Published online February 1, 2007
PEDIATRICS Vol. 119 Supplement February 2007, pp. S68-S76 (doi:10.1542/peds.2006-2089K)
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Moore, C. G.
Right arrow Articles by Martin, A. B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Moore, C. G.
Right arrow Articles by Martin, A. B.
Related Collections
Right arrow Office Practice

SUPPLEMENT ARTICLE


The Prevalence of Violent Disagreements in US Families: Effects of Residence, Race/Ethnicity, and Parental Stress

Charity G. Moore, PhDa, Janice C. Probst, PhDb, Mark Tompkins, PhDc, Steven Cuffe, MDd and Amy B. Martin, DrPHb

a Departments of Medicine and Biostatistics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
b Health Services Policy and Management
c Political Science
d Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina

CONTEXT. Witnessing domestic violence increases a child's chance of emotional or behavioral problems during childhood and entering abusive relationships in adulthood, even without co-occurring child maltreatment.

OBJECTIVE. Our goals were to estimate the prevalence of reported violent disagreements in the homes of US children and to assess prevalence differences by race/ethnicity, residence, and reported parenting stress.

PATIENTS AND METHODS. Data were drawn from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health. Case subjects with unknown gender, race/ethnicity, or residence were excluded, yielding 99660 observations. Disagreements were classified on the basis of how the family deals with serious disagreement. If disagreements involved hitting or throwing, even rarely, the household was categorized as having violent disagreements. Households reporting heated argument and shouting were classified as having heated disagreement.

RESULTS. Nationally, 10.3% of children lived in homes with reported violent disagreements. Violent disagreements were most prevalent among black households (15.1%), followed by "other" (12.1%), Hispanic (11.3%), and white (8.6%) households. Urban areas had higher prevalence (10.7%) than did small through large rural counties (8.3%–9.9%). In multinomial logistic analysis, parents living in rural counties were less likely to report violent disagreements compared with those in urban. Black children were more likely to be exposed to both violent and heated disagreements than were white children. Parents reporting high parenting stress had higher odds of violent and heated disagreement than parents reporting less stress.

CONCLUSIONS. A substantial number of children are exposed to violent disagreement. Although demographic and cultural factors may also influence disagreement style, parental stress seems instrumental in the development of violent disagreements. Parents who experience difficulty with parenting constitute a high-risk population. Helping parents understand and address child behavior may reduce such stress.

Key Words: domestic violence • violent disagreements • parent stress

Abbreviations: NVAWS—National Violence Against Women Survey • NSCH—National Survey of Children's Health • RUCC—Rural Urban Continuum Code • OR—odds ratio • CI—confidence interval

Accepted Sep 15, 2006.