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From The Science of Caring magazine
Shedding Childhood Scars of Violence
In neighborhoods and homes where violence is commonplace, children witness fury and
brutality at their worst. Some have been caught in the middle of drive-by shootings.
Others have seen their mothers beaten repeatedly.
Previous research suggests that many of these children will not be able to shed physical
and emotional scars and they are destined for bitter and hard lives. They will be overly
distressed, continue to be victimized by violent acts, or even become the perpetrators,
some behavior experts predict.
But UCSF School of Nursing researchers Howard Pinderhughes and Janice Humphreys, who work
behind the scenes in a world that is often sensationalized but poorly understood, do not
see this horrible pathology. For the most part, they find instead resilient children who
go on to healthy adulthood. And rather than dwell only on the many obstacles that a
violent society throws in the path of children, the UCSF scientists ask such questions as:
In poor neighborhoods where youth gangs and violence are prevalent, why and how are
youngsters able to avoid or be only sporadically engaged in violence? What influences kids
who witness domestic abuse not to grow up to be abusers?
Even youth involved in gangs spend only about one or two percent of their time engaging in
violent activity, says Pinderhughes. "The other 98 percent of the time, they do what
other teenagers do," he says. "But they do so in an environment with a
heightened sense of anxiety."
Howard Pinderhughes
 Pinderhughes, an assistant professor in the department of social and
behavioral sciences, is an expert in youth, racial and ethnic violence and race relations.
For the last three years, he has observed and interviewed 15- to 18-year-olds in a largely
Hispanic neighborhood of San Francisco, delving into their personal experiences with
violence. A five-year research award from the William T. Grant Foundation allows him to
examine how young people make decisions about the use of violence.
What worries Pinderhughes is the normalcy of violence in lives of inner city kids. Of 150
youth he has interviewed over three years, 44 percent had at some time been a victim of
violence, 33 percent had a close friend or family member who was killed, and 41 percent
had been in a fight within the year. Although only 4 percent reported owning a gun, 31
percent had at one time a gun in their possession, and 72 percent said they could get a
gun within four hours if they needed one. Startling to Pinderhughes is that every single
teen -- even those who literally go out of their way to avoid violence -- believes that
fighting may be necessary to protect themselves and violence can occur at any time.
The concern about violence makes them hyper-vigilant and affects their daily routines. In
this neighborhood with some dozen to 20 gangs, kids must pay attention to what they wear
-- not just because they are style-conscious teens -- but because certain colors are
associated with particular gangs. They must take circuitous routes to and from school to
avoid gang territories. Sometimes they must isolate themselves completely.
And while society may prefer to label who are bad kids and who are the good ones, it is
extremely problematic in this environment to place young people in those two categories,
says Pinderhughes. The vast majority, he says, are somewhere in the middle, occasionally
engaging in violence but steering clear of it most of the time. His research is aimed at
finding out how to help teens choose nonviolence.
Pinderhughes is starting another study this year that will follow 30 youth from various
San Francisco high schools and neighborhoods for three years. Monthly interviews -- some
conducted by UCSF research assistants who are alumni of the streets and these tough
schools -- will look at the types of violence that the youth are exposed to, how they
react to potentially violent situations, and whether over time there are changes in how
they make decisions about violence.
His work, in the long run, will provide valuable data and perspective so that others may
develop programs to deal with the issues these youth face, help explode some of the
stereotypes of violent youth, and make the subject of violence more of a public health
rather than criminal issue.
In the short term, Pinderhughes is helping offer solutions in the San Francisco community
where he lived while doing graduate studies at UC Berkeley and one that is similar to the
Boston neighborhood in which he was raised. "People at schools and community
organizations are wary of researchers who come in, get the information they want, and then
leave, never to be heard from again," he says.
When Pinderhughes approached Mission District groups, he offered himself as a resource
rather than researcher. For one community organization, he serves as a gang intervention
mediator, and he spends two days a week at Mission High School working with students,
teachers and administrators. Three years ago, he established a project called People
Respecting Other Peoples (PROPs), in which a diverse group of high school students are
recruited and trained to conduct research and interviews on ethnic and racial identities
and attitudes and intergroup relations among fellow students. Their survey results are
analyzed at classroom presentations and faculty meetings. Eventually, the entire student
body participates in discussions on racial attitudes and works together to improve
relations at the school. "I want to bring the ideas of young people themselves into
this issue," he says. "Theirs is the voice that is missing at the policy
table."
Janice Humphreys
 Janice Humphreys, assistant professor of family health care nursing, also mixes
hands-on problem solving with research. Once a week, she provides volunteer nursing care
to families at battered women's shelters in San Francisco. Humphreys' commitment to
battered women and their children and her research passion are rooted to her early days as
a nurse practitioner in Detroit. A fledging scientist seeking volunteer opportunities to
keep up her clinical skills, Humphreys found herself in the early 1980s working at
battered women's shelters. "The professional literature said these women were
pathologic, passive, masochistic and had poor relationships with their children," she
says. "This was not what I was seeing. They were loving women and children -- in an
extraordinary situation -- doing the best they could."
Studies then also presumed that children of battered women suffered a wide variety of
behavioral problems, including truancy, bullying, disturbed sleep and cognitive
difficulties. Again, this is not what she observed in the shelters. At that time,
Humphreys decided to devote her research and nursing practice to a problem of violence
that affects an estimated one out of ten women in heterosexual relationships and 3.3
million of their children in the US. Although her clinical experience suggested that
nearly every child of a battered woman at some time witnesses the abuse, few studies had
probed the effects on the children by interviewing the kids themselves.
Several studies have reported and a 1997 study by Humphreys concurred that although
children of battered women are at risk for various problems, "50 to 70 percent of
these children do not demonstrate evidence of clinically significant problems."
In her study that examined the life histories of 10 adult daughters of battered women who
went on to achieve personal and professional success, each described a life filled with
tension, unhappiness and fear. Although they may not have been physically abused, seeing
their mothers and sometimes their siblings beaten was frightening and frequent. Still, all
these women were able to overcome their childhood exposure to this violence, and the
common factor was a supportive adult -- oftentimes the battered mother herself -- who was
able to mediate the damaging effects of a violent home, Humphreys found.
"We need to help these mothers help their kids," she says.
Humphreys' various studies offer nurses and other health care professionals information on
how to recognize signs of domestic violence and listen to and aid battered women and their
children. "Once abuse is discovered, nurses can help children by offering to help and
support their mothers," she says. "Doing so helps diminish the effects of
violence upon the woman, decreasing the burden upon her and freeing her to help her
children."
For those whose mothers are unable to maintain emotional support for their children,
school and other programs such as sports and boys and girls clubs can help connect at-risk
children with influential adults, Humphreys suggested.
Basic health needs are also an issue. For example, battered women who leave their husbands
are often left without health care benefits. Children also need clothing, safe housing and
appropriate daycare. The same issues that apply to all children are especially critical to
families affected by violence.
Source: Andy Evangelista
From The Science of Caring
Magazine of the UCSF School of Nursing,
Spring 1999 |
