Children witnessing family violence - ARCHIVED

This Juristat presents estimates of the number of children in Canada who have witnessed violence in their homes in recent years, and compares the characteristics of these children and their families to children who have not witnessed violence. This analysis also examines links between witnessing violence and behavioural outcomes among children.Estimates of the extent of family violence witnessed by children in Canada are available through three national surveys conducted by Statistics Canada: the 1999 General Social Survey on Victimization, the 1993 Violence Against Women Survey, and the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. The GSS and the VAWS are victimization surveys that ask a random sample of adults (men and women in the case of the GSS and women only in the case of the VAWS) about their experiences of spousal violence and whether their children witnessed the violence. In the NLSCY, a random sample of children are selected and the person most knowledgeable about the child responds to a wide range of questions about the child and the household, including whether the child sees adults or teenagers in the home physically fighting, hitting or otherwise trying to hurt others.