What are Child Witnesses of Abuse?

What are child witnesses of abuse?  

It is estimated that one in 15 children are exposed to domestic violence each year, and that 90% of those are eyewitnesses to the abuse. When we look at eyewitnesses, this is just something that they are reporting because it is really hard to report the other pieces of it.

When talking about child witnesses of abuse, I am also talking about children who heard the abuse from another room, and children who see the aftermath of abuse. For example, they come down the stairs after sleeping at night and there is a hole in the wall, there are things broken, or they see the abuse, the physical abuse, of one of their parents. 

In addition, these children are experiencing other non-physical forms of abuse. They are hearing the emotional abuse, they are hearing the psychological abuse, they are seeing and hearing the gaslighting that is happening, and they are likely affected by the financial abuse. 

Considering that  90% of children are eyewitnesses to these incidents, we need to really look at it at a larger, more holistic level, because these children are affected much more than witnessing an incident happen.

This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the webinar,  Providing a Safe Relationship for Children: Working with Child Victims of Domestic Violence, presented by Sybil Cummin, MA, LPC, ACS