Stay for the Children? Husband Violence, Marital Stability, and Children's Behavior Problems.

Much research has argued for the existence of a marriage benefit to men, women, and children. Although the commonly suggested current response to a husband's violence has been for the couple to separate, traditionally women were often told to "stay for the children." This paper uses the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods longitudinal data to examine the relationships among marital stability, husband violence, and children's behavior problems. Among married mothers who reported husband violence at time 1 (N = 414), the negative relationship between child behavior problems and remaining in the marriage dissipated when selection bias and husband violence recidivism were controlled. Key Words: children, divorce, domestic violence, marital status. A long line of research has documented eco- nomic, health, and mental health benefits to marriage (Nock, 2005; Waite & Gallagher, 2000; Waite & Lehrer, 2003). Despite admo- nitions that selection effects play a substantial role in the findings (Cherlin, 1999; Ribar, 2004; Waite & Lehrer, 2003) and findings that the impact of divorce is mostly mediated by weaker parent-child bonds (Amato & Sobolewski, 2001), reports of marriage benefits to children have sometimes caused consternation among domestic (intimate partner) violence advocates (Catlett & Artis, 2004). Many advocates fear that such research misrepresents domestic violence research and may be used to influence women suffering from domestic violence to remain in dangerous relationships. Such concerns are not without some foundation. Religious leaders have sometimes taught women that it is their duty to return to an abusive husband (Shannon-Lewy & Dull, 2005). Historically, 50% of people felt that couples should stay together for the sake of the children (Ellwood & Jencks, 2004). Although the percentage of those who agree with this statement dropped below 20% in the 1970s and has since remained stable (Ellwood & Jencks), this is still one of the most commonly asked questions about divorce (Hetherington, 1999). Beyond the justified concerns of advocates, however, whether or not staying in a marriage in which there is husband violence is bad or good for children is an empirical (if politically loaded) question that remains to be answered. Are children really better off when women remain with men who abuse them? Focusing on a longitudinal population sample of married mothers victimized by husband violence in Chicago, this paper examines children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, husband violence, and marital stability. Domestic violence is a widespread, serious, and costly problem. An estimated 25% of women have been victimized (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000). Victims have an increased likelihood of seizure, miscarriage, and emergency room visits (Campbell, 2002) and have higher levels of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder than nonvictims (Jones, Hughes, & Unterstaller, 2001). The cost to victims alone is an estimated $67 billion (National Institute of Justice, 1996). This does not include costs of processing perpetrators or costs of future behavior problems of children exposed to husband violence. Although psychological abuse is an important component of husband violence, this paper limits its focus to the use of physical force in marital relationships. Internalizing and externalizing behavior problems are two frequently deployed concepts used to capture acting out versus self-blaming type dimensions of child behavior problems (Achenbach, 1991). Qualitative studies have painted a disturbing portrait of the behavior and life experiences of children exposed to husband violence (Wallerstein, Lewis, & Blakeslee, 2000). Robust relationships between childhood exposure to domestic violence and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems continue to be found in the quantitative research literature (Evans, Davies, & Duilio, 2008; Jaffee, Moffitt, Caspi, Taylor, & Arseneault, 2002; Kitzmann, Gaylord, Holt, fe Kenny, 2003; Yates, Dodds, Sroufe, & Egeland, 2003). …