Social and emotional adjustment, post-traumatic stress disorder, and representations of family relationships: The effects of intimate partner violence on very young children

Introduction

Pregnancy and the birth of a child are times of great vulnerability that can disrupt the couple and sometimes trigger violence.

Objective

This study sets out to examine how a child's exposure to intimate partner violence at a very young age can impact their development and adjustment, and more specifically, to highlight the social, emotional, traumatic and family consequences for children exposed to intimate partner violence in early or late childhood.

Method

Our sample comprised 46 children aged between 5 and 12. The following measurement tools were used: SAGA (Systemic Analysis of Group Affiliation) test (Compagnone, 2009) for family cohesion representations, CBCL (Child Behavior Checklist) (Achenbach, 1991) for social and emotional adjustment, and TSCC (Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children) (Briere, 1989) for post-traumatic stress.

Results

Results indicate that children exposed to intimate partner violence at an early age are the most likely to present symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Conclusion

The representation of the cohesiveness of the mother–child relationship plays a moderating role between the onset of intimate partner violence and the externalized adjustment displayed by the children. This leads us to posit that a poor cohesive mother–child relationship is a risk factor for the child's adjustment.