How do children understand and cope with domestic violence?

Abstract

Domestic violence frequently has serious impacts on children. This article draws on the findings of a recent study within the ESRC Children 5-16: Growing into the 21st Century Research Programme which examined children's understandings and coping strategies in regards to domestic violence. Far from being passive victims of the violence, children and young people in the study showed themselves to be social actors in their own lives, frequently taking responsibility for thinking through the options and possible outcomes carefully. However, they had rarely been listened to. It seems that professionals still do not take the opinions of the children of abused women they work with very seriously as sources of solutions and potential ways forward. The research demonstrated that children use wide-ranging, and often creative, coping strategies, even though the 'protective factors' which experts have identified as being essential for positive coping are very frequently precisely those that are absent in cases of domestic violence. In the study, the only protective factor which was often present was secure attachment to the non-abusing parent, the mother (even if this relationship was also conflicted). This emphasises the importance of the developing practice of social workers working supportively with mothers and their children together, to build on the strengths of the relationships between them (using both individual and, increasingly, groupwork approaches). The findings discussed here may assist social workers in developing practice more sensitive to both women and children's needs, and more attentive to children's voices and views.