Children Witnessing Violence in India: Nature, Risk Factors, Impact and Prevention Strategies

Title

Children Witnessing Violence in India: Nature, Risk Factors, Impact and Prevention Strategies

Creator

Chakraborty R.; Kumar A.

Description

Children witness various degrees and intensities of violations and violence along with a hoard of environmental stressors. Such a spectrum of violence includes disturbing family environments, witnessing adults, including parents and family members, indulge in violence and abusive behaviours and direct or vicarious exposure to violence outside the home. The chapter aims to provide an overview of the nature and impact of witnessing violence. The frequency, type, intensity and the child's relationship with the people involved or impacted by the violence can determine the impact on a child's mental health and development. Children may witness distressing events in their daily lives like the loss of a loved one or watching adults take up challenging tasks, which may help them be resilient and learn coping skills with appropriate support. Long-term exposure to witnessing violence and trauma can lead to severe emotional and developmental difficulties. Such direct or vicarious exposure to varying degrees of violence may cultivate a culture of fear, repression and silence around the children. These difficulties may be similar to those of children who are direct victims of abuse. Witnessing violence has also been linked to anxiety and depression. Children growing up in such environments are at higher risk of normalizing violence and growing into abusive adults. Poverty, cultural factors, parenting, schooling, and policies can largely determine such risks for children. The paper discusses the preventive and promotive approaches at the school, family and community levels. Education and empowerment of adults in the child's environment can be the best preventative approach. Existing policies and programmes in India for children need to bring in more robust initiatives to identify, report, prevent and protect children witnessing violence. The needs and concerns of children witnessing violence and prevention approaches should be part of courses in helping professionals training and curriculum. The chapter calls for the necessity of individual and community-based interventions in terms of need-based models for addressing the mental health needs of children. The chapter strongly recommends the need for addressing mental health education for families and schools. The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

Source

Child Safety, Welfare and Well-being: Issues and Challenges, Second Edition, pp. 163-183.

Date

2022-01-01

Publisher

Springer Nature

Subject

Abuse; Children; Intervention; Mental health; Witnessing violence

Coverage

Chakraborty R., Department of Psychology, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, India, National Academy of Psychology (NAOP), India; Kumar A., Department of Psychology, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, India

Rights

Restricted Access

Relation

ISBN: 978-981169820-0; 978-981169819-4

Format

Online

Language

English

Type

Book chapter

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9820-0_10

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85161091042&doi=10.1007%2f978-981-16-9820-0_10&partnerID=40&md5=59b34884a93410ef0356bdaf49fa34e4