Long-term psychological adjustment to witnessing interparental physical conflict during childhood

A retrospective survey of undergraduate students was used to examine the long-term psychological impact of witnessing interparental physical aggression during childhood. Two hundred and three of 1,452 young adults surveyed (14%) reported witnessing as children at least one incident of physical aggression between their parents. Both men and women who witnessed interparental physical conflict reported higher levels of current psychological distress than a comparison group of young adults who never observed physical aggression between their parents. This group difference remained even after controlling for parental divorce, parental SES, physical abuse of the child, parental alcoholism, and nonphysical discord witnessed between parents. Additional analyses found that the negative effect of witnessing interparental aggression was intensified when the aggression was serious enough to warrant some type of outside assistance for the victim and when the parent of the same-sex was seen being victimized. Although these findings provided support for the theory that witnessing interparental physical aggression is a traumatic experience that may have long-term psychological ramifications, we also found that a substantial proportion of the variance accounted for in adult adjustment by interparental physical conflict was mediated through decreased parental caring and warmth during childhood. Implications for these results, limitations of the present study, and directions for further research are discussed.