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Children who grow up in homes characterized by parent on parent abuse don’t suffer from domestic abuse, they suffer because of it. I refer to these children as domestic abuse survivors by proxy, a term I coined to describe this specific population. In short, survivors by proxy experience abuse simply by virtue of being in and around abusive environments. Their symptoms mimic those experienced by the primary survivor (the spouse targeted by the abuser) even though they were not the intended target of the abuser. In addition, survivors by proxy experience symptoms specific to their role as a witness to abuse.