Parental conflict can leave a lasting impact on a child's behavior. A new study claims that parents fighting in front of their toddlers may unknowingly be making them aggressive.
Researchers from Case Western Reserve University found that children who were exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) before age three exhibited an aggressive nature at school.
Intimate Partner Violence refers to the physical, sexual or psychological harm that one spouse or partner inflicts on another. According to the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence, nearly 10 million children in the U.S. are affected by violence between parents or outside home every year.
The study analyzed 107 children aged three, who were exposed to violence at home and compared them to 339 children who grew up in a violence-free environment.
The children who experienced parental conflict and violence were a part of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW). The survey documented details of the abuse and neglect the children underwent at home and also kept records of reports to the Child Protective Services.
Researchers followed the children for five years and monitored their behavior at four stages. They found that children who witnessed violence between parents had no behavioral problems until age 5, but became overly aggressive when they entered school.
"People may think children that young are passive and unaware, but they pay attention to what's happening around them," Megan Holmes, assistant professor of social work at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, at the University, said in a news release.
Findings of the study have been published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
Apart from initiating aggression in children, other studies have shown various risks of being exposed to parental conflict or parental separation at childhood like the negative impact on the child's stress response system, long-term behavioral problems and development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
