Adolescents' perceptions of attachments to their mothers and fathers in families with histories of domestic violence: a longitudinal perspective

This US study looked at the effects of childhood and teenage experiences of domestic violence on their attachments to their parents. Israeli adolescents who were victims of physical abuse, witnesses of physical spouse abuse, victims and witnesses of abuse or neither victims nor witnesses of abuse were questioned about their attachments to their parents. 110 (61 boys and 49 girls) aged 8 to 13 years of age and their parents made up the initial sample. More than 5 years after initial recruitment, the children and their parents were recontacted, resulting in at least 1 family member from 95 of the families being re-interviewed. 88 of the adolescents described their attachment to their mothers and 77 described their attachments to their fathers. It found that abuse status of 5 years earlier was unrelated to the adolescents’ current perceptions of their attachments but current abuse status predicted their perceptions of attachment to their mothers. Adolescents who were victims of physical abuse indicated weaker attachments to their parents. Attachments to mothers were found to be weaker irrespective of whether mothers were perpetrators of abuse or not. Adolescents who were victims of parental abuse had significantly lower levels of attachment to their mothers whereas exposure to spousal violence had no impact (either alone or combined with child abuse). It concluded that victimisation adversely affected children’s perceptions of relationships with their parents but that changes in the exposure to family violence are associated with changes in relationships with parents. This suggested that intervention could have a positive impact on parent-child relationships despite histories of violence.