What can schools and social care workers do to help children affected by domestic violence? Large numbers of children are affected by domestic violence. The problem crosses every social class and culture. It causes distress and anxiety in children and adversely affects their learning and play, as well as their behaviour, wellbeing and attendance. Education staff may know of a child or family in crisis, want to help, yet feel outside their comfort zone, grappling with a complex issue not covered in their training. This book describes the impact of domestic violence on children and provides support for education and social care professionals. It takes heavy workloads into account and suggests practical ways of meeting the needs of pupils who come from difficult home backgrounds. The authors provide guidance and advice on: identifying and responding to signs of distress helping pupils to talk about and make sense of their experiences the impact on parenting and how parents can be supported the needs of young people in refuges and temporary accommodation pupil safety and government safeguarding guidelines educating young people and the community about domestic violence specialist domestic violence services and other agencies that support schools. Domestic Violence and Children draws on the expertise of a wide range of professionals, including specialist domestic violence children’s workers and counsellors, psychologists, teachers, mentors and family support workers. It provides essential help and information to all children’s service directorates, as well as a range of professionals in education, social care, health and the voluntary sector.

Discover research from across the United States and around the world on children exposed to domestic violence! If you are a member of a helping, medical, or legal profession, Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: Current Issues in Research, Intervention, Prevention, and Policy Development will help you explore research, assessments, interventions, and policy and prevention for children, victims of battering, batterers, and their families. This important book focuses on various aspects of spousal/partner abuse and child maltreatment. Comprehensive and thorough, Children Exposed to Domestic Violence focuses on three major sections: theoretical and research issues, intervention and prevention strategies, and policy development from an international perspective. Some of the important issues you will examine include: exploring the importance of partnerships between the domestic violence front-line workers and researchers at universities addressing the thorny issues of parenting in abused women assessing all areas of children's adjustment as well as their various relationships that may be problematic investigating the results of a quarter century research on men who batter by focusing on the crucial link between exposure to violence in childhood and adult marital behavior understanding the role of physiological and environmental factors as central to the role in domestic violence exploring the challenges faced by shelter staff in providing services to children who accompany their mother to find refuge examining new ideas for primary prevention programs in schools understanding policy and legislative implications of the growing body of literature on the impact of exposure to violence on children Children Exposed to Domestic Violence exemplifies the serious challenges faced by social workers, educators, policymakers, psychologists and others in helping professions working with children who have been exposed to domestic violence. You will gain insight into the vast amount of research that has taken place in the last ten years on this problem that will assist you with creating research ideas, interventions, prevention programs, and policies concerning children exposed to domestic violence.

Based on the first-hand accounts of children and their mothers regarding their experiences of both domestic violence and support services, this is the first book to examine children's experiences of a range of service provision in response to domestic violence. It seeks to encourage a more effective and professional approach in the services that aim to support and protect children, highlighting both the strengths and the shortcomings of existing professional interventions and illustrating the range of problems that children face when they are living with domestic violence. Drawing on a unique, three-year research project into domestic violence and the support and protection of children, the book explores: * the types of violence experienced by mothers and witnessed by children * the types of abuse children are subjected to * children's understanding of domestic violence * children's and mothers' views of how best to protect children and their perception of the support services * the barriers for children and mothers to seeking help. The book assesses the role and response of the social services, police, refuge staff, solicitors and barristers, voluntary organisations and the agencies of health, education and housing. It describes approaches to existing problems, emphasising the importance of a child-focused response and concludes by recommending improvements for policy and practice.

A key text examining family violence and its effects on children, The Impact of Family Violence on Children and Adolescents presents various definitions of family violence, along with various theories for the origin of the problem. Authors Javad H. Kashani and Wesley D. Allan discuss different types of intrafamilial violence and the effects of each on youngsters. The book then takes up the phenomenon from a cross-cultural perspective, exploring family violence in non-Western contexts. Finally, the authors offer intervention and prevention strategies (clinical and legal) and suggest future directions for research. Examining this crucial topic from a variety of perspectives, The Impact of Family Violence on Children and Adolescents will be essential reading for those in the fields of clinical/counseling psychology, developmental psychology, nursing, behavioral psychology, social work, health services and family studies.

Written by a therapist who specializes in abusive men, this guide reveals how abusers interact with and manipulate children—and how mothers can help their children recover from the trauma of witnessing abuse. Can my partner abuse me and still be a good parent? Should I stay with my partner for my children's sake? How should I talk to my children about the abuse and help them heal? Am I a bad mother? Mothers in physically or emotionally abusive relationships ask themselves these questions every day. Whether it’s physical or “just” emotional abuse, whether it’s aimed at them or you, whether they see or hear it, your kids need you. This book, the first ever of its kind, shows mothers how to: • Protect children and help them heal emotionally • Provide love, support, and positive role models, even in the midst of abuse • Increase their chances of winning custody • Help their kids feel good about themselves “A must-read for every mother who has been abused...it offers the knowledge women need to protect their children and help them heal.”—William S. Pollack, Ph.D., author of the national bestseller Real Boys

`The research methodology and the problems encountered when studying a subject such as domestic violence, coupled with the ethical problems of researching with children, are discussed at length in the book. This gives a good insight into the intricacies of conducting such a research study. The research looked not only at children who were known to have direct contact with domestic violence, but also what children in general thought and felt about domestic violence. The presentation of the findings, both in tabular and narrative form, was well presented′ - Accident and Emergency Nursing Journal `This book offers accessible and interesting reading. It is well written as one would expect from these authors.... There are a lot of pointers for the way forward in terms of both policy and practice. This is likely to become a seminal text′ - Research Policy and Planning ′This is a useful and challenging read for all of us who seek to work effectively and ethically in this complex area of practice′ - Professional Social Work `Just looking at the authors of this book tells the reader that they are about to embark on a pioneering piece of academic research... a comprehensive and authoritative piece of work′ - Domestic Abuse Quarterly `A vital tool for all those working with children′ - ChildRight ′Written in a lucid style and is easy to read... it is essential reading for all students in social work undergraduate courses and also in post-qualifying courses on child welfare and protection. In addition professionals who are directly working in the area of child protection, schools and criminal justice settings would find this book informative and useful in understanding what children and young people want, and need, in relation to living in domestic violence situations′ - Child and Family Social Work ′This book is powerfully written and is essential reading for professional working with and supporting abused women and their children. Its groundbreaking focus on children′s experiences adds much to our understanding of the complexities of domestic violence′ - Journal of Family Studies ′A treasure-chest of rich, diverse and powerful extracts from children and young people... in particular the material presented on different coping strategies used by children who have experienced domestic violence is an important contribution to an area about which very little is known′ - Adoption and Fostering Journal How do children who live with domestic violence cope? How do they make sense of their experiences? Do they receive the right sort of help from formal and informal sources? Drawing on the newest research designed to hear the voices of children and young people, this important book examines children′s experiences and perspectives on living with domestic violence. The authors explore: - the effect of domestic violence on children - what children say would help them most in coping with domestic violence - the advice children would offer other children who find themselves in similar circumstances, their mothers and the helping professions. This accessible book written for students, their teachers, researchers and all those working with children - across social work, health, child psychology and psychiatry, the law and education - will provide a vital insight into children′s own perspectives on domestic violence.

Evidence is mounting that animal abuse, frequently embedded in families scarred by domestic violence and child abuse and neglect, often predicts the potential for other violent acts. As early intervention is critical in the prevention and reduction of aggression, this book encourages researchers and professionals to recognize animal abuse as a significant problem and a human public-health issue that should be included as a curriculum topic in training. The book is an interdisciplinary source book of original essays that examines the relations between animal maltreatment and human interpersonal violence, expands the scope of research in this growing area, and provides practical assessment and documentation strategies to help professionals confronting violence do their jobs better by attending to these connections. As an outgrowth of the Latham Foundation's 1995 training manual, Breaking the Cycles of Violence, this book is a historic step in helping professionals from these disciplines, as well as the general public, recognize the cyclical and insidious nature of family violence and provides training in recognizing peripheral forms of family violence outside a family's immediate purview. It encourages cross-disciplinary prevention and intervention strategies with an ultimate goal of reducing the levels of violence which is such a great societal and cultural concern today. This book brings together, for the first time, all of the leaders in this emerging field. They examine contemporary research and programmatic issues, encourage cross-disciplinary interactions, and describe innovative programs in the field today. Also included are vivid first-person accounts from survivors whose experiences included animal maltreatment among other forms of family violence. Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Animal Abuse provides professional communities of psychologists and child welfare specialists with a deeper, higher, and more encompassing awareness and understanding of the crucial linking of caring for animals and children in human experience. The combination of careful research, documentation, and compelling narrative accounts are blended into a rich resource to help professionals, concerned citizens, and parents understand how the ethics of caring are not bounded by species.