Abstract
Violence between adult intimate partners has increasingly attracted the concern of the general public (Hunt and Kitzinger, 1996), medical professionals (Skolnick, 1995), and mental health practitioners who treat adults (Danielson, Moffitt, Caspi and Silva, 1998). Yet, it may seem surprising to find an article about adult partner violence in a journal focused on children. We prepared this article because research suggests that adult partner violence has some important consequences for the health and well-being of children. We present four reasons why practitioners who treat children and adolescents should be knowledgeable about adult partner violence: (1) Partner violence is not confined to adults; it is a feature of adolescents' earliest intimate experiences. (2) The strongest developmental risk factor for adult partner violence is childhood conduct problems. (3) Young children are adversely affected by witnessing violence between the adults in their homes. (4) Adult partners who are violent toward each other are also at increased risk of abusing their children.