By Noel Baker
Research from the Trinity College Dublin reveals that exposure to domestic violence can be highly detrimental to children as young as infants and toddlers. The effects included the risk of impaired growth rate and nutrition issues — such as financial abuse taking the form of restricted access to formula or diapers — and other risks associated with mothers whose parenting abilities can be compromised by living in an abusive situation.
On a behavioral level, risks included direct and indirect involvement in abusive incidents, permissive or inconsistent parenting and risks associated with an absent or angry, aggressive father. The research also suggested that the impact of domestic violence could affect a child’s longer- term development, such as fear and instability inhibiting exploration, play becoming aggressive, parents not being able to consistently respond to an infant’s needs, and loud noises or vivid visual images associated with violence causing distress.
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Source: Irish Examiner