Micro-Sociological Implications of Domestic Violence on Adolescents in a School Setting

Abstract

Adolescent victimization and exposure to domestic violence has the ability to yield negative psychological, social, behavioral, developmental, and cognitive outcomes. Unfortunately, violence within the home is becoming increasingly prevalent. In 2007 alone, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that roughly 794,000 adolescents were either abused or neglected within their household (Sousa et al. 2011:112). Another form of violence that is becoming recognized as a widespread public-health concern is intimate partner violence. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, intimate partner violence is present when the juvenile is not directly involved and acts more as a witness to domestic violence between his/her caregivers. Within many households where this occurs, adolescents may witness the physical and emotional pain inflicted on adult victims, or they may not actually observe the altercations but are well aware of their existence. It is conservatively estimated that over 200,000 cases of intimate partner violence occur in the United States annually (Sousa et al. 2011:112). Within this Literature Review, the overall purpose is to examine how the side effects of domestic violence impact an adolescent’s school performance. This paper will analyze several characteristics that come with the results of domestic violence separately, such as developmental, psychological, cognitive, social, and behavioral outcomes in order to sufficiently explain how this public-health problem impacts adolescents within a school setting. This paper will mainly focus on the negative outcomes associated with this phenomenon in heterosexual relationships, as they are the most commonly reported