Do Fathers Recognize the Effects of
Partner Violence Exposure On Children?

More than 3 million children are exposed to the abuse of their mothers by an

intimate partner each year in the United States, and of these, between 30% and 70% are also physically or sexually abused by their mother’s batterer.

Men who batter can also jeopardize children’s well-being in a number of other ways, such as through neglect, manipulation, or by undermining mothers’ abilities to parent. Accordingly, children whose mothers are victims of relationship violence have been found to be at increased risk for a range of problems including depression, suicidality, anxiety, developmental delay, substance abuse, inappropriate behavior at school, academic problems, school health problems and aggression.  Exposure to intimate partner violence does not affect all children similarly. Research suggests that children’s response to witnessing intimate partner violence is moderated by the victimized parent’s level of stress, coping skills, and parenting ability.

Despite the negative impact of inter-parental abuse, courts seldom deny convicted batterers the opportunity to have some form of regular contact with their children. If contact with children can occur safely, victims of partner violence who separate from their abusers may want their partners to remain present in their children’s lives. For example, a victim may continue to rely upon her

partner for help financially and with childcare, she may feel cultural pressure to preserve family unity, or she may recognize that her children love and miss their abusive parent and feel hopeful that they can maintain a positive relationship

Two studies that have explored the extent to which abusers recognize the potential consequences of their behavior on their children. The studies suggest that fathers who batter may be less concerned about the effect of their partner violence on their children than are mothers, teachers and social services workers. Using a sample of 38 families, researchers assessed abusive and non abusive fathers’ awareness of their children’s behavior problems, correlating their responses to those of mothers, teachers and the children themselves. The study found that fathers with a history of partner violence were not likely to report that their children had behavior problems—despite the fact that mothers and the children themselves indicated otherwise.