This meta-analysis examined 118 studies of the psychosocial outcomes of children exposed to interparental violence. Correlational studies showed a significant association between exposure and child problems (d ϭ Ϫ0.29). Group comparison studies showed that witnesses had significantly worse outcomes relative to nonwitnesses (d ϭ Ϫ0.40) and children from verbally aggressive homes (d ϭ Ϫ0.28), but witnesses' outcomes were not significantly different from those of physically abused children (d ϭ 0.15) or physically abused witnesses (d ϭ 0.13). Several methodological variables moderated these results. Similar effects were found across a range of outcomes, with slight evidence for greater risk among preschoolers. Recommendations for future research are made, taking into account practical and theoretical issues in this area.In the past several decades, researchers, clinicians, and policymakers have expressed increasing concern that children who witness marital violence may suffer negative consequences even when they are not themselves the target of violence (Osofsky, 1995). However, research on children who witness marital violence is much less extensive than research on children who are the direct victims of physical abuse (Fantuzzo, Boruch, Beriama, Atkins, & Marcus, 1997). Case studies of child witnesses first appeared in the 1970s, with the first empirical studies conducted in the 1980s. Because witnessing domestic violence can terrorize children and significantly disrupt child socialization, many researchers have begun to consider exposure to domestic violence to be a form of psychological maltreatment (McGee & Wolfe, 1991;Peled & Davis, 1995;Somer & Braunstein, 1999).The focus on child witnesses is important because, relative to the general population, families with documented incidents of domestic violence have a significantly higher number of children in the home, especially children younger than age 5 (Fantuzzo et al., 1997). Other research suggests that physical violence is highest early in the marital relationship, when children are likely to be young . Although many parents report trying to shelter their children from marital violence, research suggests that children in violent homes commonly see, hear, and intervene in episodes of marital violence (Fantuzzo et al., 1997;Holden & Ritchie, 1991;Rosenberg, 1987).The past 20 years have seen a flurry of research on child witnesses to domestic violence, and numerous qualitative reviews of this research have concluded that children's exposure to marital violence is associated with a wide range of psychological, emotional, behavioral, social, and academic problems (e.g., Fantuzzo & Lindquist, 1989;Jaffe, Wolfe, & Wilson, 1990;Kolbo, Blakely, & Engleman, 1996;Margolin & Gordis, 2000;Wolak & Finkelhor, 1998). At this point, there are several benefits to integrating these results using quantitative, meta-analytic procedures. First, although two influential meta-analyses have been conducted on the effects of interparental conflict (Buehler et al., 1997) and marital di...
