One of the most damaging aspects of domestic violence, its effect on the children who witness it, is also one of least studied. Most children whose parents are involved in domestic violence witness that violence. Furthermore, these children experience behavioral and emotional problems as a result of this exposure. Despite these facts, the development of intervention programs aimed at helping children who have witnessed domestic violence is fairly recent. One of the issues surrounding intervention is whether children's intervention programs should include the non-offending parent. The existing literature does little to answer that question, because some studies have found that conjoint intervention is helpful, while other studies have failed to support those findings. To resolve the issue, Sullivan, Egan, and Gooch (2004) studied the effect of conjoint interventions on adult and child victims of domestic violence. .

             In order to study the effect of conjoint interventions, Sullivan, et al. (2004) followed a nine-week group intervention program, which was designed to address the needs of female domestic violence victims and their children who have witnessed violence. The intervention had several goals: increasing parenting skills, providing coping skills to the mothers and children, safety planning for mothers and children, and decreasing post-violence stress (Sullivan, et al., 2004). .

             One of the troubling aspects about the study was that it only concentrated on female victims of domestic violence. Although statistics vary widely, it is now widely accepted that females can be abusers as well as victims. In addition, many households are non-traditional, and may feature both an abusing father and a victim father. Therefore, the results of the study are only valid for adult female victims of domestic violence and their children. There may be some gender differences in intervention that would change the results if applied to male victims and their children.