Witnessing Parental Violence to Ptsd and Complex Ptsd

Research on the prevalence of domestic violence finds that it occurs inapproximately 30% of marriages. In their 1988 national survey, Gelles and Strausreported the lifetime incidence of spousal abuse to be about 28% in the US. Worldwide,reviews from prevalence studies found the mean lifetime prevalence rates of domesticviolence against women to be between 20% and 50% in most of the countries examined(Alhabib, Nur, & Jones, 2010; Garcia-Moreno, Jansen, Ellsberg, Heise, & Watts, 2006).Due to the shame and stigma of domestic violence, the prevalence may realistically beeven higher than reported. It is noteworthy that partner violence occurs more frequentlybetween partners who have children than those who do not (McDonald, Jouriles,Ramisetty-Mikler, Caetano, & Green, 2006). This pattern appears outside of the UnitedStates as well; the presence of children actually increased the risk of partner violence inGreat Britain (Mirlees-Black, 1999). This was shown to have a particularly increasedrisk in women between the ages of 30 and 59. For these women, the risk that theywould be assaulted by their partner was three times higher if the couple had children(Mirlees-Black, 1999). It may be that children present increased stress and cause strainto the relationship, resulting in higher incidents of violence. Though the direct physicalimplications of this interpersonal violence are incurred by the victim, the effects ofwitnessing this violence as a child are not fully understood.