Mother-child therapy best after domestic violence
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Therapy to help children recover from domestic violence is more likely to be successful if the mothers get help as well, new research suggests.
In a study of 181 children between the ages of 6 and 12 who were exposed to domestic violence in the previous year, researchers found that group therapy was effective at improving the children’s behavioral and emotional difficulties. It was more effective, however, when their mothers also received help with their parenting skills.
It’s clear that domestic violence harms children, whether they are directly abused or witness their mothers being abused. Children who witness such violence may show the effects outwardly—through fights or behavioral problems at school, for instance, or less overtly—by becoming withdrawn or developing physical symptoms of anxiety, like chronic stomach aches.
What’s has been less clear is how these problems should be treated, according to the authors of the new study, led by Sandra A. Graham-Bermann, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
In the current study, published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 30 percent of the children were physically harmed, according to mothers’ reports. In most cases, the mothers had left the abuser, but most had some contact with him, particularly if he was their child’s father.
Graham-Bermann and her colleagues randomly assigned the children to three groups. Children in two groups received 10 weeks of small group therapy where they learned about family violence and managing emotions and conflicts with other people. In one of these groups, mothers also attended a parenting-skills program. The children in the third group were assigned to a waiting list.
The children were evaluated at the end of the 10 weeks and again 8 months later. By the end of the study, behavioral and emotional problems improved in the children in both treatment groups. However, the change was greater for children whose mothers also received help; the number of children in the “clinical range” for behavioral and emotional problems dropped by about 75 percent.
Some children in the waiting list group also experienced improvements over time without treatment. However, improvements were greater in both treatment groups, and the difference between the mother-child treatment group and the untreated group was statistically significant.
Helping mothers cope with the impact of domestic violence may have made the difference. Parents, the researchers note in their report, serve as models for their children, as well as “emotional anchors” in times of stress.
SOURCE: Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, April 2007.
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