J Fam Viol (2007) 22:33–42
DOI 10.1007/s10896-006-9054-y
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The Influence of Domestic Violence on Preschooler
Behavior and Functioning
Gabriel J. Ybarra · Susan L. Wilkens ·
Alicia F. Lieberman
Published online: 5 January 2007

C Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006
Abstract Enhancing current explanations of domestic vi-
olence exposure effects on child cognitive and behavioral
functioning was the purpose of this investigation. Partic-
ipants were 31 domestic violence exposed and 31 non-
exposed children ages 3 to 5 years and their single-parent
household mothers. Child-mother pairs were matched for
child’s age, gender, and ethnicity, mother’s age and educa-
tion, and annual family income. Child cognitive and behav-
ioral functioning was assessed via psychological assessment
and parent report. The presence of mental health difficul-
ties in mothers was assessed using self-report and clinician-
administered instruments. Exposed children showed lower
verbal functioning and higher internalizing behaviors than
did their non-exposed peers. Exposed mothers displayed
greater psychological difficulties than did their counterparts.
Keywords Domestic violence . Preschoolers .
Intelligence . Psychopathology
Having at least one parent who enacts physical violence,
psychological aggression, or high levels of other conflict-
ual behaviors toward their adult partner has been established
G. J. Ybarra (
)
Department of Psychology, University of North Florida,
4567 St. Johns Bluff Rd., South, Jacksonville,
FL 32224-2645, USA
e-mail: gybarra@unf.edu
S. L. Wilkens
Alliant University,
Alameda, CA, USA
A. F. Lieberman
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine,
University of California San Francisco,
San Francisco, CA, USA
as a positive correlate of child behavioral difficulties (e.g.,
English, Marshall, & Stewart, 2003). Despite the results
provided by outstanding investigations and reviews of this
topic (e.g., Jouriles, Murphy, & O’Leary, 1988; McCloskey,
Figueredo, & Koss, 1995), the existing literature has yet to
fully delineate and describe the extent of child difficulties
directly related to domestic violence (DV). A more thorough
understanding of these relations is necessary for effective
prevention and remediation efforts for children witnesses of
such experiences.
Childhood witnessing of DV is neither uncommon nor
uneventful. Parent reports from community samples suggest
that as many as 30–43% of children in the United States
of America have witnessed some form of physical violence
between their parents (Huth-Bocks, Levendosky, & Semel,
2001; Straus, 1979). In households with spousal abuse,
young children are more likely to witness incidents of vio-
lence than are older children (Fantuzzo, Boruch, Beriama,
Atkins, & Marcus, 1997). Such exposure has been negatively
associated with child development, hindering children’s
accomplishment of key developmental milestones, such as
toilet-training or walking (Osofsky, 1995; Pynoos, 1993;
Pynoos & Eth, 1986). DV exposure also may negatively
affect current cognitive functioning (Koenen, Moffitt, Caspi,
Taylor, & Purcell, 2003) and, more specifically, language
skills development (Huth-Bocks, Levendosky, & Semel,
2001). Early verbal deficits may be especially problematic,
as the start of formal education calls for a substantial reliance
on language as a main foundation for academic functioning.
Indeed, child witnesses display academic deficits, including
weaker academic performance, impaired concentration,
poorer school attendance, and lower school and social
activity interest than do their non-witness classmates
(Carlson, 1984; Hughes, 1988; Wolfe, Jaffe, Wilson, & Zak,
1985).
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Studies also have found a positive relation between DV
and externalizing (e.g., aggression) and internalizing be-
haviors (e.g., lowered self-esteem, anxiety, and depres-
sion) (Cummings & Davies, 1994; Dadds, Atkinson, Turner,
Blums, & Lendich, 1999; Thormaehlen & Bass-Feld, 1994;
Wolfe, Jaffe, Wilson, & Zak, 1985). Child witnesses of DV
may meet criteria for psychological disorders, especially
posttraumatic stress disorder (Ackerman & Pickering, 1989;
Kilpatrick & Williams, 1998; Osofsky, 1995; Rossman & Ho,
2000) more often than do their non-exposed peers. Child re-
lational correlates of DV exposure include reduced empathy
and prosocial behaviors, poorer communication skills, and
increased behaviors that undermine the development of a so-
cial network (e.g., aggression toward peers) (Dadds et al.,
1999; Thormaehlen & Bass-Feld, 1994).
The negative effects of child exposure to violence or
conflict within the home have been attributed to a variety of
interactive mechanisms, with child externalizing behaviors
positively related to more severe DV (e.g., higher levels
of violence, more intense psychological aggression), direct
behavior modeling, an impaired child-parent relationship,
social information processing and impaired emotion regula-
tion, while child internalizing behavioral difficulties appear
to be better explained by the presence of distorted cognitions
by children, including attributional errors (Greenberg,
Speltz, & DeKlyen, 1993; Grych & Fincham, 1990; Grych,
Fincham, Jouriles, & McDonald, 2000; Rutter, 1994; Weiss,
Dodge, Bates, & Pettit, 1992). Indeed, such cognitive errors
have been positively related to internalizing behaviors in
community-based and shelter-residing children exposed
to parental conflict, but not to externalizing behaviors
(Grych et al., 2000). Unfortunately, much of the current
literature on DV effects on children is limited by the lack
of control for the variable of child abuse within many
studies (e.g., Huth-Bocks, Levendosky, & Semel, 2001),
making it difficult to separate effects of child abuse from
those of more severe DV. The current investigation controls
for this confound by using child abuse as an exclusionary
criterion.
Child age is an important factor that must be considered
when attempting to explain differential outcome following
DV exposure. Much of the DV literature addressing
children focuses on latency-aged children (e.g., Levendosky
& Graham-Bermann, 1998; Kerig, Fedorowicz, Brown,
Patenaude, & Warren, 1998) or includes a wide age range
within childhood (e.g., Graham-Bermann, 1996). Use of a
wide age range in childhood inhibits one’s ability to identify
effects or processes more unique to a particular develop-
mental period. For example, in parental conflict literature,
younger children often display more intense internalizing
and externalizing behavioral responses to parental conflict
than do older children and adolescents (Cummings, Zahn-
Waxler, & Radke-Yarrow, 1984), in part due to younger
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J Fam Viol (2007) 22:33–42
children’s greater parental contact and smaller social support
networks than that of their older counterparts (Porter &
O’Leary, 1980). The possession of less mature cognitive
skills also may increase younger children’s likelihood of
expressing psychological vulnerabilities following conflict
due to more frequent aforementioned cognitive errors,
such as, “I made him hit Mommy.” The current study
addresses the age range and early childhood weaknesses in
the literature by focusing on pre-schoolers ages 3 to 5 years.
Child outcome following exposure to DV appears to be
influenced by factors presented by mothers. Following phys-
ical battery by male partners, samples of women treated at
shelters (Kemp, Rawlings, & Green, 1991; Presty, 1996) or
outpatient facilities (Cascardi, O’Leary, Lawrence, & Schlee,
1995) meet criteria for PTSD at a rate that exceeds that of
the general population. A woman’s experience of PTSD or
other psychological difficulties may impede her parenting
behaviors and her ability to cope with her child’s negative
behaviors (Emery & Laumann-Billings, 1992; Presty, 1996).
For example, psychopathology might decrease a mother’s
ability to appropriately address common child-rearing
situations involving crying, comforting, or limit-setting (see
Levendosky & Graham-Bermann, 1998). Parenting appears
to be an avenue of child-parent interaction that is disrupted
by DV, with such exposure associated with elevated parental
stress, poorer behavioral control of children, reduced
parental availability, and a more authoritarian parenting
style (Erel & Burman, 1995; Levendosky & Graham-
Bermann, 1998; Levendosky, Huth-Bocks, Shapiro, &
Semel, 2003). Specific risk factors may increase a woman’s
vulnerability to PTSD following DV exposure, including
early major life stressors (van der Kolk, McFarlane, &
Weiseth, 1996; Wilson & Keane, 1997).
The disruption by DV on the child-parent relationship
also might help to explain observed deficits in cognitive
functioning in early childhood. Huth-Bocks, Levendosky,
and Semel (2001) found 3–5 year old children exposed to
DV to display lower verbal abilities than non-exposed peers,
while no difference was observed in non-verbal abilities.
However, this study used the Peabody Picture Vocabulary
Test–Revised (Dunn & Dunn, 1981), a measure of expres-
sive rather than receptive language, and the Block Design
subtest from the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of
Intelligence–Revised (WPPSI-R; Wechsler, 1989), suggest-
ing that these estimates of cognitive abilities may be more
limited than would be estimates based on fuller assessments
of cognitive functioning. Koenen et al. (2003) assessed a
sizable sample of 1116 sets of twins in England and dis-
covered that domestic violence exposure accounts for 4%
of variation on young children’s intelligence quotient (IQ)
points, with an average reduction of 8 IQ points. How-
ever, this investigation failed to assess for the presence of
maternal psychopathology. It may be that resultant maternal
J Fam Viol (2007) 22:33–42
psychopathology leaves a child with an impaired partner or
“coach” with whom to practice foundational verbal skills,
while non-verbal skills are more easily pursued in a soli-
tary or sibling-led manner. The current study improves upon
the most recent literature on cognitive affects of DV expo-
sure through the use of a full WPPSI-R battery (Wechsler,
1989) to more rigorously evaluate both verbal and perfor-
mance skills in DV-exposed and non-exposed children, and
through the assessment for maternal psychopathology via
the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS; Blake et al.,
1990) and the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R;
Derogatis, 1983).
Confounding variables that must be considered within
an investigation on children exposed to domestic violence
include socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and extra-
familial community violence. Socioeconomic status is rel-
evant because recently dissolved violent relationships often
result in significant economic strain for a mother and her
child. The role of race and ethnicity can be controlled within
such an investigation without sacrificing unduly the gener-
alizability of a project’s results. Also, as literature shows
that community violence can negatively impact a child’s
functioning (Richters, 1990; Richters & Martinez, 1993),
assessing community violence in addition to DV exposure
allows one to separate the former from the latter’s effects.
The current study exceeds the great majority of investigations
on these issues by matching exposed and non-exposed par-
ent child-dyads on socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity,
and by assessing and controlling for community violence
exposure.
To systematically evaluate the role of domestic violence,
we recruited a sample of children and mothers not exposed to
DV matched on key demographic variables and single mother
head of household status to another sample of mother and
child DV victims referred for clinical services. The purpose
of the present study was to determine whether exposure to
DV leads to deficits in functioning in children and their moth-
ers that exceed the effects of other contextual variables often
associated with DV, including lower socioeconomic status,
community violence, and early maternal history of stress-
ful life events. Four main hypotheses were made, predicting
that: (1) child witnesses of DV would display lower verbal
cognitive functioning than would their non-exposed peers,
with no differences in non-verbal functioning; (2) child
witnesses would have greater internalizing and externaliz-
ing behavioral difficulties than would non-witness children;
(3) exposed children of mothers with greater psychopathol-
ogy would display lower cognitive abilities and greater be-
havioral difficulties than would their exposed counterparts
of less symptomatic mothers, and (4) children exposed to
higher levels of DV would exhibit greater externalizing be-
haviors than would their peers exposed to lower levels of
DV.
35
Method
Participants
Participants were 62 preschoolers aged 3 to 5 years (M age =
52.8 months) and their mothers invited to a laboratory located
on a large urban hospital campus. Out of a potential pool of
82 mother- child dyads referred by mental health profes-
sionals, caseworkers, the local legal system, community out-
reach, or word-of-mouth following exposure to DV and sep-
aration from the mother’s violent partner (Exposed group) as
part of an initial assessment for an ongoing empirically-based
intervention program, thirty-one pairs were matched on de-
mographic information to dyads from a community sample.
To create a community sample pool, a separate group of
52 mother-child pairs from single parent households with no
DV exposure was recruited and asked to provide permission
to be considered for participation in the current investiga-
tion. The community sample was recruited from various lo-
cal sources, including preschools, community centers, Head
Start programs, and pediatric clinics (Non-Exposed group).
In an effort to minimize the influence of confounding vari-
ables, Exposed and Non-Exposed dyads were matched in a
stepwise fashion on child age (within 6 months), child gen-
der, and child ethnicity (matched with one parent’s ethnicity
if no full match was possible), mother’s age (within 5 years),
mother’s educational attainment, and annual family income,
while the researchers were blind to other target variables,
with random selection used to choose among more than one
match. To control for the influence of fathers, mothers in
both groups were single heads of households. Exclusionary
criteria for both mother and child were mental retardation
or autism, substance abuse, chronic or severe mental illness,
active suicidal or homicidal ideation, life-threatening medi-
cal illness, inability to speak English, or a confirmed report
of child physical or sexual abuse. Of these initial pools, 33
pairs were created for comparison (63.4% of the commu-
nity sample, 40.2% of the clinical sample) and agreed to
participate with their child in the study. Data from two Non-
Exposed children were not included in the analysis due to
the discovery of insufficient English language proficiency,
necessitating eliminating two dyads from analyses.
Setting and researcher personnel
Assessment of the child participants took place in a 16-foot2
playroom that included two child-sized chairs and an exam-
ination table. Mothers were assessed in a nearby interview
room. The child and adult assessments were conducted by
Ph.D.-level postdoctoral fellows, and pre-doctoral interns in
clinical psychology. Licensed clinical psychologists super-
vised all assessments.
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36
Procedure
Each mother who agreed to participate with her child was
scheduled for an appointment. Mothers were instructed to
prepare their child for the appointment by telling them that
they would be asked to play, tell stories, and answer ques-
tions. Following arrival, participating pairs were welcomed,
with the mother provided verbal and written explanations
prior to providing consent for herself and her child. The
child and mother participants were shown the location of
the two experimental rooms, then invited to begin their
simultaneous participation with their respective assessor.
Child participants were administered the Wechsler Preschool
and Primary Scales of Intelligence-Revised (WPSSI-R;
Wechsler, 1989). The adult assessor interviewed the mother
in a semi-structured manner to gather demographic informa-
tion and to evaluate the presence of trauma-related symptoms
(CAPS; Blake et al., 1990), and presented the mother with
a series of self-report and parent report questionnaires. Dur-
ing their assessment, children and mothers were encouraged
to take a 10-min break and to enjoy a snack of juice and
cookies to minimize fatigue and maintain rapport. Follow-
ing completion of their participation, mothers and children
were debriefed and thanked, paid $30.00 for their participa-
tion, and reimbursed for participation-related child-care or
transportation costs. Child participants were offered a small
toy worth approximately $3.00.
Measures
Children’s exposure to community violence
Mothers reported on their child’s exposure to violence from
the larger social context by completing the parent report
version of the Screening Survey of Children’s Exposure to
Community Violence (CECV; Richters & Martinez, 1993)
parent-report questionnaire. The CECV is a 51-item parent
report questionnaire that assesses the extent to which a child
or someone who the child knows has been exposed to violent
events, such as being chased by gangs, experiencing a seri-
ous accident, being slapped, punched, or hit. In the present
study, the CECV showed moderate internal consistency with
a coefficient alpha of .79.
Child behavior
The Child Behavior Checklist 2/3 or 4/18 (CBCL 2/3 or
4/18; Achenbach, 1991; Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983)
was used to assess the mothers’ perception of their child’s
general behavioral functioning. Two summary index scores
of the CBCL were analyzed in the present study: mothers’
report of their child’s internalizing behaviors (Internalizing
T score) and externalizing behaviors (Externalizing T score).
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J Fam Viol (2007) 22:33–42
Achenbach (1991; Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983) reports
high to moderate reliability and construct validity.
Child cognitive functioning
The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scales of Intelligence-
Revised (WPSSI-R; Wechsler, 1989) is a widely used, well-
established cognitive assessment instrument for children
aged 3 years to 7 years, 3months. The current study used
the full battery of subscales, summarizing children’s cogni-
tive functioning using three IQ scores - Performance, Ver-
bal, and Full Scale–as directed in the WPSSI-R manual
(Wechsler, 1989). Wechsler reports strong reliability and va-
lidity for the measure.
Incidence of domestic violence
The Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS; Straus, 1979; Straus,
Hamby, Boney-McCoy, & Sugarman, 1996) were completed
by participating mothers to assess the frequency of dif-
ferent conflict-related behaviors enacted by the participat-
ing mother and her partner toward each other during last
12 months of their relationship. The original Conflict Tactics
Scales (CTS1; Straus, 1979) were used to assess 27 of the 31
subjects in the clinical, exposed sample. The Revised Con-
flict Tactics Scales (CTS2; Straus et al., 1996) was used to
assess exposure to DV in the remaining exposed subjects and
for all of the non-exposed subjects. Only responses to items
common to both CTS versions were selected for analyses,
with the items contributing to constructs related to conflict:
violence/physical assault, verbal/psychological aggression,
and reasoning/negotiation (Straus, 1979; Straus et al., 1996).
Mothers’ responses were scored in the manner specified by
the instrument’s authors (Straus et al., 1996). Straus provides
data indicating strong interparent reliability, with numerous
studies of conflict between parents of children suggesting
at least moderate validity (e.g., Cummings et al., 1984;
El-Sheikh, 1994).
Maternal life events
The Life Stressor Checklist (LSC; Wolfe, Kimerling,
& Brown, 1993; Wolfe, Kimerling, Brown, Chrestman,
& Levin, 1996) was used to assess participating mother’s ex-
perience of very distressing events in their lifetimes. Moth-
ers completed the LSC to validate claimed experiences of
a traumatic event (Criterion A; Wolfe, Kimerling, Brown,
Chrestman, & Levin, 1996). Mothers indicated each stres-
sor’s subjective impact at the time of occurrence and the
degree of the event’s influence on their lives. Mothers re-
sponded to a series of 22 potentially traumatic life events,
including: accidents and natural disasters: personal events
such as illness, separation and loss, and physical and sexual
J Fam Viol (2007) 22:33–42
violence and assault. In the current study, the LSC showed
high internal consistency on the occurrence of traumatic
events within a person’s lifetime with a coefficient alpha
of .79. Life stressors endorsed by mothers were further as-
sessed using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (Blake
et al., 1990).
Maternal psychological functioning
The Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS; Blake et al.,
1990) is a structured clinical interview that assesses conse-
quences of possibly traumatic events. Participating moth-
ers were interviewed with the CAPS by the adult assessor
to further pursue events reported on the LSC and to assess
whether any resultant difficulties fit the established symptom
clusters of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including
the frequency and intensity of symptoms involving persistent
reexperiencing of a traumatic event, persistent avoidance of
stimuli associated with the event, and persistent increased
emotional or physiological arousal not present prior to the
traumatic event. Mothers’ current PTSD symptoms were
assessed for the current investigation (Blake et al., 1990).
Symptoms endorsement was defined using the “1–2” rule,
with a symptom’s presence indicated by a minimal frequency
of at least once a month and a symptom intensity of at least
a “2” (moderate intensity or distress; Blake et al., 1995).
Mothers’ experience of PTSD symptoms was summarized
by adding the products of a frequency by intensity calcu-
lation for each of the three symptom clusters (Blake et al.,
1995). The CAPS has been reported to have at least moder-
ate reliability and validity (Blake et al., 1990, 1995; Foa &
Tolin, 2000; King, Leskin, King, & Weathers, 1998; Mueser
et al., 2001). In the current study, high internal consistency
for frequency by intensity scores for the separate reexperi-
encing, avoidance, and arousal symptom clusters and overall
frequency by intensity score was observed with coefficient
alphas of ranging from .86 to .93.
The Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R;
Derogatis, 1983), self-report questionnaire composed of 90
briefly described psychological and somatic symptoms, was
completed by mothers to provide a more general assessment
of difficulties present at the time of assessment. Individual
responses were compared to normative nonpatient data to de-
rive a global distress index, the Global Severity Index (GSI).
Moderate reliability and validity for the GSI have been re-
ported by Derogatis and Lazarus (1994).
Statistical analyses
Validation of the matching process and the DV Exposed
and Non-Exposed group assignment were conducted using
t-tests, univariate analyses of variance (ANOVA), and Chi-
square analyses on demographic and CTS scores. Analy-
37
ses of main hypotheses were conducted in the following
manner. First, separate independent sample t-tests were con-
ducted to investigate the influence of domestic violence on
child cognitive and behavioral functioning. Separate t-tests
also were used to explore group differences for maternal
functioning. A median split on a composite score of ma-
ternal psychopathology was conducted for the evaluation of
behavioral and cognitive functioning of Exposed children
of mothers with high versus low levels of symptomology.
A median split on level of DV exposure was used to cat-
egorize Exposed children as having high versus low DV
exposure, followed by independent sample t-tests on child
behavioral and cognitive functioning. Finally, although the
child participants were gender-matched, the influence of gen-
der was evaluated to explore its relation to child function-
ing within this sample. Data were analyzed using SPSS for
Windows v. 11.5, with result levels with p < .05 defined as
significant.
Results
As a validity check for the matching process, comparisons
between the Exposed and Non-Exposed groups on children’s
gender, age, and ethnicity, mothers’ age and education, and
annual family income were conducted, and revealed no group
differences (see Table 1). Using separate two (gender) by
two (Condition: Exposed, Non-Exposed) univariate analyses
of variance (ANOVA), more specific evaluation of possible
gender differences were explored. No differences were by
According to maternal report on the CECV, children from
violent homes experienced marginally more community vio-
lence (9.6 violent events) than did children naı̈ve to DV (6.3
events), t(59) = 1.7, p = .094. To remove possible overlap
with DV events, twenty-two items of the original 51 CECV
items were removed for a more conservative comparison,
resulting in no difference between Exposed (3.2 events) and
Non-Exposed groups (2.6 events), p > .40.
As validation for the membership of “Exposed” versus
“Non-Exposed” group identification, mothers who expe-
rienced DV during their child’s lifetime reported on the
Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS; Straus, 1979; Straus et al.,
1996) a significantly higher number of physically violent ac-
tions directed at them by their male partners during the last
12 months of their relationship than did their counterparts
not exposed to DV, t(58) = 6.91, p < .001 (See Table 1).
Psychological aggression and sexual violence were enacted
more often by male partners of Exposed mothers than by
partners of Non-Exposed mothers, ps < .01. Also contribut-
ing to children’s DV exposure, Exposed mothers reported
enacting a greater number of physically violent and psy-
chologically aggressive behaviors toward their male partner
than did Non-Exposed mothers, ps < .05. No overlap was
observed between groups on physical violence, with little
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38 J Fam Viol (2007) 22:33–42

Table 1 Summary of means,

standard deviations, and Exposed (n = 31) Non-exposed (n = 31)
analyses of demographic Age M (SD) M (SD) t df
characteristics for exposed and
non-exposed groups Child (months) 52.6 (8.8) 53.9 (9.5) 0.28 60
Mother (years) 32.6 (6.3) 34.1 (7.3) 0.39 60
Annual family income $22,412 ($19,800) $28480 ($27,200)
Child gender f f χ2
Male 18 18 0.00
Female 13 13
Child ethnicity 4.01
Asian 3 2
Black 5 11
Latino 4 4
White 7 5
Mixed 12 9
Mother education 0.11
High school or less 9 10
Some college 10 9
College graduate 12 12
CTS Score Ma Rangeb Ma Rangeb t
Physical violence
Mother 22.9 0 to 204 0.30 0 to 4 2.22∗ 60
Partner 56.8 7 to 184 48.5 0 to 2 6.33∗∗∗ 60
a
Mean number of behaviors Psychological aggression
enacted in last 12 months Mother 55.6 0 to 184 52.8 0 to 90 3.03∗∗ 60
reported on Conflict Tactics
Partner 57.6 18 to 200 48.5 4 to 80 6.91∗∗∗ 60
Scales;
b
Sexual violence
Range of number of behaviors
Mother 55.6 0 to 25 52.8 0 to 25 0.41 60
reported; ∗ p < .05; ∗∗ p < .01;
∗∗∗ Partner 57.6 5 to 175 48.5 0 to 25 2.73∗∗ 60
p < .001.

overlap between groups on psychological aggression and
sexual violence.
On the WPPSI-R(Wechsler, 1989), DV-exposed children
achieved lower Verbal IQs (M = 89.8) than did Non-Exposed
children (M = 100.7), t(58) = 2.36, p < .05 (see Table 2). A
similar pattern was seen on the Full Scale IQ, with Non-
Exposed children achieving higher scores (M = 101.1) than
their Exposed counterparts (M = 92.2), t(58) = 2.01, p < .05.
No differences were found between groups on Performance
IQ, p > .20. All IQ means for the Exposed and Non-Exposed
groups were within the Average range for cognitive func-
tioning (Wechsler, 1989).

Table 2 Cognitive functioning

and behavioral problems means Exposed (n = 29) Non-exposed (n = 31)
and standard deviations for WPPSI-R Ma (SD)b Ma (SD)b t df Powere
exposed and non-exposed
children Full scale IQ 92.2 (17.0) 101.1 (17.2) 2.01∗ 58 0.59
Verbal scale IQ 89.8 (16.6) 100.7 (18.9) 2.36∗ 58 0.80
Males 85.8 (15.5) 93.8 (15.5)
Females 95.4 (17.1) 109.2 (19.9)
a
Normative WPPSI-R Full Performance IQ 96.1 (15.0) 101.1 (16.3) 1.25 58 0.26
Scale, Verbal, & Performance Males 94.4 (17.7) 96.1 (17.0)
Intelligence Quotient M = 100.
Females 98.3 (12.0) 107.3 (13.3)
b
Normative WPPSI-R Full
Scale, Verbal, & Performance CBCL T-scores (n = 31) (n = 31)
Intelligence Quotient SD = 15. Mc (SD)d Mc (SD)d
c
Normative CBCL Scale T-score Externalizing 56.4 (9.8) 56.0 (8.5) 0.15 0.05
M = 50. 60
d
Normative CBCL Scale Males 55.8 (11.3) 55.1 (8.0)
T-score SD = 10. Females 57.2 (7.8) 57.4 (9.4)
e
Power as a function of δ and Internalizing 56.5 (10.6) 51.0 (9.7) 2.11∗ 60 0.58
significance level (α = .05). Males 55.6 (9.7) 52.8 (8.9)
∗ Females 57.6 (12.5) 48.5 (10.5)
p < .05.

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J Fam Viol (2007) 22:33–42
Table 3 Life stress events and current psychological functioning means and standard deviations or percent-
ages for exposed and non-exposed mothers
Exposed (n = 31)
LSC M (SD)
Eventsa 9.33 (3.7)
Current distressb 1.11 (0.7)
SCL-90-R
GSI scorec 62.3 (10.9)
CAPS (n = 31)
Mb (SD)
Frequency by Intensity Score 41.8 (23.2)
a
Number of self-reported negative life events.
b
Level of current distress related to experienced negative events.
c
Global Severity Index T-Score Normative M = 50.
∗∗
p < .01; ∗∗∗ p < .001.
Children exposed to DV displayed higher levels of inter-
nalizing behaviors (M T-score = 56.5) than did their Non-
Exposed counterparts (M = 51.0) on the CBCL, t(60) = 2.11,
p < .05 (Achenbach, 1991; Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983;
see Table 2). However, no group differences were observed
on externalizing behaviors. It is important to note that both
groups were within the normal range for severity level (T-
score < 70) of behavioral difficulties.
Review of mother’s exposure to life stressors revealed
that Non-Exposed mothers experienced fewer negative non-
domestic violence life events (M = 6.87) than did Exposed
mothers (M = 9.33), t(60) = 2.83, p < .01. However, the two
groups of mothers did not differ in their report of current
difficulties related to these negative events, p > .362. In-
vestigation of maternal psychological functioning revealed
that Exposed mothers reported higher psychological distress
(M = 62.3), as indicated by the SCL-90-R Global Severity In-
dex (GSI) T-Score, than did their Non-Exposed counterparts
(M = 52.8), t(60) = 3.34, p < .001 (see Table 3). In addition,
Exposed mothers reported a higher frequency and intensity
of their symptoms (M = 41.8) during the CAPS interview
than did Non-Exposed mothers (M = 18.1), t(60) = 4.77,
p < .001. To evaluate the role of maternal psychopathol-
ogy within the DV-Exposed group, a composite score of
psychopathology was calculated by adding the CAPS sum-
mary score and the SCL-90-R’s GSI index score. A me-
dian split was used to divide Exposed mothers into high
and low categories of psychopathology. Using the Exposure
group median of 104.1 for maternal psychopathology, moth-
ers were divided into “high” and “low” categories. Exposed
children of mothers with high levels of psychopathology dis-
played higher Internalizing difficulties (M = 56.5) than did
their peers of mothers with low psychopathology (M = 51.0),
t(28) = 2.05, p < .05. No group differences were found be-
tween Exposed children from high and low maternal psy-
39
Non-exposed (n = 31)
M (SD) t df
6.87 (3.0) 2.83∗∗ 60
0.89 (1.1) 0.92 60
52.8 (11.3) 3.34∗∗ 60
(n = 31)
Mb (SD)
18.1 (14.1) 4.77∗∗∗ 60
chopathology categories for externalizing behavioral diffi-
culties, or for Verbal, Performance, or Full Scale IQs.
To further explore the influence of DV on children’s be-
havioral functioning, Exposed children were divided into
high and low DV exposure categories using a median split.
First, summary CTS scores of physical violence, psycholog-
ical aggression, and sexual violence were combined to cal-
culate a DV-Exposure summary score. Using the Exposed
group median of 122 DV-related events, children were di-
vided into high and low categories. Children exposed to
higher levels of DV displayed marginally more externalizing
behaviors (M T-score = 59.8) than did their low-DV peers
(M = 53.1), t (28) = 1.91, p = .067.
The potential influence of gender on intellectual function-
ing was evaluated using separate two (Condition: Exposed,
Non-Exposed) by 2 (Gender: Male, Female) univariate anal-
ysis of variance (ANOVA) on Full Scale IQ, Verbal IQ, and
Performance, all resulting in non-significant interactions,
ps > .360. To evaluate the influence of gender on parent-
reported child behavior, similar ANOVA were run on CBCL
Internalizing and Externalizing T-scores, also resulting in
non-significant interactions, ps > .230.
Discussion
This study is one of the few to follow the methodologi-
cally rigorous standards of: (1) using more than one reporter
(both mother and child) and more than one outcome variable
(mother psychopathology, child behavior, and child cogni-
tive functioning), (2) focusing on a narrow child age range
to avoid developmental change as a confound, and (3) eval-
uating both clinical and non-clinical range families for en-
hanced understanding of the role of DV (O’Brien, Margolin,
& John, 1995). Further, through a matching process and
Springer
40
statistical methods, the study controlled for other factors,
such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, community vio-
lence, and other maternal life stressors to better isolate and
evaluate the effect of witnessing DV on young children. The
resultant findings clearly indict DV as a negative influence on
young children that exceeds the effects of other risk factors.
Replicating findings from a large twin-study of a reduction
of approximately 8 overall IQ points (Koenen et al., 2003),
children in the current study with DV experience scored 8.9
Full Scale IQ points lower than did their non-exposed peers
on the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-
Revised (Wechsler, 1989). Further, the finding of lower ver-
bal skills children exposed to DV experiences is similar to
an earlier investigation (Huth-Bocks, Levendosky, & Semel,
2001). The current findings of exposed children displaying
lower verbal scores (M IQ = 89.8) than their non-exposed
counterparts (M = 100.7) should be received with greater
confidence than earlier investigations in that a full WPPSI-R
battery, rather than brief inventories or individual subtests,
was used to estimate cognitive ability. As displayed by the
analyses targeting gender, the influence of domestic violence
on verbal IQ within this sample appears to exist outside of
any gender effects. The absence of an interaction between
domestic violence exposure and gender likely reflects the
success of the matching process–including gender–to quiet
such confounds so that conflict exposure could be evaluated
in a more independent fashion.
The current findings further our understanding of the re-
lation between child cognitive functioning and DV exposure
by demonstrating that severity of maternal psychopathol-
ogy did not help to differentiate exposed children’s cog-
nitive functioning. This relationship should be further ex-
plored, as a larger sample size may have detected such an
influence.
As the participating children were preschoolers, the lower
prediction in cognitive functioning is particularly trouble-
some, as the near-immediate start of formal education’s
language-based requirements provides little to no delay time
prior to appropriate intervention. Indeed, the 11-point IQ
difference between the exposed and non-exposed children
might be interpreted as a setback for a child’s readiness to
learn. The group difference nearly equals the standard devia-
tion for normative verbal IQ scores on the WPPSI. A general
implication might be that other developmental challenges
involving social interaction, academic tasks, and adequate
recruitment of social support from others also may be im-
peded by such a language deficit.
Given reduced receptive language ability in her child,
an exposed mother also might experience greater frustra-
tion when attempting to understand her child’s upset or dis-
tress. In terms of a relational effect, a child’s verbal dif-
ficulties might feed into other relational difficulties with
a symptomatic mother, further exacerbating their interac-
Springer
J Fam Viol (2007) 22:33–42
tions. No Performance IQ difference between the Exposed
and Non-Exposed groups suggests that nonverbal cognitive
abilities may be developmentally less affected by conflict
exposure.
The significantly lower level in cognitive functioning in
the exposed children, as compared to their non-exposed
peers, is alarming. Similar to the findings of a larger twin
study, this study suggests that young children are severely
impacted by violence within their families. One explana-
tion is that the psychopathology present in a mother fol-
lowing a violent relationship directly impedes her ability to
stimulate cognitive development that maximizes a child’s
genetic potential. However, due in part to the size of the cur-
rent sample, comparisons between levels of maternal psy-
chopathology did not provide evidence for such an explana-
tion among the exposed children. Another possibility is that
mothers’ intellectual functioning is diminished following
such experiences, either through organic brain injury or via
the distracting presence of psychological symptoms, leav-
ing their children in less stimulating, learning environments.
More research focusing on the relations between mother psy-
chopathology and maternal cognitive functioning with child
cognitive functioning using larger sample sizes while main-
taining much of the rigor of the current study is required to
explain this result.
The predicted higher level of internalizing behaviors re-
portedly enacted by children exposed to DV (M T-score
of 56.5) compared to non-exposed children (M = 51.0)
was found, a pattern that agrees with the literature (e.g.,
Cummings & Davies, 1994). Further, this relation appears to
be unexplained by gender differences. However, no effect for
maternal psychopathology severity level on child external-
izing behavior difficulties was found. Perhaps symptomatic
mothers were more attentive to the presence of similar diffi-
culties in their child. It may be that internalizing and external-
izing behavior problems are experienced in different manners
by mothers, especially following excessive “externalizing”
behaviors enacted by mothers’ adult partners toward them.
Further research is needed to further explore this distinction.
The lack of group differences for externalizing behav-
ioral difficulties is contrary to other reported investigations
of child behavior following DV events (e.g., Wolfe, Jaffe,
Wilson, & Zak, 1985). It is possible that the steps taken to
control for confounding variables, such as socioeconomic
status, community violence, and maternal life stressors con-
tributed to this lack of effect. Rather than being seen as a
weakness, the improved methodology of the current study
may have allowed the current authors to distinguish between
parent reports on these two categories of problematic child
behaviors. Alternatively, earlier studies were more often
focused on older, latency-age children for whom ex-
ternalizing behaviors are more easily recognized (e.g.
teachers contacting one’s parent, peer fights at school). A
J Fam Viol (2007) 22:33–42
direct comparison of the sampling differences among sim-
ilar studies might help to illuminate the reasons for this
disparity.
Differences in the number of life stressors experienced by
the sets of mothers was noted, although mothers reported no
difference in current distress related to those non-domestic
violence events. As Exposed mothers reported both higher
levels of general psychological difficulties as well as greater
symptoms related to trauma, it may be that this harsher early
experience made mothers more vulnerable to the subsequent
experience of being victimized by domestic violence. Fur-
ther, this vulnerability may extend to a reduction in parenting
effectiveness, perhaps explaining the higher rate of internal-
izing behavioral difficulties in the Exposed children.
Limits of the current study include the small sample size,
the lack of direct behavioral observations of mother-child
interactions, and the absence of an assessment of maternal
cognitive functioning. Power analysis revelation of moderate
to high effect sizes for the Full Scale IQ, Verbal IQ, and Inter-
nalizing behavioral difficulties suggest confidence in these
findings, while the low power observed in a post-hoc manner
for Performance IQ and Externalizing difficulties imply that
the current sample was not sufficient to uncover possibly
present difficulties. Although the exclusion of children who
had been directly abused will limit the generalizability of the
current findings, the benefit of a clearer focus on the effects
of DV on children outweighs this cost.
The current findings are a clear demonstration of the
uniquely detrimental effects that DV events inflict on chil-
dren and their mothers. Exposure to family violence appears
to exacerbate often already difficult parent-child situations
by undermining the supportive, sensitive, and appropriately
responsive nature of this dyad. These data indicate that DV
exposure should be followed by an evaluation of the child-
parent relationship, and, if recommended, the timely admin-
istration of interventions that redress likely socioemotional
wounds wreaked on children and their mothers, with the pri-
mary goal of reinvigorating and balancing the child-mother
relationship and with the secondary goals of improving adult
psychological functioning and child verbal abilities and self-
directed behaviors and cognitions.
Acknowledgments This research was supported by NIMH Grant R21
MH59661, P.I. Alicia F. Lieberman, and by the generous contribution of
the Irving B. Harris Foundation to the Child Trauma Research Project.
The authors wish to express their gratitude to the administration, physi-
cians, and staff of the San Francisco General Hospital Pediatric Clinic,
the San Francisco Head Start Program, Friends of St. Francis Child
Care, the Family School at Visitacion Valley Community Center, and
Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, Inc., for their gracious per-
mission and assistance in the recruitment of mother and child par-
ticipants. Thanks also are due to Lori Lange, Patricia Van Horn, and
Chandra Ghosh-Ippen for their thoughtful comments on earlier versions
of the manuscript.
41
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