Recent research from a team led by Shelby McDonald ofVirginia Commonwealth University looks at the effects of seeing animal abuse on children’s psychological health in a context where they already witness intimate partner violence. Not long ago, I reported on a related study by McDonald that found one-quarter of children whose mothers experience domestic violence also see their pet threatened or abused, and that most often the child says the motivation is to control the mother. Since pets are often sources of social support for children, this may be especially traumatic; the effects of this are the focus of the new study.
Children who are exposed to domestic violence are at risk of psychological problems, and yet some children are surprisingly resilient. One aim of McDonald’s more recent study was to explore patterns in how children function when there is a family context of domestic violence. The research team also wanted to find out about the risk factors for not doing well, and specifically whether being exposed to cruelty to pets in the home worsens children’s mental health.
An ethnically diverse sample of 291 children between the ages of seven and 12 took part. They were recruited through their mother’s use of domestic violence services in one state in the United States, and they all had a family pet at home. On average, the women had been experiencing domestic violence for nine years.
[For more of this story, written by Zazie Todd, go to https://psmag.com/the-effects-...e3d83ea0e#.ubextlauq]
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