NoVA Research-Batterers as Fathers

As part of our commitment to ending violence and abuse, the Non-Violence Alliance is committed to research that will advance the field of batterer intervention. Working independently and with research partners like Dr. Emily Rothman, Matrix Public Health Consultants, and EncompassGroup, we are currently involved in research on batterers as fathers, improvements in the child protection, effectiveness of batterer intervention programs in correctional settings, and program outcomes and screening for batterers in medical settings.

• A National Study Of Batterers’ Perceptions Of Their Children’s Exposure to the Violence and Abuse
• Cognitive Assessment of Abusive Fathers
• Abstract for "Batterers's Perception of the Effect of Their Intimate Partner Violence on Children: Biological and Social Fathers Compared"

Highlights from "A National Study Of Batterers’ Perceptions Of Their Children’s Exposure to the Violence and Abuse"

…Relatively little guidance is currently available for professionals who wish to facilitate a nurturing relationship between abusive men and their children, while maintaining the safety of the children and their abused mother. We know little about the way children of abused women and abusive men relate to their violent fathers, and have almost no information about abusive men’s perceptions of their children or of their parenting role. (Peled, 2000)[¹]

by David Mandel

Earlier this year, I solicited participation from batterer intervention programs in North America for a study about batterers’ perceptions of their children’s exposure to their violence and abuse. The response to the survey was strong and provided a large sample of men who were involved with batterer intervention programs across the United States and Canada. I want to thank all the programs and individuals who participated in the study. Their time and effort was invaluable.

The following is a summary of some of the study and some of its results. I am continuing to analyze the data and will be sharing more results in the future.

The study was developed in order to gather empirical data about an area that only had been previously studied anecdotally: batterers’ perceptions of their children’s exposure to their violence and abuse. It is known that many batterers’ represent a serious risk to their children and their partner’s children through exposing them to their violence and abuse, directly abusing them, using them as a weapon to hurt or control their partner, undermining their partner’s parenting and being a neglectful parent. It is less clear how batterer’s think about their children. The results of this study may be useful for entities, including child protection agencies, family and juvenile courts, batterer intervention programs, who are becoming more focused on the relationship between batterers and children.

Methodology

In Spring 2002, I developed an initial version of the Cognitive Assessment of Abusive Fathers (CAAF) survey. It was based on clinical work and an initial review of the literature. The CAAF was piloted with a very small group of batterers, and then more widely implemented through Professionals Against Intimate Violence (PAIV) in Connecticut. (PAIV is the statewide organization for batterer intervention professionals.) This sample included 112 batterers from four different programs.

The original CAAF was modified based on the results of the first initial sample, feedback from other professionals in the field and further review of the literature. The survey was also translated into Latin American Spanish.

Participants for the study were solicited by reaching batterer intervention programs around the country via Issues in Family Violence, the Non-Violence Alliance web page, a children and domestic violence listserv hosted by the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, a targeted mailing to Native American and First Nations domestic violence programs and personal contacts.

The men were directed to apply the questions in the survey to both their own biological children and any children their partners had from previous relationships.

Key Demographics of the Initial Sample:

1. Total sample for this portion of the study was 546 men with children (their own or partner’s) from 23 different programs in 8 states.
2. Ninety percent of the men had biological children (n=1079) and 45% had partners with children of their own (n=461).
3. Sixty-one percent of the men with biological children lived with at least on of their children at least one day a week. Forty six percent of the men whose partners had children lived with at least one of those children.
4. The racial and ethnic breakdown of the sample was White (53%), Hispanic (22%), African-American (18%), Asian (2%), Multi-racial (2%), Bi-racial (1%), Native American (<1%) and Other (1%). Almost 10% of the surveys were completed in Spanish.
5. Little less than half (43.5%) of the sample was married with a majority (65%) living with their spouse. Just over a third (36%) were unmarried with a majority (62%) living with their partner. In total, just over half (51%) of the men were living with a married or unmarried partner. Twenty percent indicated they did not have a current partner.
6. Eighty six percent said they were attending the program because of a mandate (court, child protection, etc.). Other reasons given for attending the program included “partner and/or relationship being harmed” (61%), “self being harmed” (46%), and “children being harmed” (21%).
7. The average length of involvement with a batterer intervention program was 16 weeks. Over a third of the men (38%) were in the early stage of treatment (0-8 weeks), 43% were in the middle stage (9-24 weeks) and 19% were late stage (25 weeks or longer).

Key Results:

1. Seventy percent indicated their children saw or overheard some of their physical violence.
2. Seventy nine percent indicated their children saw or overheard some of their verbal abuse.
3. Sixty eight percent indicated their children had some degree of exposure to the aftermath of their physical violence and/or verbal abuse.
4. The men were asked how they thought their children felt as result of being exposed to their physical violence. Given the choice of nine feelings and “it doesn’t effect them negatively” the top three feelings identified were scared (63%), sad (50%), and confused (44%).
5. For feelings perceived to be resulting from exposure to verbal abuse the men identified scared (59%), sad (47%), and confused (45%) as the top three feelings.
6. The respondents felt their children were currently being negatively effected in the following areas of their life: school performance (67%); behavior at home (80%); children’s relationship with their mother (70%); children’s relationship with them (78%); children’s mental health (67%)
7. In regards to worries about long term effects, 74% had some degree of overall worry with 75% worried their boys would grow up to be abusers and 75% worried their girls would grow up to be victims.
8. Almost all the men with current partners (96%) indicated they had some degree of respect for their partner’s parenting.
9. Similarly, 95% said they believed that their partner had some degree of respect for his parenting.
10. Less than half the respondents (46%) felt their violence and/or verbal abuse had a negative effect on their current partner’s parenting.
11. Almost two-thirds (64%) felt their physical violence and/or verbal abuse had made it harder for them and their current partner to co-parent.
12. Three quarters (75%) felt that physical violence and/or verbal abuse had negatively affected their feelings about themselves as fathers.

This study, like all studies, has limitations. First, the study population was batterers in intervention programs. While the demographics indicate that the sample was similar to previous studies of batterers in intervention programs, we must be cautious about generalizing these outcomes to all batterers. Second, the study relied on only one data source: the batterers themselves. There was no corroborating data from partners, children or other third parties. Therefore, we need to remember that these results only represent the subjective perspective of the batterers themselves. Future studies might try to correlate the perceptions of batterers with more objective data about behavior and the perceptions of his partner and their children.

Third, this study did not account for a number of important variables that might influence the responses of the participants. The severity of the violence, the length of a batterer’s career of violent behavior, his experience of his violence and abuse in his family of origin and his perpetration of violence outside the family all may have a significant impact on how a batterer perceives his children’s exposure. In addition to relationship status, age and gender, other factors related to the children may also impact a batterer’s perceptions. For instance, a child with a severe physical or cognitive disability may elicit a very different set of perceptions than a child who is healthy.

Summary of Key Recommendations

1. Future studies of batterers as parents should pay attention to the living arrangements between batterers and their children, and the amount and quality of time spent together.
2. Further study of batterers as parents should attempt to correlate reports from batterers with multiple sources of information.
3. The relationship between batterers’ awareness of the impact of their abuse on their children and their behavior change should be examined.
4. Future research should seek to better illuminate the relationship between batterers’ stated desire to shield their children from exposure to abuse and positive behavior change.
5. Batterer intervention programs may not be sufficiently focused on the issues of parenting, co-parenting and children to meet the needs of referrals made by child protection agencies, civil and juvenile courts.
6. Communities should examine the reasons for the small percentage of batterers, relative to the estimated overlap of child maltreatment and domestic violence, who are involved with child protection agencies.
7. Tracking referral sources or reasons for entering a program would be a useful measure to determining the success of public awareness campaigns directed towards batterers.
8. A discussion needs to occur about how to harness the power of faith communities to more effectively intervene with batterers.

[¹] Peled, E. (2000). Parenting by men who abuse women: Issues and dilemmas. British Journal of Social Work, 30, 25-36.

The feelings were scared, sad, confused, angry, lonely, guilty, embarrassed, and numb/empty.