Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research

Children’s experiences of domestic violence and abuse: agency, resistance, resilience

Callaghan, J., Alexander, J., Fellin, L. and Sixsmith, J. (2015) Children’s experiences of domestic violence and abuse: agency, resistance, resilience. Symposium presented to: Violence: Children, Family & Society Conference 2015, The University of Northampton, 24-26 June 2015. (Unpublished)

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Symposium)
Abstract: Understanding Agency and Resistance is a four-nation, European Commission funded project, exploring children’s capacity to construct resistant, resilient and agentic selfidentities in situations of domestic abuse. Academic and professional literature on domestic violence tends to represent children and young people as relatively passive, describing them as ‘exposed’ to violence, as ‘witnesses’, ‘impacted’ by the violence they see (Øverlien 2013; Mullender et al. 2003). This two year action research project involved semi-structured interviews with children and young people in Greece, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, exploring their experiences of domestic violence and abuse, and their capacity to maintain a sense of agency, and a capacity for resistance as part of their experience of violence at home. In this symposium, we present four papers which explore findings our interviews with 100 children from all four participating countries, the creative methods that were used to facilitate young people’s expression of their experiences, researchers’ reflections on working with young people, including the ethical dilemmas and practical problems they encountered while completing the research, and the intervention that arose from this work with children and young people.
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Women > HQ767 Children. Child development
H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology > HV6001 Criminology > HV6251 Crimes and offences > HV6626 Family violence
H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology > HV697 Protection, assistance and relief > HV701 Children
Creators: Callaghan, Jane, Alexander, Jo, Fellin, Lisa and Sixsmith, Judith
Funders or Sponsors: European Commission (Daphne III)
Grant Reference Number: Just/2012/DAP-AG-3461
Projects: Understanding Agency and Resistance Strategies (UNARS)
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Research Centre > Institute of Health and Wellbeing > Centre for Family Life
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Research Centre > The Centre for Children and Youth
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Research Group > Social and Cultural Research in Psychology Group
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > School of Social Sciences (to 2016)
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Faculty of Health & Society > Psychology
Faculties > Faculty of Health & Society > Psychology
Research Centres > Centre for Health Sciences and Services
Research Centres > Centre for Psychology and Social Sciences
Date: 25 July 2015
Date Type: Presentation
Event Title: Violence: Children, Family & Society Conference 2015
Event Dates: 24-26 June 2015
Event Location: The University of Northampton
Event Type: Conference
Language: English
Status: Unpublished
Refereed: Yes
Related URLs:
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/7655

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