‘’ My daddy is a super bouncer while my mother is an ordinary bouncer, my daddy will beat my mummy and my mummy will be crying ,my father is the winner’’. These are the words of a liitle girl of about 8 years old to her class teacher in a school. The said class teacher shows so much love to this young girl that she tell her teacher in her free will. The girl was dramatizing while narrating how her father serially abused her mother. She said’’ My mummy will come home very late and my father will ask her why she is late and she will say she is coming from her friend’s house and my father will now bounce on her’’.
Childreen exposure to marital violence is not only dangerous to learning but it also affect the total psychological being of a child. Childreen exposed to domestic violence are likely to develop regressing, unguarded behaviours and imitating behaviours. . According to research children whose parents have domestic issues may isolate themselves from their peers, trying to always stay in solitude and this on the other hand may attract low self esteem which is not good for the psychological health of a child.
According to social studies, it is believed that a child is a product of his or her environment. Parents can be likened to mirror where children only see nothing but themselves. According to G Margolin in her research paper titled ‘’Effect Of Domestic Violence On Childreen’’ the researcher wrote ‘’ Witnessing violence, in general, has been associated with emotional, behavior, and learning problems in children, with children’s susceptibility affected by developmental level, chronicity of exposure, physical closeness to the incident, and emotional closeness to the victim. On the basis of those parameters, one may conclude that witnessing violence between parents is a particularly insidious event. It is most likely to occur in the home—the one environment generally associated with safety and protection of the child. It is not surprising, therefore, that exposure to marital violence has been associated with a variety of problems in children’’. Since the lifestyle of children is fashioned after their parents children may think violence is an acceptable norm in the society and they may innocently engage in violent acts.
In a research study conducted by Albert Bandura (1997) introducing students to role model that is aggressive, non aggressive and a controlled group that showed noi
Children exposed to domestic violence are likely to develop behavioral problems, such as regressing, exhibiting out of control behavior, and imitating behaviors. Children may think that violence is an acceptable behavior of intimate relationships and become either the victim or the abuser. Some warning signs are bed-wetting, nightmares, distrust of adults, acting tough, having problems becoming attached to other people, and isolating themselves from their close friends and family. Another behavioral response to domestic violence may be that the child may lie in order to avoid confrontation and excessive attention-getting.
In addition, to the behavioral symptoms of children, a source that supports this article is a study that has been done by Albert Bandura (1977). The study that was presented was about introducing children to a role model that is aggressive, non-aggressive, and a control group that showed no role model. This study is called, “The Bobo Doll Experiment”, the experiment influenced the children to act similar to their role model towards the doll itself. The children who were exposed to violence acted with aggression, the children who were exposed to a non-aggressive environment were quite friendly. As a result, children can be highly influenced by what is going on in their environment.
