Witnessing Intimate Partner Violence Summary

Witnessing intimate partner violence:
Review of the literature on coping in young persons
Kate van Heutgen and Elizabeth Wilson
Keuka College

All elements and directions contain in this writing complied by Mary Kate Slattery, BSW student, Keuka College Social Work Program and taken exclusively from:
Heugten, K. V., & Wilson, E. (2008 ). Witnessing intimate partner violence: Review of the literature on coping in young persons. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 52-62.
When first reading the title of the article I was excepting the article to talk a lot about the after math and ways to help kids after witnessing intimate partner violence but it really focused on how kids help cope on their own. The article also did talk
Including but not limited to suicide, substance abuse, self-injury, promiscuity or early parenting. Kids may use all different coping mechanisms to help them deal with what they are going through. They are normally categorized into two different sections: externalizing or internalizing behaviors. They talked about not only the negative cope mechanisms but also the positive ones that some kids had. Or how some kids didn’t have any coping mechanisms and they just became numb or blocked out all the pain they were feeling from the experience they went through.
Safety planning was also talked about and how children learn at young ages to seek help if something like this is going on. Also there are programs to help people in the community realize when these things are going on to someone. These programs can help children and the spouse be taken out of the harmful situation and get the help they need.
Overall I thought this article was okay it touched on many different things but never really went into detail on many things. I also feel like they left some important facts out. The article wasn’t bad but it definitely could have been better by adding more details and
In relationships it could just as easily be the women being violent with the men. It goes both ways but this article never seems to mention that, they only mention women. At times the use terms that could be for the men as well but they never come out and say they have these programs for men, they only say it for the women. They also didn’t really get into detail about what a lot of the programs do for these victims. The third thing I would change would be in the universal section of the journal. When first reading the title I was excepting to read about different approaches they had around the world instead it was more about how the other places were starting to take lead from New Zealand. I thought it would have been really interesting for them to say what other places in the world are doing and how they differ. You really only saw one places view on how intimate partner violence effects children compared to other