properlymight restrict the children from disclosing, which in due course of time might lead to greater problems,. Thus, the study, helped to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying  causes and  effects of domestic violence and the severe impacts it has on the children and young people,.

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the above discussion that domestic violence has various adverse impacts on the child, who witnesses it. This could range from cognitive impairment and improper development to long-term health conditions. It makes the group of children disempowered as they are unable to adequately expres themselves. Also, coping mechanisms used by these children further debilitate their conditions. These coping mechanisms are usually manifested in interpersonal enactments and consistently speak of their encounters with domestic abuse at home. It could be manifested in the form of writings that end in conversations between the mother and the daughter, while the other characters in the story are wiped out. Furthermore, these could also take the form of stories or drawings where the child intervenes. However, the attachment with a non-violent parent is a coping strtagey which could be promoted by healthcare practitioners, for improving the emotional wellbeing of the child in the short-term period. In addition, domestic violence is highly influential in affecting the young people, as it not only affects their development, but also affects their behaviour. Severe conditions make them turn into perpetrators of the abuse. Young boys subjected to violence in the family from childhood have more probability of hitting their fathers and displaying an aggressive behaviour at home, in their adulthood. Hence, parents play a significant role in making their children act as perpetrators of domestic violence in the longer run. It is essential for the family to acknowledge the fact and undertake measures and interventions, to lower the impact and severity of such abuses. Community based service, counselling, and involvement of schools and parents are essential to modify the behaviour of the children/young people.  Their needs and experiences are required to be heard, so as to pacify them and make them understand that they are being taken care of.

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