Child witnesses of domestic violence: Potential implications on procedures used by educational institutions

Abstract

Children?s witnessing scenes of violence in the family context incurs numerous and diverse consequences on their health and wellbeing, including school activities and personal achievement, their social relations and risk of subsequent bullying behaviour or victimization at school. At the same time, the school environment can play an important role in developing strategies of overcoming and recovering from the traumatic experience such as one?s exposure to domestic violence. This paper presents an overview of the main foreign and domestic findings on the connection between violence against children and violence against women, their mothers, the consequences that violence in a partnership has on various aspects of childrens? development and health, children?s strategies for overcoming and their resilience, and institutional reactions to childrens? testimony about instances of domestic violence. Special attention is placed on the implications that this phenomenon has on the operation and responsibility educational institutions to ensure a safe environment for these children within the family and at school and to provide them with assistance and support. This points to the importance of the relevant regulations and their interpretations, the dilemmas that teachers and schools can face in their application, available information and expertise, the development of close collaboration between schools and relevant community institutions, or the systematic and systematic nature of capacity building for teachers and schools for attentive and the consistent application of preventive and intervention programs.