Spillover Effect from Domestic Violence
Scott Carroll and Mark Hoekstra have published the final report of their ground-breaking and controversial study into how domestic violence affects, not only the children in the home, but those children's classmates. The New York Times highlighted the working paper this past summer, and it has reverberated ever since around the Internet and among social services professionals.
The study concluded that children from families filing domestic violence claims "significantly decrease their peers' reading and math test scores and significantly increase the misbehavior of others in the classroom." Thus, "any intervention that reduces family conflict may well have larger positive effects than previously thought."
This study has profound implications not only for schools, but for public policy. I generally dislike calls for public funding of this or that pet project, but child abuse prevention is one area that needs much more money, both public and private. If the implications of domestic violence are as profound as this study indicates, then proven programs that reduce that violence are a wise, even necessary, investment.
Hat tip: Children and the Law Blog
