Predictors of domestically violent men's aggression toward children: A prospective study.

Abstract

This research examines predictors of domestically violent men's aggression toward children after the children and their mothers sought help at an emergency shelter for domestic violence victims. Participants were 62 women who had sought refuge at a domestic violence shelter and who had at least one child between 4 and 9 years old. During their shelter stay, women provided data on partner-child aggression that occurred before shelter entry. After leaving the shelter, they also provided data on postshelter partner-mother intimate partner violence (IPV), children's postshelter contacts with their mothers' partners, and postshelter partner-child aggression on 5 occasions after their shelter departure (4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 months postshelter). Consistent with our hypotheses, the level of partner-child aggression before the family entered the shelter, the level of partner-mother IPV after shelter departure, and the frequency of children's contacts with the partners after shelter departure each predicted postshelter partner-child aggression. Clinical and policy implications are discussed.