How does AFCCA affect families?
As a parent or caregiver, you’re doing your best to support the child(ren) or youth in your home. It can feel very scary and “out of control” when you experience AFCCA in your family environment. The level of instability and disruption in the family can be alarming and can have significant impacts.
What are the impacts of AFCCA?
For the child or young person exhibiting AFCCA:
- Feelings of guilt, shame, and blame
- Worsening or escalating mental health challenges
- A lack of confidence and diminished sense of self-worth
- Damaged family relationships and connections
- Potential criminalization and being seen as a violent perpetrator
- Becoming involved in (or re-entering) the child welfare system
- Risk of having this behaviour be more and more entrenched over time
For parents, caregivers, and other family members:
- Significant risk of psychological and/or physical harm
- Worsening mental health challenges
- Secondary trauma from exposure to violence
- Judgement, exclusion and isolation from other family members and broader community
- Increased risk of marriage breakdown
- Instability in employment, which can have financial effects that can strain the family further
- Challenges and trauma in siblings
The impact of AFCCA can be far reaching, and can include extended family members, pets or animals in the house, peers and friends, and/or neighbours who may witness aggressive events. The role of culture and cultural expectations of parenting present unique challenges for those from racially or ethnically diverse families, which need to be taken into consideration when supporting the range of families in our communities.
“We were desperate… it was spiralling out of control and we didn’t know where it was going to go. Was it going to be screaming? A disruption that the police would have to come? Was one of the kids going to hurt the other kid or parents?”