Henning K, Leitenberg H, Coffey P, Bennett T, Jankowski M K
Psychology Department, University of Memphis, TN 38152, USA.
Child Abuse Negl. 1997 Jun;21(6):501-15. doi: 10.1016/s0145-2134(97)00009-4.
A retrospective survey of undergraduate students was used to examine the long-term psychological impact of witnessing interparental physical aggression during childhood. Two hundred and three of 1,452 young adults surveyed (14%) reported witnessing as children at least one incident of physical aggression between their parents. Both men and women who witnessed interparental physical conflict reported higher levels of current psychological distress than a comparison group of young adults who never observed physical aggression between their parents. This group difference remained even after controlling for parental divorce, parental SES, physical abuse of the child, parental alcoholism, and nonphysical discord witnessed between parents. Additional analyses found that the negative effect of witnessing interparental aggression was intensified when the aggression was serious enough to warrant some type of outside assistance for the victim and when the parent of the same-sex was seen being victimized. Although these findings provided support for the theory that witnessing interparental physical aggression is a traumatic experience that may have long-term psychological ramifications, we also found that a substantial proportion of the variance accounted for in adult adjustment by interparental physical conflict was mediated through decreased parental caring and warmth during childhood. Implications for these results, limitations of the present study, and directions for further research are discussed.
一项针对本科生的回顾性调查旨在研究童年时期目睹父母间身体攻击行为所产生的长期心理影响。在接受调查的1452名年轻人中，有203人（14%）报告称在童年时期至少目睹过一次父母之间的身体攻击事件。与从未目睹过父母间身体攻击行为的年轻成年人对照组相比，目睹过父母间身体冲突的男性和女性都报告了更高水平的当前心理困扰。即使在控制了父母离婚、父母社会经济地位、儿童遭受身体虐待、父母酗酒以及父母间目睹的非身体冲突等因素之后，这种组间差异仍然存在。进一步的分析发现，当攻击行为严重到足以让受害者获得某种外部援助，以及当同性父母被视为受害者时，目睹父母间攻击行为的负面影响会加剧。尽管这些发现支持了这样一种理论，即目睹父母间身体攻击是一种创伤性经历，可能会产生长期的心理影响，但我们也发现，父母间身体冲突在成人适应中所解释的相当一部分变异是通过童年时期父母关爱和温暖的减少来介导的。本文讨论了这些结果的意义、本研究的局限性以及进一步研究的方向。
