Systematic Literature Review of Evidence-Based Practices for Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Background and Purpose: Child exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with greater risk for poor behavioral, mental health, cognitive, social, physical health, and physiological outcomes. Given these findings, evidence-based interventions are needed to adequately serve children exposed to IPV. This systematic review examines the current literature on interventions for IPV-exposed children. The primary goals of this review were to summarize available interventions, identify existing evidence-based practices, and underline areas for further study. This study makes a unique contribution by assessing available interventions across all stages of the childhood development, highlighting promising prevention programs, and reviewing interventions for IPV-exposed children across multiple service sectors.

Methods: Seven electronic bibliographic databases (CINAHL, ERIC, Lexis Nexis, Medline, PsychINFO, Social Science Citation Index, and Social Work Abstracts) were searched for interventions articles for IPV-exposed children published up until December of 2016, resulting in 6,420 citations after de-duplication. Research assistants separately coded each citation for inclusion to or exclusion from the systematic review. Conflicting inclusion or exclusion decisions were reconciled by a third doctoral-level research assistant. Inclusion criteria were as follows: the study (1) describes and/or assesses an intervention for children who  experienced IPV exposure, and (2) outlines and/or evaluates an intervention specific to IPV-exposed children and/or their parents. After all coding was completed, a total of 411 citations were included in the systematic review, resulting in 140 identified interventions for children exposed to IPV. A summary was compiled for each included article, outlining research design, sample information, a brief description of the program, key findings, and strengths and limitations.

Results: Interventions were organized into five main themes: child psychotherapeutic interventions, parent-child interventions, parent programs, prevention programs, and community-based interventions. Each intervention was evaluated for the age range of eligible participants and the delivery modality. Most interventions were designed for use with school-age children, and many interventions were offered to parent-child dyads or entire families and included a psychoeducational component. There are few interventions for IPV-exposed infants, toddlers, and preschool children. Programs for adolescents were limited, and the majority focused on teen dating violence prevention. Community-based interventions spanned multiple service sectors including medical, law enforcement, and judicial systems, and provided a range of prevention/intervention services for IPV-exposed children and their families.

Conclusions and Implicaitons: This review underlines the need for research on the effectiveness of interventions for IPV-exposed children. More rigorous methodology in intervention studies will contribute to a stronger evidence base for programs. Interventions need to be developed and assessed for children across all stages of development; programs for younger children and adolescents are in particular need of additional research. The review highlighted several promising prevention programs for teen dating violence victimization/perpetration delivered in school settings. This finding, coupled with other identified community-based interventions, underscores the potential to engage other service sectors in programming for IPV-exposed children and youth.

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