This handbook was created for health and social service providers, educators and those responsible for professional development in service organizations and for professional training of students. Children who are exposed to woman abuse experience serious detrimental effects with regard to their health, safety, behaviour, emotional and social development, and educational progress. They are at increased risk of physical and sexual abuse by the abuser of their mother. There is often authoritarian rule by the father or male partner, and the mother is not allowed to make decisions in the family. The woman may come to experience low self-esteem, depression, anxiety and feelings of hopelessness and self-blame, which affect her coping skills and her parenting abilities. Throughout the manual, the focus is on domestic violence with a father as a batterer and a mother as a victim because this scenario represents the majority of cases in the context of the abuse of power and control. It is recognized that there are cases of husbands being abused (and that there are parallel impacts on child witnesses); however, all available evidence indicates that such cases constitute a minority, especially in terms of the qualitative effects on victims.

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