L’objectif de cette recherche est d’examiner l’effet de l’exposition à la violence conjugale des enfants sur la présence de symptômes de stress post-traumatique et d’analyser le rôle de la perception de la menace et du sentiment de blâme.

Quarante-six enfants âgés de 6 à 12 ans ont été interrogés ainsi que leurs mères, par le biais de questionnaires. Le degré d’exposition à la violence conjugale a été évalué par l’enfant, à l’aide du Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict (CPIC, Grych et al., 1992), et par la mère avec le Conflict Tactic Scale (Straus et al., 1996). Concernant la perception de la menace et le sentiment de blâme, les enfants ont répondu à deux sous-échelles du CPIC et ont renseigné le Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (Briere, 1989) afin d’analyser la présence de symptômes traumatiques.

Nos résultats indiquent que le degré d’exposition à la violence conjugale prédit la perception de la menace, le sentiment de blâme et le symptôme de l’anxiété. Le sentiment de blâme est en lien avec la dépression et la colère de l’enfant. Enfin, le rôle modérateur de la perception de la menace a été mis en évidence sur les symptômes de la colère et de dissociation celui du sentiment de blâme sur le symptôme de stress post-traumatique.

L’effet du sentiment de blâme et de menace sur la présence de symptômes de stress post-traumatique doit être pris en compte pour accompagner les enfants exposés à la violence conjugale.

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of children's exposure to domestic violence on the presence of post-traumatic stress symptoms and to analyze the role of threat perception and feeling of self-blame. We suppose that the more the children and mothers tell us that the domestic violence has been serious and frequent, the more the children will feel guilty for its appearance and will consider it as threatening. We postulate that the children's interpretation of domestic violence, through the perception of threat and self-blame, will lead them to show more post-traumatic stress symptoms when the children perceive a big threat and blame themselves for the violence. Finally, we consider the moderating role of threat perception and feeling of self-blame on the connection between domestic violence and post-traumatic stress symptoms of children.

Forty-six children (26 girls and 20 boys) aged from 6 to 12 years old, living in shelters in France, were interviewed as well as their mothers, completing different questionnaires. The degree of exposure to domestic violence was assessed by the child using the Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict (CPIC, Grych et al., 1992) and the mother with the Conflict Tactic Scale (Straus et al., 1996). For the threat perception and the feeling of blame, the children completed two CPIC subscales and filled in the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (Briere, 1989) to analyze the presence of traumatic symptoms (anxiety, depression, anger, post-traumatic stress, dissociation).

Our findings show that the degree of exposure to domestic violence presages threat perception, the feeling of self-blame and the symptom of anxiety. The feeling of self-blame is linked to the child's depression and anger. Finally, the moderating role of threat perception was noticed on the symptoms of anger and dissociation and the feeling of self-blame on the symptom of post-traumatic stress. So, when domestic violence becomes serious and frequent and if the child does not perceive violence as threatening, then the symptom of anger increases. In the same way, when violence gets more important and the child has a low perception of the threat, the dissociation symptom score increases. Finally, when the child feels guilty for the violence, the more the violence is frequent and severe, the less the child shows post-traumatic stress symptoms.

The effect of the feelings of self-blame and threat on the presence of post-traumatic stress symptoms must be taken into account in order to help children exposed to domestic violence.