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This paper takes the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS) as a sample to assess the long-term impacts of domestic violence experienced in childhood on individuals. First, from the four dimensions of injury from violence, negligent care, emotional abuse and witness to domestic violence, an indicator system for quantifying domestic violence is constructed. Second, the simultaneous equation of self-evaluation health and life satisfaction is estimated by the seemingly unrelated regression model. Starting with education, health and life satisfaction, the long-term impact of domestic violence experiences on individuals is quantitatively assessed, providing empirical evidence for preventing and curing domestic violence and healing trauma. The empirical research shows the following: (1) An experience of domestic violence significantly reduces educational achievements. Compared with the three dimensions of injury from violence, negligent care and witnessing domestic violence, emotional abuse has the greatest negative impact on educational achievements. (2) Domestic violence significantly reduces the self-assessed health level and life satisfaction and increases the subjective mental health risk. Based on the complexity and concealment of domestic violence, combined with empirical research conclusions, this paper proposes countermeasures to prevent and control domestic violence.
Keywords: domestic violence, emotional abuse, educational achievements, physical and mental health“Almost the love of children, love and fear arrest, such as the beginning of vegetation germination, ease of the bar, the destruction of the impotence” (Wang Yangming’s “General Idea of Discipline”). Domestic violence is one of the most negative experiences that can impact the temperament of teenagers, and the trauma it brings may accompany them for life. For a long time, news about domestic violence has frequently been reported. How to prevent and control domestic violence is a key issue in governance and public opinion. On 1 March 2016, the “Anti Domestic Violence Law of the People’s Republic of China” (hereinafter referred to as the “Anti Domestic Violence Law”) was officially implemented, allowing the state to directly intervene in domestic violence through special laws. On 23 October 2021, the “Family Education Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China” was officially promulgated, which further clarified that “parents or other guardians of minors shall not discriminate against minors on the basis of sex, physical condition, intelligence, etc., and shall not commit domestic violence”. With the joint efforts of the government, society and the media, remarkable results in the prevention and treatment of domestic violence have been achieved, but how to heal the trauma caused by domestic violence still needs to be explored. Adler, a famous psychologist, believes that “an unhappy childhood needs a lifetime to be cured” [1]. Trauma events can have a broad and lasting impact on individuals, and clarifying the long-term impact of domestic violence on individuals is a prerequisite for healing the trauma [2,3].
For minors, domestic violence refers to the information perceived by minors that is related to violence in the family and can be divided into direct exposure and indirect exposure according to the form of violence exposure. The former refers to direct physical attacks and abuse suffered by minors at home, while the latter refers to the violence or aggressive behavior of family members that is seen or heard by minors [4,5,6].
In the existing laws and conventions, the definition of the scope of domestic violence is not completely unified. Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates: “When a child is under the care of parents, legal guardians or any other person responsible for the care of the child, he or she shall be protected from any form of physical or mental abuse, injury or abuse, neglect or improper care, abuse or exploitation”. Article 2 of Japan’s “Child Abuse Prevention Law” stipulates that “corresponding to the obvious abuse or rejection of children, illegal attacks such as physical violence against the spouse of a family with children living together endanger their lives or bodies and other words and deeds that have significant psychological harm to children.” There are plans for domestic violence, physical abuse, neglect, emotional abuse and other behaviors to be included in the category of domestic violence [7,8]. Article 2 of the “Anti Domestic Violence Law” of the People’s Republic of China stipulates that “domestic violence referred to in this Law refers to physical and mental violations committed among family members by means of beating, binding, maiming, restricting personal freedom, as well as constant abuse and intimidation.” Therefore, some scholars believe that negligent care, emotional abuse and the witnessing domestic violence should be defined as domestic violence against minors based on the distinctiveness of minors [9,10,11,12].
No matter what the form of domestic violence is, it will cause physical and psychological trauma to minors. Empirical evidence shows that domestic violence seriously harms children’s growth, and its cumulative effects may last until adulthood [13,14,15,16]. The harm caused by domestic violence is different for children of different ages, and early and long-term contact may cause more serious problems [17]. For preschool children and school-age children whose mothers have experienced domestic violence during pregnancy, 44% of them have at least one trauma symptom and separation anxiety [18]. It is often witnessed that domestic violence affects the brain development of children [19]. Lundy and Grossman (2005) [20] conducted a sample survey of 4636 children who had experienced domestic violence. One-fifth of them found it difficult to abide by school rules, and one-third of them were highly aggressive. This conclusion was also confirmed in another survey [21]. The harm caused by witnessing domestic violence cannot be ignored. Compared with children who have not witnessed domestic violence, preschool children who have witnessed domestic violence are more likely to have post-traumatic stress symptoms and find it more difficult to cultivate empathy and inferiority [22,23]. Similar to children, adolescents exposed to domestic violence are more likely to have various psychological and physical problems, experience sleep or eating disorders, engage in drug and alcohol abuse and are more likely to become perpetrators and victims of domestic violence in adulthood [24,25].
The existing literature has examined the definition and category of domestic violence from the perspective of the law, analyzed the adverse impact of domestic violence on personal growth from the perspective of psychology and proposed governance strategies regarding domestic violence from the perspective of social governance, but quantitative research is lacking. This paper uses the CHARLS (2011, 2013, 2015, 2018) and the “life course” survey as sample data to quantitatively assess the long-term impacts of the domestic violence experience on individuals from the perspectives of education, health and life satisfaction. The original intention of this paper is to provide empirical evidence to prevent domestic violence and heal trauma.
This paper consists of four parts as follows: first, based on the life course survey data of the CHARLS, we select the dimensions and indicators to quantify domestic violence and build an empirical model; second, we estimate the empirical model with sample data and adjust the empirical model to test the robustness of the empirical conclusion; finally, the research conclusions are summarized, and the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions are proposed.