The Impact Of Exposure To Domestic Violence On Mental Health And Well-being Of Zambian Children In Lusaka;Socioeconomic Status As A Modulating Factor

Background: Domestic violence(DV) is major risk on the development of children. It is even a more serious concern among developing nations faced with poverty and prevalence of domestic violence against children. Current evidence suggests children’s development is related to the structure and socio-economic circumstances of the family. However, these findings remain unclear for developing nations which have other contextual factors.Objective: This study aims at exploring the association between DV and mental health and wellbeing among children, and testing whether socioeconomic status play a modulating role between domestic violence and mental health and wellbeing.Furthermore, this study tests if mental health mediates the relationship between domestic violence and well-being among children victims.Method: Two sets of participants took part in this study. The first was 530 school children(345 females, 185 males, mean age = 15.9) randomly selected participants. The second set was 320 caregivers for children that had self-reported to have been exposed to DV and those that had not been exposed. A total of four instruments were used to conduct the study; two questionnaires modelled after the Symptom Checklist(SCL-90-R scale meant to assess mental health and well-being, a Child Behavior checklist(CBCL, 4-18years) and a Child Depression Inventory(CDI) were used to conduct the study. Statistical software package, SPSS 22.0, was used to analyze data and obtain findings. Correlation and Regression analysis as well as t-tests were statistical analysis procedures applied in the study.Results: In line with the research questions and hypothesis, four major findings were made. The first finding indicated that domestic violence negatively affected both mental health and well-being of children exposed to DV while those not exposed do not have such effects. The results also showed that socioeconomic status played a modulatory role between domestic violence and mental health and wellbeing.Furthermore, it was found that mental health mediated the relationship betweendomestic violence and well-being and the greater the exposure to DV, the more the mediation. Lastly, the ABC model in experiment 6 illuminated the pathways of violence upon a child victim’s exposure and is helpful in prevention and treatment of effects of DV.Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that domestic violence was a negative background on child development, and there is need to pay special attention to this issue in developing nations where social inequalities are very high between the rich and poor. The results further suggest that society needs to pay special attention to children from more disadvantaged families because poverty increases not only their inability to achieve their full potential but also leads to poor psychological development.Increasing family incomes may play an important role in proper child development and avoid maldevelopment of children from poor families that are also in the majority. It is also clear that among poor families, factors related to the child and family distinguish adjustment for children exposed to DV, resilient children have not only less exposure to violence but also fewer fears and worries and with parents with better mental health hence better parenting styles. The findings therefore suggest that child adjustment is largely influenced by parenting functioning regardless of socio-economic circumstances of the family. Thus, services should be targeted at both the child and the parent.Implications for intervention suggest that economies among developing nations need to be improved to fight against effects of domestic violence. From a resilient perspective,the study highlights protective factors among low socioeconomic status families that influence the extent of the impact of domestic violence and subsequent outcomes for the children, and the positive role to improve mental health for better development of children in developing nations.