157
At-Risk and Maltreated Children Exposed
to Intimate Partner Aggression/Violence
What the Conflict Looks Like and Its Relationship to Child Outcomes
Diana J. English
J. Christopher Graham
University of Washington, Seattle
Rae R. Newton
California State University
Terri L. Lewis
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Richard Thompson
Juvenile Protective Association, Chicago
Jonathan B. Kotch
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Cindy Weisbart
University of Maryland
Despite increasing research on children’s exposure to intimate partner aggression/violence (IPAV), and co-occurrence of
IPAV and maltreatment, little is known about IPAV in at-risk and maltreating families. We explored the nature of IPAV in
554 homes where children were identified as at risk or reported for maltreatment and examined differences between
emotional and behavioral outcomes for children in homes where one or both intimate partners is the alleged perpetrator of
IPAV. We found in this sample that IPAV primarily took the form of verbal aggression with differences in perpetrator gender
for verbal, minor, and severe violence. There were few child outcomes predicted by perpetrator gender: Significant child
behavior problems were found with all types of IPAV and both genders as perpetrators. Results suggest the need for
comprehensive assessments of IPAV when assessing risk, safety, and harm issues for children reported as being at risk or
victims of maltreatment.
Keywords: domestic/intimate partner violence; child maltreatment; family relationships; behavioral observations; elementary
school-age children; families
T
he Child Protective Services (CPS) in the United
States investigates an estimated 3.3 million reports
of child abuse/neglect (CA/N) of children annually, and
nearly 900,000 of those reports are substantiated for mal-
treatment (U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, 2007). Estimates of the co-occurrence of CA/N
and adult domestic violence (DV) in the home have been
consistently reported at between 30% and 60% (see
Appel & Holden, 1998; Edleson, 1999; O’Leary, Slep, &
O’Leary, 2000), with higher probabilities of physical
child abuse (Appel & Holden, 1998; Ross, 1996) and
sexual abuse (Fantuzzo & Mohr, 1999). With regard to
neglect, McGuigan and Pratt (2001) reported that DV
Child Maltreatment
Volume 14 Number 2
May 2009 157-171
' 2009 SAGE Publications
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Authors’ Note: This research was made possible by grants from the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration on
Children, Youth, and Families. Correspondence concerning this arti-
cle should be addressed to Diana J. English, Child Welfare Research
Group, 4045 Delridge Way SW, Suite 400, Seattle, WA 98106; e-mail:
diana.english@gmail.com.

occurring during the first 6 months of a child’s life was a
significant predictor of child neglect through age 5.
These estimates are based on shelter or court popula-
tions. In a study of 2,000 randomly selected families
from a population of 35,000 reported to CPS, English,
Edleson, and Herrick (2005) found that DV was reported
as a risk issue in 47% of investigated CPS referrals. A
recent examination of the presence of DV in a 1999/2000
national probability sample of 3,931 children referred to
and investigated by CPS systems found that current DV
was identified by the CPS social worker in 14% of the
cases, and in 19% of the cases a history of DV was iden-
tified (Kohl, Edleson, English, & Barth, 2005).
Although the estimates of co-occurrence of DV and
CA/N range consistently between 30% and 60%, defini-
tions used to derive these estimates vary. For the CPS-
based studies, the definition of DV is often based on the
use of a single item that defines the term by use of
anchors (e.g., from the Washington State Risk
Assessment Protocol: Caretakers resolving conflicts in a
nonaggressive manner is considered a family strength,
isolated incidents of assaultive behavior not resulting in
injury is considered “low” risk, sporadic incidents of
assaultive behavior that results in, or could result in,
minor injury is considered “moderate” risk, and a single
incident or repeated incidents of assaultive behavior that
result in, or could result in, major injury are considered
“high” risk (see English, Marshall, & Stewart [2003] for
more details). Little is actually known about the type and
directionality of intimate partner conflict, aggression,
and/or violence in homes where DV and CA/N are
reported to co-occur in CPS populations. Variations in
estimates of co-occurrence may be because of differ-
ences in CPS system response or child outcomes, as well
as differences in definition of terms used and other vari-
ations in research methodologies (Edleson, 1999;
Holtzworth-Munroe, 2005). Understanding the nature
and character of what is called DV is a complex issue. In
addition to the difficulties surrounding the reliable
measurement of DV, complexities in the term itself are
problematic. “Domestic violence” is the term most com-
monly used; however, researchers have also used terms
such as wife battering, woman battering, intimate terror-
ism, violent resistance, situational couple violence, and
common couples’ violence, among others (Johnson, 1995).
In a recent article, Pence and Dasgupta discuss the con-
fusion associated with the use of the terms “battering”
and “DV” and suggest that “there are important differ-
ences in partner violence . . . and we need to distinguish
who is doing what to whom and with what impact” to
determine appropriate interventions (Pence & Dasgupta,
2006).
For the purposes of this article, the term DV will be
used when referencing research that has specifically used
that term, typically referring to woman battering.
However, this study focuses more broadly on diverse
forms of conflict, aggression, and violence. Intimate
partner aggression/violence (IPAV), for the purposes of
this study, not only includes behavior that might be
called DV (woman battering), but also includes conflict
and aggression that is not physical in nature (e.g., verbal
aggression), as well as behavior that may be termed
minor violence, such as “spanking or slapping” (see
Straus & Gelles, 1986). Although the literature has typi-
cally focused on man to woman aggression/violence, we
recognize that aggression/violence is often bidirectional.
Furthermore, in our examination of the nature and char-
acter of IPAV, who is doing what to whom is examined,
including the examination of unilateral IPAV (one inti-
mate partner toward the other) and bilateral IPAV (both
intimate partners engaging in IPAV with each other).
Impact of IPAV and Child Maltreatment
on Children
Although the precise type and directionality of IPAV
that children witness in at-risk and maltreating homes is
unknown, research suggests that children who witness
DV are more likely to exhibit internalizing problems
such as depression and anxiety (Cummings & Davies,
1994; Johnson et al., 2002; Margolin, 1998), symptoms
of posttraumatic stress, dissociation and anger (Johnson
et al., 2002), behavior problems, and physical health
problems (Campbell & Lewandoski, 1997). These
adverse outcomes are not unlike those of maltreated
children, who similarly display poorer emotional and
behavioral functioning (Boney-McCoy & Finkelhor,
1995; Margolin & Gordis, 2000).
Some studies have compared the outcomes of children
who had witnessed DV with those who had experienced
child maltreatment; generally, these studies have found
that although the two groups do not differ from each
other with respect to risk behaviors, both groups of
children are likely to exhibit elevated distress. In their
meta-analysis of 41 studies examining the effects of
children’s exposure to DV, Wolfe and colleagues (Wolfe,
Crooks, Lee, McIntyre-Smith, & Jaffe, 2003) described
four studies suggesting that co-occurrence of child abuse
and DV increased (to a small degree) the level of emo-
tional and behavioral problems over and above exposure
to DV alone. Wolfe and colleagues emphasize that “the
experience of direct victimization may add a small effect
size in addition to the medium effect already present
158 Child Maltreatment