PHYSICAL AGGRESSION TOWARD BOYS AND GIRLS IN FAMILIES CHARACTERIZED BY THE BATTERING OF WOMEN

Forty-eight families (mothers and children) participated in a study on physical aggression toward boys and girls in households characterized by the battering of women. In each family, the mother had sought shelter because of relationship violence and had a son and daughter between 4 and 14 years. Mothers completed measures of physical marital violence directed at themselves, aggression toward children, and children's externalizing behavior problems. Older children completed measures of aggression directed at themselves. Results indicated that child gender moderates the relationship between the battering of women and aggression toward children. In families characterized by ''more extreme'' battering, boys were more often victims of aggression than girls, boys exhibited more externalizing problems than girls, and gender differences in externalizing problems helped account for the differential aggression directed at boys and girls.