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Witnessing Family Violence As A Child May Lead to Depression, Alcoholism in Adulthood

Being a victim of domestic violence has long been understood as a risk factor for later social and mental health issues. However, the effects of being merely witness to such violence remain less recognized, listed by the U.S. National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect as a form of emotional abuse only since the 1990s.

Recently, French researchers set out to better understand the long-term effects of viewing violence between parents as a child on adult mental health.

To do so, they interviewed 3023 adults in the Paris metro area, evaluating subjects for current depression and questioning them on lifetime suicide attempts, conjugal violence, child maltreatment, and alcohol dependence. Of these subjects, 16 percent report having witnessed violence between parents before adulthood. Interparental violence was far more common in families that also suffered from alcoholism or reported difficulties with finances or illness.

After adjusting for these and other social and family stressors, researchers found that individuals who witnessed violence between their parents before the age of 18 were 1.4 more like to suffer from depression and 1.75 times more prone to alcohol dependency. They were even more prone to repeat the cycle of violence, with three times the rate of conjugal violence. Men were also 15 times more likely to physical abuse their children while women were twice as likely to do so.

The findings confirm that witnessing parental violence is a huge risk factor for mental health problems in adulthood. The authors therefore urge increased prevention and screening for this form of child maltreatment

FULL TEXT: Exposure to interparental violence and psychosocial maladjustment in the adult life course: advocacy for early prevention