DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Psychological Effects on Adolescents Who grow up in a Home with Domestic Violence

Psychological Effects on Adolescents Who grow up in a Home with Domestic Violence

Abstract:

This essay outlines the adverse psychological effects of domestic violence on adolescents. Domestic violence is a widespread phenomenon being observed in even the most developed of societies. Families affected by domestic violence live in every community and found in all service areas. Growing number of families report issues relating to household unrest or troubled relationships within families. The victims are mostly women and children including adolescents between the ages of 13 to 19 years. These victims are psychologically and physiologically traumatized by virtue of exposure to domestic violence and end up abandoning their lives, being socially withdrawn and develop inabilities to perform at school or college. Extreme domestic violence makes an adolescent feel dejected and failed while he/she may develop serious psychological problems such as aggression, kinds of phobias, insomnia, low-self esteem, and sense of failure, low level of social competency, poor academic performance and low level of problem solving. These adolescents need timely counseling and rehabilitation services, guidance from teachers and social workers and require love and care from those around them.

Discussion:

Adolescence is a period of rapid change and cognitive development for a human being. It is a stage of life where “home” is the ultimate place of inspiration, learning and development. What an adolescent experiences inside the homely environment, the same perception is developed for the world at large. Of significant importance to adolescents is their growing independence and freedom, their hard pressed desire of being heard, their intent to share with the world whatever comes to their little minds, their parents and friends, and their ever developing interests. Whatever choices an adolescent makes, he deems highly of his/her home environment and parental relationships. Children at this stage want to be listened to most selflessly, to be taken seriously on all possible occasions/events and to be involved in decisions about their lives. They want to acquire a participatory position within their families. They want to be reassured every now and then that they are safe in the comfort of their house with their mothers. Hence whatever the adolescent experiences in the premises of his/her “home sweet home”, it is imperative that he/she will develop his/her personality accordingly.

However, life is not always rosy for everyone. Often we find that women and children are in great misery and danger in the place where they should be the safest: within their families. For many of these victimized individuals, a “home” is the most dreadful place on Earth where they face a regime of violence and hostility at the hands of those closest to them. This creates a situation where struggles with adolescent identity, dejection and depression set in. His dreams are shattered, his fantasies badly rejected, his life is wretched by those whom he trusted.

In the past two decades, we have observed numerous incidents of domestic violence in the most advanced and ...