Holding It Together? Professional Perspectives on the Role of Relationships when Relocating Young People due to Extra-familial Harm

When young people come to harm in extra-familial contexts, professionals may move them a distance from their home community to protect them, and in doing so disrupt relationships in which they have encountered harm. However, relocations can also fracture young people’s protective relationships with family, peers, and professionals; relationships that have been positioned as targets for intervention in cases of extra-familial harm. The extent to which these relationships are considered during relocations is under-explored. Utilising semi-structured interviews with 16 social work professionals in England and Wales, we assessed their accounts of using relationships prior to, during, and following relocations in cases of extra-familial harm. Three themes emerged: using relationships during relocations to provide consistency, to collaborate, and to create safety. Professional accounts prioritised young people’s relationships with practitioners, over relationships with families, peers, and their wider communities, when using/seeking opportunities to offer consistency and to collaborate on safety plans. They also depicted a struggle to engage with the complex web of family, peer, and community relationships associated to young people’s protection in both their home communities and those they had been moved to; relationships that were critical for creating safety. Implications for practice and future research are discussed, highlighting the potential merits of offering integrated research and practice frameworks that hold together young people’s relationships with families, peers, communities, and professionals, in response to extra-familial harm.

Using the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) to Characterise Parenting Interventions to Prevent Intergenerational Child Abuse

Research shows that parents with a history of child abuse are at risk of perpetuating the cycle of abuse; however, exploration of intervention content is still a neglected area. This qualitative study identifies intervention components and corresponding mechanisms of change of parenting interventions to prevent intergenerational child abuse. Interviews with ten heads of interventions from the UK and USA were coded using deductive framework analysis. The Behaviour Change Technique (BCT) Taxonomy and Behaviour Change Wheel were used to code intervention components including BCTs and intervention functions. Mechanisms of change were coded using the Theoretical Domains Framework. Twelve BCTs and eight intervention functions were identified including education, enablement and training delivered through BCTs of instruction on how to perform a behaviour, restructuring the environment and social support. Corresponding mechanisms of change include behaviour regulation, knowledge and social influences, among others. This study offers insight into targeting and tailoring services to improve outcomes for parents with a history of child abuse. Findings suggest that there are possible mechanisms through which vulnerable parents can be helped to break the cycle of abuse including promoting social support, regulating parents’ behaviour through trauma-informed approaches and enhancing knowledge, self-esteem and confidence in parenting.