Domestic violence on children and its effects to their Socio-Educational behaviour

Domestic violence is a large social issue in today's contemporary setting, which may include but not limited to, sibling abuse, elder abuse, spouse abuse, and child abuse. Domestic violence has many names; family violence, wife or child beating, and domestic abuse. Spouse abuse talks about abuse from a marital or a dating partner in an intimate relationship. Domestic violence is merely not just physical, but is any behavior that is intended to control another person through the use of verbal assaults. Children exposed from any form of violence at home have higher risks of alcohol/drugs abuse, post-traumatic stress director, and juvenile delinquency and adult criminality. Family feuds or conflicts oftentimes happen in the eyes of the members of the family. It may either be in the form of shouting, physical or verbal violence and in some cases the mother or the father is forced to leave the house in order to subdue the conflict to avoid further heated arguments or worst, physical fight. Witnessing can mean seeing actual incidents of physical, verbal and or sexual abuse. It can mean hearing threats or fighting noises from another room. Children may also observe the aftermath of physical abuse such as blood, bruises, tears, torn clothing and broken items. Also, children may become aware of the tension in the home such as their mother's fearfulness when the father-abuser's car pulls into the driveway. This undertaking aims to determine the effects of domestic violence on children especially on their socio-educational behaviour. Specifically, it looks into the profile of the children-respondents and the effects of domestic violence to their socio-educational behaviour. This study utilizes the descriptive research design which focuses only in describing the effects of domestic violence on children-respondents. Purposive sampling is utilized in identifying the subjects of the study which covers only children who had witnessed domestic violence at home were taken as samples. An interview schedule and a structured questionnaire were also used in gathering the data. These were pre-tested at Maraburab, a barangay in Alcala, Cagayan and validated before these were finally administered to the respondents. It was discovered in this particular study, that the children are disturbed in their studies resulting to poor performance and lack of concentration in their class. Children who experienced domestic violence internalize the incident, thus do not feel good and emotionally unwanted.