AIMS:

The aims of this research are therefore to examine the impact of domestic violence as measured in the ALSPAC cohort on the behavioural and emotional development of children up to age 8 years, and examine factors that may increase the likelihood of resilience. In particular, both physical and non-physical forms of domestic violence, and the parental role in the impact of violence on child outcomes will be explicitly examined. The research questions to be addressed are:

1. There will be variation in the behavioural and emotional development of children exposed to domestic violence;

2. The variation in behavioural and emotional development of children exposed to domestic violence will vary depending on which parent used violence and which parent was victimised;

3. The variation in behavioural and emotional development of children exposed to domestic violence will vary depending on the type of domestic violence to which they were exposed (physical, emotional, combined);

4. Children who are identified as resilient in the context of physical domestic violence will be identified as resilient in the context of non-physical domestic violence;

5. The relationship between exposure to domestic violence and child development will be mediated or moderated by: maternal depression; parenting quality; child's cognitive ability and child's temperament.