MINI REVIEW published: 09 July 2019 doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00156
Early Life Exposure to Violence: Developmental Consequences on Brain and Behavior Isabelle Mueller 1 * and Ed Tronick 1,2 1
Developmental and Brain Sciences Program, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, United States, 2 Department of Newborn Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
Edited by: Kevin G. Bath, Brown University, United States Reviewed by: Lauren Evelyn Chaby, University of Michigan, United States Simone Macri, Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Italy *Correspondence: Isabelle Mueller isabelle.mueller001@umb.edu Received: 13 March 2019 Accepted: 26 June 2019 Published: 09 July 2019 Citation: Mueller I and Tronick E (2019) Early Life Exposure to Violence: Developmental Consequences on Brain and Behavior. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 13:156. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00156
Exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) can have long-lasting effects on a child’s socio-emotional and neurological development. Research has focused on the effects of IPV on women or older children, while the developmental consequences of exposure to domestic violence during early childhood are less well documented. However, one would expect significant developmental effects since the infant’s brain and stress-related systems are especially susceptible to environmental stimuli. The goal of this mini-review is to examine how findings on infant exposure to IPV can be related to risk and resilience of development in infancy. We describe the known effects of witnessing violence during the perinatal period on socio-emotional development and the possible pathways by which IPV affects brain and stress-regulating systems. Exposure to IPV during infancy disrupts the infant’s emotional and cognitive development, the development of the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis and brain structures related to witnessing itself (auditory and visual cortex). The findings are embedded in the context of the resource depletion hypothesis. A central problem is the dearth of research on exposure to IPV during infancy, its effect on caregiving, and infant development. Nonetheless, the available evidence makes it clear that policies for prevention of IPV are critically needed. Keywords: intimate partner violence, domestic violence, infancy, development, brain development
INTRODUCTION The long-term consequences of exposure to adversity in infancy have been well documented, especially its effects on a child’s development and increased vulnerability for later mental health problems (Kessler et al., 2010; Carr et al., 2013; Reuben et al., 2016). While adversities such as chronic neglect or abuse have been extensively described in the literature, the negative consequences of exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) are less well documented. Primary reasons for the dearth of findings are that cases of IPV often go unreported out of fear of consequences or get palliated by the individuals involved. IPV as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is one intimate partner exercising coercive control over the other, including physical and sexual violence, as well as threats of physical or sexual violence, and emotional abuse in the context of physical and sexual violence (Saltzman et al., 1999; Breiding et al., 2015). As the official definition suggests, most research has focused on the effects of IPV on women, also, child exposure to IPV is often treated different from child maltreatment. Yet, an estimated 10%–20% of children living in the US are annually exposed to IPV (Carlson, 2000). A Canadian incidence
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July 2019 | Volume 13 | Article 156