Some children exposed to violence can be affected with a form of post-traumatic stress syndrome. Continual exposure to images or actual violence desensitizes children and can cause parents to feel powerless against the barrage of violence in our society. The destructive lessons parents teach when they are physically and psychologically abusive to their children and when they allow their children to be physically and psychologically abusive to others in conjunction with our society's glorification of violence, the ready availability of guns, and the drug culture are an explosive combination that sets our children up to be perpetrators and victims of violence. Again, primary prevention of family violence and the promotion of family wellness would have a positive effect on reducing the risks of youth violence. The effects of exposure to violence can emerge quickly or appear slowly over time.
Children respond to violence in many different ways.
Violence can interfere with a child's education and academic development. Children and adolescents who live with violence have a different sense of their own mortality. They may not expect to live very long and may exhibit a sense of hopelessness and inability to make plans for the future. Children who live with violence may repress their feelings. This response may interfere with their ability to develop empathy understanding or feeling someone else's pain.