Understanding agency and resistance: children in situations of domestic abuse

UNDERSTANDING AGENCY AND RESISTANCE: CHILDREN IN SITUATIONS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE Name of organizer: Jane Callaghan Organisers’ affiliation: University of Northampton Name of Discussant: Lisa Fellin Symposium abstract Understanding Agency and Resistance is a four-nation, European Commission funded project, exploring children’s capacity to construct resistant, resilient and agentic self-identities in situations of domestic abuse. The UNARS project will provide information on the ways young people construct agentic and resistant identities when coping with experiences of domestic violence. In this symposium, we present four papers which explore the theoretical framework informing this study, and findings from all four participating countries. In the first paper we present a decade review of the literature on the impact of domestic abuse on children, exploring how children are constructed within this literature. In the second paper, we explore the policy landscape that informs services for children in these situations, considering its implications for children’s health services and for their wellbeing and capacity for agency. The third paper presents an analysis of children’s accounts of their experiences of domestic abuse, highlighting the subtle and complex manner in which children sustain a sense of agency and resistance. In the fourth paper we present an analysis of carers’ accounts of their children’s experiences of domestic abuse, exploring the ways in which they perceive and articulate their children’s capacity for resilience and agency. GROWING UP WITH VIOLENCE: DISCOURSES OF CHILDHOOD IN SITUATIONS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE Jane Callaghan, Judith Sixsmith, Joanne Alexander, Lisa Fellin, Sarah Armstrong-Hallam, University of Northampton This paper takes a critical discursive and feminist perspective on psychological accounts of children who live in situations of DV. We consider how constructs like ’witness’, ’trauma’ and ’exposure’ operate in psychological and other health and social care discourses, and explore the implications for young people’s identities. A systematic search of peer reviewed literature published in the last decade was conducted. Emergent from the analysis of the literature, several intersecting discourses were identified. These included constructions of the child as ‘damaged’, passive exposure discourses, and gendered constructions of the impact of DA. We explore how children are represented, highlighting their recurrent positioning as damaged, vulnerable and passive, and consider the possible future selves represented for young people in such images. Further we consider how positioning of children in situations of DA is intertwined with constructions of women as victims of violence. Exploring the operation of theoretical models like intergenerational cycles of violence, we consider how domestic abuse is seen as inevitably damaging to children, but that the mediator of the child’s response to the violence is most frequently framed, within this literature, as being related to the mother’s response to the violence, and her pre-relational psychological functioning. UNDERSTANDING THE POLICY CONTEXT OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: PERSPECTIVES ON CHILDREN Judith Sixsmith, Stephen Symons, Jane Callaghan, Maria Papathanassiou, Stavroula Mavrou, University of Northampton & Aristotle University This paper explores how policy context frames discourses which underpin service provision to CYP in situations of domestic violence. The policy analysis addresses the following research questions: 1. What is the current policy landscape in Europe? 2. In what ways does the policy landscape shape the ways DV is conceptualised by young people and professional stakeholders? 3. How can the policy context be changed to better enable agency, resistance and resilience amongst young people who experience DV? Policy documents were identified at national and local level. A thematic and then critical discourse analysis was performed to identify dominant discourses which frame children within situations of DV. Two key themes were identified revolving around ‘harms’ and ‘addressing harms’. Dominant discourses concerning passivity, organisational agency, parental agency and responsibility were identified, placing children as non-agentic. At a micro-level we discuss how the implications might concern children’s self-identities, and at a macro-level, how these constructions might reproduce medical practices. The research highlights the lack of voice children have in relation to their own negotiation of DV within family and organisational contexts. The research will now progress towards articulating the way in which the policy context informs professional practice in services dealing with DV. “WITNESS” TO VIOLENCE? AGENCY AND RESISTANCE IN CHILDREN’S ACCOUNTS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE Jane Callaghan, Joanne Alexander, Judith Sixsmith, Lisa Fellin University of Northampton The review of academic literature on children in situations of DA clearly highlights their positioning as passive victims of adult violence, focusing heavily on the pathological consequences of growing up with violence. While we acknowledge the negative impact DA has on children’s lives, we believe that this dominant professional explanation tells only a partial story, one that can have a negative and unintended consequence for work with children and families. In particular, we argue these accounts constrain the articulation of more agentic and resistant subjectivities in children living with DV. In this paper we explore how young people themselves talk about their experiences, how they cope and are resilient, and how they find strategies of resistance. The UNARS project involves individual interviews with 20 young people in 4 different European countries. Here we explore interviews with participants who have grown up with interpersonal violence. These interviews were analysed using Denzin’s (2008) Interpretive Interactionism. We consider the complex ways these young people have found to ‘cope’ with domestic abuse, finding both relational and personal strategies to manage domestic abuse. We consider the implications of this for the health and social care provisions of the European regions we are working in. CHILDREN IN SITUATIONS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE: CARERS’ PERSPECTIVES Jane Callaghan, Kiki Deliyianni-Kouimtzi, Joanne Alexander, Judith Sixsmith, Lisa Fellin University of Northampton & Aristotle University The policy analysis and the literature review undertaken for the UNARS research project highlight the dominant representations of children who experience domestic abuse as being non-agentic and ‘damaged’. In this paper we explore interviews with carers who have, together with children they care for, lived in situations of domestic abuse. We consider the ways in which these carers perceive and articulate their children’s experiences of domestic abuse, and of their capacity for resilience, resistance and agency. We explore their reflections on accessing and negotiating support services for themselves and their children, and their perceptions surrounding health & social care provisions. Two carer focus groups were conducted in each of the four participating countries (Italy, Greece, Spain & UK). These focus groups were analysed using Denzin’s (2008) Interpretive Interactionism. Here we explore the language carers use to talk about their children’s experiences of domestic abuse and we consider how carers’ articulated narratives of far reaching detrimental effects and ‘damage’ reflect that of professional discourses, academic literature, and advertising campaigns related to children in situations of domestic abuse. We consider potential implications for children’s self-identities, and the ways in which these constructions could constrain and limit children’s capacity for resilience and agency.