Whitten T1,2, Green M2,3, Tzoumakis S4, Laurens K2,5, Harris F2, Carr V2,3,6, Dean K2,7
1Centre for Law and Justice, Charles Sturt University, 2Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of New South Wales, 3Neuroscience Research Australia, 4School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University, 5School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology, 6Department of Psychiatry, Monash University, 7Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network
Biography:
Tyson is a Lecturer in Criminal Justice at Charles Sturt University, and an adjunct Lecturer in the School of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales. Tyson’s research examines the development of criminal and antisocial behaviour across the life-course, with a focus on the risk factors and adverse health outcomes associated with young people’s involvement in, or experiences of, crime and delinquency.
Early life exposure to Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) is associated with poor psychosocial and cognitive development in childhood. However, most prior research relies on retrospective self-reports or mother-reported involvement in DVA as a proxy indicator of child exposure; studies using direct measures of child exposure to DVA are scarce, especially among representative population-based samples. We address this gap by using longitudinal, population-based data from an Australian record linkage study of children to examine the associations between early life exposure to DVA and early childhood developmental vulnerability. Exposure to DVA was measured using police contact records for children involved in a DVA incident either as a victim or witness. Developmental vulnerability at school entry was measured using the Australian Early Development Census, providing indices of five broad domains of function (physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills [school-based], and communication skills and general knowledge) and person-centred classes of developmental risk (referred to as ‘mild generalised risk’, ‘misconduct risk’, and ‘pervasive risk’, each compared to a group showing ‘no risk’). Children exposed to DVA showed significantly greater odds of developmental vulnerability on all five domains and were more likely to be members of the three developmental risk classes. Girls who were victims of DVA had poorer developmental outcomes than boys who were victims within the domain of communication skills and general knowledge. No other sex differences were found. These preliminary findings hold important implications for policy regarding the early intervention and implementation of support services for young children exposed to DVA.