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Parenting Tips: Family Violence Hurts Children

• The Texas Department of Public Safety reported 175,282 family violence incidents in Texas during fiscal year 2000.
  
  
• Studies show that child abuse occurs in 30 to 60 percent of family violence cases. ("The Overlap Between Child Maltreatment and Woman Battering." J.L. Edleson, Violence Against Women, February, 1999)
  
  
• Children are twice as likely of being abused themselves when their mothers are assault victims. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
  
  
• Domestic violence is the major precursor to children dying from abuse and neglect. (U.S. Advisory Board on Health, U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, A Nation's Shame: Fatal Child Abuse and Neglect in the United States: Fifth Report, 1995)
  
  
• Each year at least 6 percent of all pregnant women in this country are battered by the men in their lives. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 1994)
  
  
• A child's exposure to the father abusing the mother is the strongest risk factor for transmitting violent behaviors from one generation to the next. (Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family, APA, 1996)
  
  
• The chances of men abusing their female partners are twice as great when they themselves grew up witnessing family violence. (Physical Violence in American Families: Risk Factors and Adaptations to Violence in 8,145 Families. Murray A. Strauss, Richard J. Gelles, and Christine Smith)
  
  
• Family violence costs the nation $5 billion to $10 billion annually in medical expenses, Police and court costs, shelters and foster care, sick leave, absenteeism, and nonproductivity. (Medical News, American Medical Association, January, 1992)
  
  
• Studies indicate that almost half of the men who abuse their female partners also abuse their children. (Terrifying Love: Why Battered Women Kill and How Society Responds. L. Walker. 1989)
  
  
• Battered women report an increased inability to meet their children's needs. (Terrifying Love: Why Battered Women Kill and How Society Responds. L. Walker. 1989)
  
  
• Children who experience family violence are at increased risk of experiencing problems including depression, sleep disturbances, poor concentration in school, substance abuse, and eating disturbances.
  
  
• Growing up with family violence can result in children becoming violent themselves as children and as adults.

1. Give Your Baby the Best Start in Life
2. Nurturing Your Child: Coping with a Crying Baby
3. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
4. Prevent and Stop Family Violence
5. Family Violence Hurts Children: Fast Facts
6. Help Children Avoid Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco
7. Preventing Shaken Baby Syndrome
8. Alternatives to Lashing Out at Your Child
9. Safety in the Game: Making Your Child the Top Priority
10. A Car is Not a Child's Toy
11. Keeping Kids Safe: Safety Where Children Are
12. Children and Water