Study attempts to refute 'cycle of violence' theory

Together with Family and Community Medicine Professor Mary Koss and Associate Professor of Psychology A.J. Figuerdo, McCloskey conducted a longitudinal study on 365 mothers and one of their children from the ages of 6 to 12 years. This study is planned to span 10 to 20 years, following the children into adulthood.

The children were all from low-income families. About half of the children followed did not have a family history of abuse and formed the control group.

Previously, most studies looked at battered women rather than following children of battered women. In a departure from the bias of psychological and social science research toward examining the impact of maternal behavior on the child, this study focused on the father's impact on children's behavior, McCloskey said.

"Fathers' violent acts are a major form of psychological influence to the child," McCloskey said.

Jenine Grisez, crisis advocate at the Brewster Center shelter for victims of domestic abuse, said that paternal influence is evident when 2-year-old children use their father's insults for their mothers or strike at their mothers.

"They just don't know any better because they are so young," she said.

However, the study, now in its seventh year, found that the percentage of children from violent homes who end up in court is roughly equal to the percentage of children not from violent homes who end up in court, which contrasts with the popularized the cycle of violence theory.

However, the study did reveal children from violent homes do end up in court at an earlier age. This is significant, McCloskey said, because her studies and those of others suggest that most chronic offenders begin breaking laws at around age 9. This criterion is the most serious predictor for later delinquencies.

"The gateway to crime starts when children are very young," she said.

She said that this finding shows that current punitive measures are not enough to deter later crime.

"We're not helping children when they need it the most," she said.

She said that early detection and immediate intervention are more effective measures.

The study also focused in the area of dating violence. McCloskey found in interviews with her target subjects that many children from violent homes tend to have a strong desire not to repeat the violence they observed as children.

"They seem to be rethinking what they grew up with and trying to break the cycle," she said.

Grisez said she has witnessed some children with this sensitivity toward violence.

"The older children can understand why they are in the shelter and I think that they show sensitivity to not be like their fathers," she said.

This sensitivity varies with the varying personalities of the children; however, Grisez said.

Growing up in a violent home does carry increased psychological risk, the researchers found. The study reported that the children from violent homes had twice the suicide attempt rate of the children from homes without a history of family violence. They also had an elevated depression rate.

The study was initiated when a representative from the Tucson Center for Women and Children asked McClosky and Koss to examine the psychology of abuse victims and develop therapeutic strategies from the information.

"We got into it by trying to help the community solve the problem of what to do with these children of battered women," McCloskey said.

She said her ultimate goal is to devise therapeutic strategies. The study was initially funded by a five-year grant from the National Center on Child Abuse and is now funded by a grant from the National Institute of Health.

Currently the findings discuss children in their early teens. McCloskey said that as children move into adulthood and more serious relationships other findings may come to light.