‘Because I love him’: Children’s relationships to their parents in the context of intimate partner violence

Childhood ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 090756822098483
Author(s):  
Sofie Henze-Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Social Bonds ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Separation Process ◽  
Parental Relationships ◽  
Children’S Perspectives ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork

This paper investigates how children experience and practice parental relationships after moving to a women’s refuge. Most research has explored the moving and separation process from women’s perspectives, but this paper focus on children’s perspectives. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with children at a refuge, the analysis shows how children’s parental relationships – despite the violence – remain important under difficult family circumstances, and how children practice intimate social bonds while being embedded within complex family relationships. This brings attention to the wider contexts of children’s relationships and how these affect children’s experiences and practices of intimate social bonds.

Displaying family at a women’s refuge

2021 ◽  
pp. 003802612110346
Author(s):  
Sofie Henze-Pedersen ◽  
Margaretha Järvinen
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Family ◽  
Mothers And Children ◽  
Sociological Literature ◽  
Public Setting

This article explores the family relationships of mothers and children living at a women’s refuge because of intimate partner violence. Theoretically, the article contributes to the sociological literature analysing family relationships in terms of ‘doing’ and ‘displaying’ rather than ‘being’ a family. Empirically, it is based on ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with children living at a refuge in Denmark. The article shows that family display at the refuge is conducted by both mothers and children and sometimes in conflicting ways, not least when it comes to the question of how to define the position of the father (who has committed the violence) in the family’s future life. This highlights how display – as an evaluative practice – can be done in different ways in order to protect or reject family relationships, both internally and when addressing external audiences. Furthermore, the article analyses family relationships in a semi-public setting (the refuge) where powerful audiences are active interpreters of the family display enacted, and participants in decisions concerning the families’ futures.

Brief Report: Associations Between Self-Reported Paternal Relationships, Anger, Alcohol, and Intimate Partner Violence in a Prison Sample

2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (9) ◽  
pp. 1063-1070
Author(s):  
Jessica Bernardi ◽  
Andrew Day ◽  
Erica Bowen
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Developmental Pathways ◽  
High Risk Population ◽  
Effective Prevention ◽  
Assessment Strategies ◽  
Male Prisoners

This study investigates the association between family relationships, anger, alcohol use, and self-reported intimate partner violence (IPV). Participants were 55 male prisoners who completed a survey about their family relationships, anger, alcohol use, and aggression. Exposure to parental IPV predicted rates of self-reported perpetration of IPV, suggesting the importance of understanding more about the developmental pathways to IPV if effective prevention, intervention, and assessment strategies are to be developed for use with this high-risk population.

A Qualitative Account of Children’s Perspectives and Responses to Intimate Partner Violence in Chile

2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052090313
Author(s):  
Jenniffer K. Miranda ◽  
Catalina León ◽  
Marcelo A. Crockett
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Coping Mechanisms ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Children’S Perspectives ◽  
And Coping

The literature has shown that including children’s perspectives in intimate partner violence (IPV) field research will improve our understanding of this violence and its impact on the well-being of victims. Furthermore, the literature suggests that children are not passive witnesses. Rather, they use a variety of strategies to cope with IPV. The aim of this research is to understand the experiences and coping strategies of children who have lived through IPV between their parents/caregivers. The participants of this study were nine children between the ages of 8 and 12 years (five girls and four boys). These participants were recruited from a specialized program in Chile focused on the maltreatment of children. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and a thematic narrative analysis was used to identify recurring themes from the interviews. The results showed that children used a variety of coping strategies when an episode of violence was occurring. The aim of these coping strategies included the following: (a) emotional and behavioral self-regulation, (b) seeking social support, (c) avoiding emotional reactions related to IPV episodes, (d) escaping violent episodes, and (e) intervening to stop the IPV and protect their mothers. Along with these coping mechanisms, the results reveal that children often not only have to confront IPV when it is present in their families but are also potentially subjected to other types of victimization. The findings of this study highlight that children are active subjects with agency in response to episodes of IPV and respond through a range of actions and coping mechanisms. The researchers emphasize the relevance of integrating and validating the voices of children in research, given that children are direct victims of IPV and a high-risk group for other types of child victimization.

scholarly journals Intimate Partner Violence, Parenting, and Children’s Representations of Caregivers

2019 ◽  
pp. 088626051988852
Author(s):  
Bharathi J. Zvara ◽  
Roger Mills-Koonce ◽  
Lynne Vernon Feagans ◽  
Martha Cox ◽  
Clancy Blair ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Relationship Quality ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
Parenting Behaviors ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Mothers And Fathers ◽  
Sensitive Parenting

Children’s representational models of self and relationship quality with caregivers in the context of intimate partner violence (IPV) were investigated using family drawings created by children in their first-grade year. The present study examines the mediating role of mothers’ and fathers’ sensitive parenting behaviors in the relations between IPV and children’s representations of relationship quality with mothers and fathers. The sample ( N = 947) is drawn from a longitudinal study of rural poverty exploring the ways in which child, family, and contextual factors shape development over time. Results of analyses indicate significant associations between IPV, sensitive parenting, and children’s representation of relationship quality with mothers and fathers. There was a significant indirect effect from IPV on children’s representation of relationship quality with fathers through paternal parenting behaviors. The findings from this study suggest that exposure to violence may affect how children view their family relationships and that fathers’ parenting behavior is a key mediating process. Implications of the findings and directions for future study are proposed.

Children’s Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence: Relations Between Parent-Child Concordance and Children’s Adjustment

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Hungerford ◽  
Richard L. Ogle ◽  
Caroline M. Clements
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Important Variable ◽  
Adjustment Problems ◽  
Children's Adjustment ◽  
Children’S Adjustment ◽  
Children’S Exposure ◽  
Parent Child

The current study examined the extent to which seventy-five 5- to 13-year-old children and their mothers agreed about whether children had been exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) and the association between parent–child agreement and children’s psychological adjustment. One type of disagreement (i.e., parents failed to report IPV exposure that children reported) was associated with children’s perceptions of less positive family relationships. Parents of these children, however, reported fewer child adjustment problems than did parents who agreed with their children about children’s IPV exposure. The findings suggest the importance of obtaining children’s reports of their own exposure to IPV in addition to parental reports. Moreover, parent–child concordance with respect to children’s IPV exposure may be an important variable to examine in understanding variations in children’s adjustment.

Guns, Alcohol, and Intimate Partner Violence: The Epidemiology of Female Suicide in New Mexico

Crisis ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 121-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lenora Olson ◽  
Frank Huyler ◽  
Arthur W Lynch ◽  
Lynne Fullerton ◽  
Deborah Werenko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
American Indians ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Injury Death ◽  
Female Suicide ◽  
Blood Alcohol Levels ◽  
Associated Risk Factors

Suicide is among the leading causes of death in the United States, and in women the second leading cause of injury death overall. Previous studies have suggested links between intimate partner violence and suicide in women. We examined female suicide deaths to identify and describe associated risk factors. We reviewed all reports from the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator for female suicide deaths occurring in New Mexico from 1990 to 1994. Information abstracted included demographics, mechanism of death, presence of alcohol/drugs, clinical depression, intimate partner violence, health problems, and other variables. Annual rates were calculated based on the 1990 census. The New Mexico female suicide death rate was 8.2/100,000 persons per year (n = 313), nearly twice the U. S. rate of 4.5/100,000. Non-Hispanic whites were overrepresented compared to Hispanics and American Indians. Decedents ranged in age from 14 to 93 years (median = 43 years). Firearms accounted for 45.7% of the suicide deaths, followed by ingested poisons (29.1%), hanging (10.5%), other (7.7%), and inhaled poisons (7.0%). Intimate partner violence was documented in 5.1% of female suicide deaths; in an additional 22.1% of cases, a male intimate partner fought with or separated from the decedent immediately preceding the suicide. Nearly two-thirds (65.5%) of the decedents had alcohol or drugs present in their blood at autopsy. Among decedents who had alcohol present (34.5%), blood alcohol levels were far higher among American Indians compared to Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites (p = .01). Interpersonal conflict was documented in over 25% of cases, indicating that studies of the mortality of intimate partner violence should include victims of both suicide and homicide deaths to fully characterize the mortality patterns of intimate partner violence.

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