Abstract
One way for young people to reduce the risk of problems associated with having experienced family violence is to talk about their experiences with a counselor. However, little is known about how young people judge the quality of such relationships. The aim of this study was to analyze what young people describe as valuable in their relationship with the counselor with whom they talked about experiences of family violence. Fourteen semi-structured interviews with nine young people between the ages 12 and 19 years were analyzed using a thematic method. The participants were recruited within an evaluation of a treatment program in Sweden. The thematic analysis revealed four distinct themes about what the young people described as particularly valuable aspects of the counseling relationship: the opportunity to talk, a model for other relationships, and going “in and out of” the topic of violence, which was valued by the younger teenagers; and being listened to “almost like an adult,” which was valued by the older teenagers. The abstracted common thread was the importance for the young people of feeling equal to others somehow. The quality of the relationship between helper and helped is of central importance for young people and what specifically, from young people’s point of view, constitutes such quality for younger and older teenagers respectively. The results indicate the benefit of counselors being especially flexible with young people exposed to violence and being able to establish trustful relationships with them.
Highlights
Introduction and Literature ReviewChildren and young people can experience violence by one parent against the other for shorter or longer periods in their lives
Within the positive, yet painful, experiences, four distinct themes could be identified in the interviews, based on what the young people described as valuable about the counseling relationship they had participated in
The analysis of the 14 interviews with nine young people between 12 and 19 years of age, all of whom had experienced family violence and received counseling as a result, revealed four distinct themes about what they described as valuable aspects of the counseling relationship: the opportunity to talk, a model for other relationships, and going Bin and out of^ the topic of violence, which was valued by the younger teenagers; and being listened to Balmost like an adult,^ which was valued by the older teenagers
Summary
Introduction and Literature ReviewChildren and young people can experience violence by one parent against the other for shorter or longer periods in their lives. Many children and young people hide their Bsecret^ from everyone, because if others found out, the shame would be devastating, and one possible result of living with the shame that family violence entails for many children, is that their self-esteem is damaged (ibid.). Violence against their mother seems to affect teenagers’ psychosocial health less than younger children’s, perhaps because teenagers are better able to avoid the violence, or have more emotional distance to their parents (Levendosky et al 2002). There are indications that experiencing violence in one’s parents’ relationship during early childhood can have consequences in one’s teenage years and even in early adulthood (Cater et al 2015; Moylan et al 2010)
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