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ABSTRACT
The author examines the negative behaviors of children in milieus in which sheltered women report and do not report the occurrence of child abuse. The sample of women was randomly selected from those sheltered in a midwestern regional family-violence center at some point during a 22-month period. Data on children's negative behaviors were collected from women ex post facto by examining the intake forms they completed with shelter workers. The results of the study suggest that social work practitioners take a social-constructivist approach in working with children in milieus in which children observe and/or experience abuse and further suggest that social work practitioners work with public/community health professionals on behalf of those children. In addition, the findings indicate that the heuristic nature of the socialconstructivist approach in working with children in abusive situations might provide insights into their interpretations of the violence occurring around them.
Helping professionals need to understand how domestic violence affects children. Although considerable research has focused on how domestic violence affects individual children, less research has questioned how violence in particular situations affects all children in those milieus. This study examines sheltered women's perceptions of the negative behaviors of children in situations in which child abuse has occurred and has not occurred. The results of the study provide insight into the social reality children create for their behavior on the basis of how they interpret violence when they witness spouse abuse only and when they experience or witness child abuse as well. These insights have implications for practice and research.
Postmodern thinking suggests that individuals create the social reality for their behavior according to how they interpret norms in particular milieus (Hartman, 1991; Lyotard, 1984; Murphy, 1989; Pardeck, Murphy, & Choi, 1994). Given this premise, the behaviors of children in particular milieus provide insights into their interpretations of normative behavior in those situations. Smetana, Kelly, and Twentyman (1984) contended that, because of the coercive and negative family atmosphere in which many children function, they may learn distorted, maladaptive beliefs about the social world (Jaffe, Wolfe, & Wilson, 1990; Wolfe & Jaffe, 1991). Accordingly, it seems plausible that children in milieus in which they experience or witness child abuse as well as witness spouse abuse might behave more negatively than...