The Essay On Family Violence's Impact On Children's Development." (70 Characters)

The research will be conducted to find out the impacts of family violence on the development of children. Domestic violence is an aggression done to the spouse or an intimate partner at home. For a very long time, the practice of domestic violence has been so common in many families across the globe. Whenever it happens in a family setting, domestic violence is witnessed by the children. However, such an exposure ends up psychologically affecting the children as they grow up. The main research questions will be:

• What is the effect of exposure to domestic violence on children as they grow up?
• How does the community support traumatised children facing domestic violence?

According to a research conducted by Renzetti and Miley (2014), exposure to domestic violence has been greatly impacting on the behaviors of children as they grow up. Whenever it occurs, it is usually witnessed by the kids. In fact, children are the first witnesses of domestic violence. This happens because the kids are usually close to their mothers who are the greatest casualties of domestic violence.  Hines, et al (2015) adds that exposure to domestic violence at early age is not safe for the children. It makes them vulnerable to aggressive acts during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. It is for this reason that rate of domestic violence is higher among the people who had childhood experiences of such acts than those who were not. Exposure to domestic violence during childhood traumatizes the children and makes them believe that it is a right thing to do to their peers, siblings, and partners.  

The research will explain the persistence of domestic violence by using the theory of attachment and social learning. According to these theories, domestic violence is passed from one person to another as a result of exposure to it. Meaning, the people who witness the practice during childhood end up becoming abusive as they grow up. It is for this reason that the rate of domestic violence is higher among those who had a childhood experience in their respective families.

Mary Ainsworth propounded attachment theory in the 1960s. In this theory, Mary suggested that human beings are fond of developing behaviors in response to the changes in their relationships. The theory can be used to explain the relationship between domestic violence and the behaviors of the children who witness it. Children who witness their loved ones abused end up becoming abusive because they grow up believing that it is a normal thing to do may be as a protection or revenge. It is for this reason that the people who experience domestic violence during childhood end up committing similar acts as they grow up (Sargent et al. 2016).

Theoretical Perspective

On the other hand, Albert Bandura propounded social learning theory. According to this theory, learning is a mental process that occurs because of observation within a social context in which a person lives. Meaning, individuals get to know things and develop behaviors because of the new experiences they acquire in their immediate surroundings. The theory will be used in explaining the persistence of domestic violence in the society. It relates to domestic violence because it justifies why people who observe domestic violence during childhood end up practicing the same in later life (Howard et al. 2013). The theory will therefore provide an insight on the relationship between childhood experience and the commitment of domestic violence by many people who had, at one time, experienced it.

The research will involve the use of primary and secondary research. Whereas secondary data will be collected through a systematic review of published data, primary data will be gathered by the researcher. The study will be a primary research whose data collection will be done by using qualitative research methods. The first thing to do is to choose a sample size that can be used to represent the entire target population (Brett et al. 2014). A sampling technique will be chosen to enable the researcher to choose a proportionate size and eliminate any bias that might exist in the research. It is proposed that the research will adopt a simple random sampling technique. It is the most appropriate for the research as it will enable the researcher to identify the most suitable sample to be relied upon to represent the entire population (Moher et al. 2015). The research aims at using a proportionate sample size because it will help in ensuring that the findings of the research are unbiased, valid and can be relied upon to provide the desired response to the research question. Once a proper sampling technique is used, the findings of the research can be generalized to represent the entire population.

After the selection of the sample size, data will be collected by using questionnaires. When doing this, the researcher will have to design a suitable questionnaire and send it to the participants either through the email, or post office.  In the questionnaires, the respondents will have an opportunity to answer questions about the causes of domestic violence, exposure to children, and effects of exposure to the children as they grow up. The respondent will have to explain if they have been victims of domestic violence and provide detailed information on their experiences. At the same time, the respondents will shed more light on how exactly the violence occurred, where it took place, and the psychological distressed experienced (Howard et al. 2013). The questionnaires will also ask questions about the level of support given to the children exposed to domestic violence as well as the victims of domestic violence.

Methodology and Ethics

Once this is done, the respondents will get to answer all the questions and submit back the answered questionnaires to the researcher within the specified time duration (Hall et al. 2014). Questionnaires will be used in the research because it will enable the researcher to collect accurate data provided by the respondents. These data are considered reliable and accurate because honest respondents who get a chance to provide them without any unnecessary influence from the researcher provide them. The information from the questionnaires will be relied upon to respond to the research questions. This is what will be done when collecting the data to be used in the study (Bergmeier et al. 2014).

The research will have to be done by adhering to all the ethical standards governing research activities. The first ethical issue to consider during the research is the privacy of the respondents. The research will be guided by the Data Privacy Act 1998 which clearly stipulates the measures taken to preserve confidential personal data from any unnecessary pilferage to unauthorized parties (Renzetti and Miley 2014). The research will also comply with the Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights that also safeguards personal private information from unwarranted infringements (Rainey, Wicks and Ovey 2014). So, by complying with these legislations, the research will not abuse private information provided by the respondents. Instead, it will be treated with respect and the privacy it deserves. All the information received will only be used for research purposes as promised to the respondents and at no one time will anyone else know about the private identities of information of the participants.

The other ethical issue to consider during the research is the freedom of the respondents. No one will be forced to participate in the research because it will be done voluntarily. All the respondents will have to voluntarily participate in the study without unnecessarily being forced to do so (Arroyo et al. 2015). To do that, the informed consent of the participants will have to be sought in a timely manner. Once they agree to participate, they will have to sign a form so as to officially give their formal agreement to participate in the research. When formalizing the consent, the participants should be informed that that the research will not be abused and will not harm them in any way. At the same time, they can be assured of confidentiality of their private information. All the information provided with them will only be used for research purposes. No private information will be leaked to unauthorized third parties (Alisic et al. 2014).

All the data collected in the research will be analyzed using meta-analysis. The research will involve a large pool of data from primary and secondary sources. Each of these data should be pooled together and analyzed to generate data for the research. Meta-analysis will be used to analyze the primary and secondary data collected during the studies (Dowling et al. 2016). In this research, meta-analysis will be conducted by bringing together data from all the sources and using quantitative and statistical methods to analyze all of them. Meta-analysis is the most recommended strategy because it will enable the researcher to collect all the data and produce one large sample to be relied upon to represent the entire population (Shamseer et al. 2015). Besides, it will help in improving the precision of the findings and make it suitable for the research. Lastly, the use of meta-analysis will help in guaranteeing the quality of statistical power of the research. It will properly analyze all the primary and secondary data gathered during the entire research.

Meta-analysis will be done using the right procedure. In the first stage of analysis, the measurement of the Confidence Interval (CI) should be done. This should be conducted using appropriate measures.  During the second and last stage, overall statistics should be analyzed focusing on individual summary statistics. Here, individual data should not just be combined, but keenly analyzed to determine its reliability and validity in the study (Chai, Liu and Ngai 2013). By doing all these, the researcher will manage to properly Meta-analyze the data generated from all the data sources used in the review. It is therefore important to note that the use of meta-analysis will be appropriate for this research. It will guarantee consistency, reliability, validity, and help in eliminating any biasness that might interfere with the research.

The findings for this research will be of great impact on understanding and resolving the persistent challenge of domestic violence in the families (Lindert, et al 2014). Therefore, for the information to reach the target audience- parents, children, educators, social workers, psychologists, policy-makers, and other professionals, it will have to be disseminated on a wide range of platforms such as seminars, conferences, pamphlets, and publication online and in peer-reviewed journals (Howarth et al. 2015).

Conclusion

Domestic violence has remained a major issue of concern in many families across the globe. Whenever a couple engages in a domestic violence, they are observed by their children who, in most cases, as the first witnesses. However, such an exposure to domestic violence ends up affecting the children’s later life in many ways. This research will be aiming at studying the effects of exposure to domestic violence on children as they grow up. It will be a primary research done using qualitative research methods. To collect the data, a survey and interview will be used as instruments. However, all these will be done by considering all the issues of ethical concern.  

References

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Lindert, J., von Ehrenstein, O.S., Grashow, R., Gal, G., Braehler, E. and Weisskopf, M.G., 2014. Sexual and physical abuse in childhood is associated with depression and anxiety over the life course: systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Public Health, 59(2), pp.359-372.

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Renzetti, C.M. and Miley, C.H., 2014. Violence in gay and lesbian domestic partnerships. Routledge.

Sargent, K.S., McDonald, R., Vu, N.L. & Jouriles, E.N., 2016. Evaluating an online program to help children exposed to domestic violence: results of two randomized controlled trials. Journal of family violence, 31(5), pp.647-654.

Shamseer, L., Moher, D., Clarke, M., Ghersi, D., Liberati, A., Petticrew, M., Shekelle, P. and Stewart, L.A., 2015. Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015: elaboration and explanation. Bmj, 349, p.7647.