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Self-worth and social support of children exposed to family violence

University of British Columbia

The present study, concerning children exposed to family violence, examined the relationships among the children's global self-worth, their perceived social support, their mothers' perceived social support, and their mothers education level. Fifty-six children aged 7 to 13 years from 38 families and their 38 mothers participated in the study. They were recruited through transition houses and community organizations which were offering counseling services for assaulted women and their children in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Children were individually asked to complete a demographic information form and certain measures that assessed their global self-worth, their domain-specific competencies, the importance of different domains to them, and their perceived social support. Their mothers were individually asked to complete a demographic information form and a measure that assessed their perceived social support. The study found: (a) Doing well at school was the most significant domain which contributed to children's global self-worth, followed by being good looking, (b) mothers were the most important support providers who contributed to children's global selfworth, followed by non-kin adults (counselors and transition house staff), (c) the amount of support for children was related positively to their global self-worth, (d) children's social support contributed to their global self-worth- together with the mean of discrepancies between their perceptions of competence and their ratings of importance, (e) the higher the level of education the mothers had, the less satisfied they were with supports, and (f) children's social support and discrepancy between their perceptions of competence and their ratings of importance were the two strongest among four factors (children's social support, discrepancy between their perceptions of competence and their ratings of importance, their mothers' social support, and their mothers' education level) as predictors of children's global self-worth. These findings are discussed in light of the current literature that describes outcome data for children exposed to family violence. The thesis ends with a description of potential educational implications.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-06-12

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/9078

Special Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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