Childhood Exposure to Violence: Looking through a Life-Course Perspective

Childhood is the most important period of development during life course, highly sensitive to external influences and with a profound impact on children’s well-being. During this period, the foundations for every individual’s physical and mental health capacities and attainment are laid, influencing children’s lives throughout adolescence, adulthood and aging. Violence is one of the most traumatic experiences that can impact the healthy development of the child, compromising its growth and future health. Although violence assessment in the scope of a cohort study comprises methodological and ethical challenges, a life-course perspective allows researchers to understand the effects of multiple forms of violence by distinguishing between repetitive violence over time and isolated incidents, the occurrence of violent experiences in different contexts and settings, as well as the interconnection between different experiences of trauma. This chapter aims to demonstrate the importance of a life-course perspective to understand the detrimental relationship between early exposure to violence and worse health in the first years of life.