Does Parental Physical Violence Reduce Childrenʹs Standardized Test Score Performance?

Purpose Many negative cognitive and behavioral outcomes have been identified among children living in households with parental violence, but few studies have examined academic performance. In a rural population-based cohort, we examine the role of parental violence on standardized test score performance. Methods The cohort included 306 children ages 6 through 17. Parents responded to a health interview that included questions about physical violence. Childrenʹs standardized test scores were collected prospectively for 5 years after the parent interview. Hierarchical multivariate models clustering on school, household, and repeated individual test scores and controlling for childrenʹs and parentʹs characteristics were run to predict test score performance. Results One in five children lived in a household in which parents reported at least one act of physical violence. Children whose parents reported intimate partner violence (IPV) performed an average of 12.2 percentile points lower than children whose parents reported no IPV (95% CI, −19.2–−5.2; p < 0.001). Parent-reported IPV led to larger test score reductions for girls than for boys and for children less than 12 years old than for older children. Conclusions Parental physical violence was common, and children in homes with violence had significantly poorer performance on standardized test scores.