It’s well-established that kids who witness severe violence against or harm to their parents can develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. As Dr. Giuseppe wrote on Monday, one third of children who arrive in women’s shelters following domestic violence develop behavioural difficulties. Serious adjustment problems and PTSD have also been linked to witnessing domestic abuse, according to research by Kym Kilpatrick and her colleagues in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. In fact, in Kilpatrick’s small study, witnessing abuse had as strong an impact on young children as experiencing an abusive act! (...)
Read the rest of Partner Abuse, Pt. 4: How are witnesses affected? (379 words)

© Dr. Brian MacDonald C. Psych. for Family Anatomy, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: abuse, Children, domestic violence, Mental Health, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychology, research-based, Teens, trauma, violence
Note: Posts on Family Anatomy are for education only, and are not intended to replace professional or medical advice. If you need to talk to someone about family or mental health issues, you can get a referral from your family doctor.

Researchers and clinicians have worked on the premise that, when it comes to domestic violence, the experience is a one way street. That is, it is primarily a case of mens’ violence against women. Certainly, there are many statistics to back this perception up. For instance, survey’s show that 84% of spousal abuse victims are females, males account for 83% of spouse murderers, and almost one-third of female homicide victims are killed by an intimate partner. However, more recently, researchers have begun to make a distinction between severe violence and mild to moderate spousal violence. The statistics in the mild to moderate cases of violence appear to be much less dependent on gender.

When police statistics are used to determine the nature of domestic violence, the incidents tend to be more severe and as a result, the long understood pattern of mens’ violence towards women is predominant. However, when nationwide surveys are conducted and people are interviewed over the phone, mild to moderate cases, the most common form of relationship violence, show a more evenly distributed representation of men and women as perpetrators. As a result, researchers are beginning to study how to intervene in these less severe cases in order to help prevent an escalation that could potentially prove more damaging to women.(...)
Read the rest of Partner Abuse, Part 3: Helping Couples Find A Different Way Forward (454 words)

© Dr. Giuseppe Spezzano C. Psych. for Family Anatomy, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: conflict, conflict resolution, couples, domestic abuse, psychology, Relationships, research-based, violence
Note: Posts on Family Anatomy are for education only, and are not intended to replace professional or medical advice. If you need to talk to someone about family or mental health issues, you can get a referral from your family doctor.

Doctors Brian and Giuseppe talk about dating violence.

What if you’re concerned about your child’s boyfriend or girlfriend?

Are there warning signs to watch out for?

What should teens know?

Find out what we think in this week’s episode!

Listen here:

… or right click here to save it for later.

You can also get your free podcast subscription in iTunes. If you use iTunes, you can leave a review!

Website of the Week: Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Dr. Giuseppe recommends this book:

E-mail suggestions or questions to info@familyanatomy.com. Vote for The Family Anatomy Podcast at Podcast Alley and for the blog at Blogger’s Choice!

Note: Posts on Family Anatomy are for education only. If you need to talk to someone about family or mental health issues, you can get a referral from your family doctor.

Related posts:

1. Partner Abuse, Pt. 4: How are witnesses affected?
2. Partner Abuse, Part 1: Reducing Behaviour Problems in Children Who Witness Abuse and Supporting Womens' Mental Health
3. School-Based Program Helps Prevent Dating Violence Among Teens, Especially Boys

© Dr. Brian MacDonald C. Psych. for Family Anatomy, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: abuse, dating, domestic violence, psychology, research-based, teenagers, Teens, violence
Note: Posts on Family Anatomy are for education only, and are not intended to replace professional or medical advice. If you need to talk to someone about family or mental health issues, you can get a referral from your family doctor.

Project Support was developed to address child behaviour problems. More specifically, it was designed for individual families (mother and children) where the mother had been to a woman’s shelter because of domestic violence and at least one of her children was showing clinical level behaviour problems. The intervention includes two main components: giving practical and(...)
Read the rest of Partner Abuse, Part 1: Reducing Behaviour Problems in Children Who Witness Abuse and Supporting Womens' Mental Health (240 words)

© Dr. Giuseppe Spezzano C. Psych. for Family Anatomy, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: abuse, Project Support, psychology, research-based, treatment, violence
Note: Posts on Family Anatomy are for education only, and are not intended to replace professional or medical advice. If you need to talk to someone about family or mental health issues, you can get a referral from your family doctor.

Approximately one in 10 to one in five high school–aged teens are hit, slapped or beaten by an individual they are dating each year, according to background information in the article. Dating violence among adolescents often leads to intimate partner violence in adulthood and also is associated with injuries, unsafe sex, substance use and suicide attempts.

David A. Wolfe, Ph.D., of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Centre for Prevention Science, London, Ontario, and the University of Toronto, and colleagues in 2004 to 2007 conducted a randomized trial of a 21-lesson curriculum delivered by teachers with special training in the dynamics of dating violence and healthy relationships.

The program, known as the “Fourth R: Skills for Youth Relationships,” was taught to 968 students at 10 randomly selected high schools. “Dating violence prevention was integrated with core lessons about healthy relationships, sexual health and substance use prevention using interactive exercises. Relationship skills to promote safer decision making with peers and dating partners were emphasized,” they continue. Another 754 students at 10 different schools were assigned to a control group, where similar objectives were targeted but without training or materials.

When the adolescents were surveyed two and a half years later—at the end of grade 11—rates of physical dating violence were greater in the control students (9.8 percent) than in the students who participated in the program (7.4 percent). Although both boys and girls typically perpetrate dating violence, the intervention had a stronger effect on boys; 7.1 percent of boys in the control group and 2.7 percent in the intervention group reported physical dating violence, compared with 12.1 percent of girls in the control group and 11.9 percent of those in the intervention group. Sexually active boys in the program also reported a higher rate of condom use (114 of 168 or 67.9 percent vs. 65 of 111 or 58.6 percent).(...)
Read the rest of School-Based Program Helps Prevent Dating Violence Among Teens, Especially Boys (500 words)

© Dr. Brian MacDonald C. Psych. for Family Anatomy, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: abuse, dating, high school, teenagers, violence
Note: Posts on Family Anatomy are for education only, and are not intended to replace professional or medical advice. If you need to talk to someone about family or mental health issues, you can get a referral from your family doctor.

We talked about the impact of videogames in FA Episodes 8 and 9, but I never thought it would come to this!

An American extremist monitoring group, SITE, found an image that terrorists had posted to encourage attacks on the West. Turns out the picture was concept art for a videogame due to be released in September, Fallout 3. The game takes place in a post-nuclear wasteland.

You can read more here.

Here’s the pic:

Related posts:

1. FA008 – Anatomy of Media Violence, Part 1
2. FA009 – Anatomy of Media Violence, Part 2
3. The importance of play

© Dr. Brian MacDonald C. Psych. for Family Anatomy, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: extremist, fallout, terrorism, video games, videogames, violence
Note: Posts on Family Anatomy are for education only, and are not intended to replace professional or medical advice. If you need to talk to someone about family or mental health issues, you can get a referral from your family doctor.

Listen here:

… or get your free subscription in iTunes. If you use iTunes, you can leave a review!

Leave us a comment, or you can e-mail suggestions or questions to info@familyanatomy.com. Don’t forget, you can follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/familyanatomy.

Note: Posts on Family Anatomy are for information only. If you need to talk to someone about family or mental health issues, you can get a referral from your family doctor.

Related posts:

1. FA008 – Anatomy of Media Violence, Part 1
2. Is Media Use Helping or Hurting Kids' Psychological Functioning?
3. Family Anatomy will record on March 6

© Dr. Brian MacDonald C. Psych. for Family Anatomy, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: episode, Everything Bad is Good For You, media, television, tv, video games, videogames, violence
Note: Posts on Family Anatomy are for education only, and are not intended to replace professional or medical advice. If you need to talk to someone about family or mental health issues, you can get a referral from your family doctor.

Listen here:

… or get your free subscription in iTunes. If you use iTunes, you can leave a review!

Leave us a comment, or you can e-mail suggestions or questions to info@familyanatomy.com. Don’t forget, you can follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/familyanatomy.

Note: Posts on Family Anatomy are for information only. If you need to talk to someone about family or mental health issues, you can get a referral from your family doctor.

Related posts:

1. FA009 – Anatomy of Media Violence, Part 2
2. Is Media Use Helping or Hurting Kids' Psychological Functioning?
3. Family Anatomy will record on March 6

© Dr. Brian MacDonald C. Psych. for Family Anatomy, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: episode, media, television, tv, video games, videogames, violence
Note: Posts on Family Anatomy are for education only, and are not intended to replace professional or medical advice. If you need to talk to someone about family or mental health issues, you can get a referral from your family doctor.