The exposure of children to interparental violence is the central focus of this dissertation, since, despite being considered indirect victims, these children are vulnerable to problems of behavior, emotional, cognitive and physiological order, which may affect their development. This research aims to analyze to what extent the exposure of children to interparental physical violence is related to experiencing higher levels of somatization. Another objective is to understand the role of psychological stress of children as mediator and the secure attachment as moderator of this relationship. In this sense, it is expected that higher levels of exposure to interparental physical violence and psychological stress lead to increased levels of somatization and that the latter are reduced in the presence of higher levels of secure attachment. For this study participated a normative sample of 80 children aged between 8 and 12 years and respective mothers. To the children was applied a measure of exposure to interparental violence, psychological stress and somatic symptoms and to mothers a measure of attachment representation between the dyad and somatization of children. The results showed that exposure of children to interparental violence is linked significantly and positively with the levels of somatization experienced and the psychological stress of children partially mediated the relationship only from the perspective of children. A secure attachment moderated the relationship between psychological stress and the somatization of children, however it was not possible to consider the secure attachment as significant moderator in the relationship between exposure to interparental violence and somatization levels.

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Interparental violence,Somatization,Stress,Attachment,Middle childhood