Aggressiveness tendencies of the children exposed to domestic violence

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the aggression tendencies of the children who exposed to domestic violence and to determine the relation between these tendencies and sociocultural, economic, psychological and communicational features

Methods: The universe of the study is 6th, 7th and 8th grade students of 70 primary schools located in Sivas province. To form the sample group, the city was divided into three areas as low, intermediate and high levels in according with the social-economic and cultural levels and five schools from each, totally 15 schools were chosen to represent the different areas. Total 655 children were included into the study. Questionnaire forms and aggression scale were used to collect the data.

Results: Sampling rates of the children exposed to violence by their mothers and fathers were 54% and 46%, respectively. The mean point of aggression scale of the children exposed to violence was 42.52±9.24, indicating that being exposed to violence increases the aggression scale. The most influent factors increasing the aggression scale of the children were number of individuals in the family and behavioral style of the mothers. On the other hand, the origin of the family, educational levels and jobs of the parents, income level of the family, the form of making decision in the family, presence of violence between father and mother, behavioral style of father, care level of the parents, being of his/her friends are known and are allowed to come home by the parents, afraid of parents and being able to hare the problems with the parents are not statistically significant factors for the points obtained from aggression scale. (Anatolian Journal of Psychiatry 2007; 8:206-214)