Samenvatting

Children suffer differently from domestic violence as a witness of interparental violence than as direct victim of maltreatment or sexual abuse. In this article three different research samples of children as witnesses of domestic violence are compared with regard to the posttraumatic stress symptoms they show. One sample is a clinical population from mental health care for youth, one sample consists of children reported to a child maltreatment centre and one sample stems from a pilot study of referrals of domestic violence in families in the G4. In all three samples we find a much higher percentage of children with traumatic symptoms than in the normal population. The highest percentage of traumatized children (74%) we find in the clinical population. When we look at the parents we also find a high percentage of traumatized parents (31%), but more striking is the percentage of parents who themselves were involved (as a victim or witness) in domestic violence when they were children (60%). This leads to questions concerning the intergenerational transfer of domestic violence.