Callaghan, J., Alexander, J. and Fellin, L. C. (2017) Beyond vulnerability: working with children who have experienced domestic violence. In: O'Dell, L., Brownlow, C. and Bertilsdotter-Rosqvist, H. (eds.) Different Childhoods: Non/Normative Development and Transgressive Trajectories. London: Routledge. pp. 1-21.
- Texts
- Information
![[thumbnail of Chapter 7 - Callaghan et al+ amendments.docx]](https://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/style/images/fileicons/text.png "Chapter 7 - Callaghan et al+ amendments.docx")
Information
Abstract:
This chapter explores children’s experiences of domestic violence. Academic research on domestic violence tends to focus on children as damaged by domestic violence, with an extensive consideration of the negative impact on children’s mental health, social, interpersonal and educational outcomes. This literature establishes children living with domestic violence as a vulnerable group, in need of significant intervention and support. This construct of vulnerability extends into professional talk about children’s lives, with mental health, social work and domestic violence support professionals describing children as vulnerable, damaged, and needy - often inevitably so. In contrast, we argue that framing children as "vulnerable" functions to undermine an understanding of their located capacity for agency, and can render children voiceless in specific contexts. Gatekeeping practices intended to protect vulnerable children have an unintended consequence of preventing them from articulating their own experience. We present examples that challenge the positioning of children who experience domestic violence as vulnerable and damaged, and that highlight young people’s capacity to articulate their experiences of violence, its impact, their coping practices, and their capacity for agency. In doing so, we challenge the notion of a single developmental trajectory for the construction of healthy or adaptive identities (Burman, 2016; James & Prout, 2015). This notion constructs a sense of normal childhood reliant on a well functioning, nuclear family and a stable family home in which to grow and develop. Such a construction implicitly others children who experience domestic violence, and this sense of them as having different and problematic childhoods entrenches the idea that they are passive witnesses, damaged by their experiences. In contrast, we argue that children who experience domestic violence find ways of managing their familial experiences using a range of paradoxical resiliencies. Such resilience’s contribute to the maintenance of a sense of agency for children, constituted within the constraints and enabling elements of family life, of home and of other material spaces. Children’s experiences of violence do not occur in a social vacuum, and nor do the resources they develop to cope with that violence: both are located within both the lived realities and social constructions of childhood, of family life, and of the spaces and places they inhabit.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
Domestic violence, domestic abuse, interpersonal violence, children, childhood, critical developmental psychology
Subjects:
Creators:
Callaghan, J., Alexander, J. and Fellin, L. C.
Editors:
O'Dell, L., Brownlow, C. and Bertilsdotter-Rosqvist, H.
Funders or Sponsors:
European Commission (Daphne III)
Grant Reference Number:
JUST
Projects:
Understanding Agency and Resilience Strategies
Publisher:
Routledge
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes:
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Faculty of Health & Society > Psychology
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 Group > Social and Cultural Research in Psychology Group
Faculties > Faculty of Health & Society > Psychology
Research Centres > Centre for Health Sciences and Services
Research Centres > Centre for Psychology and Social Sciences
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 Group > Social and Cultural Research in Psychology Group
Faculties > Faculty of Health & Society > Psychology
Research Centres > Centre for Health Sciences and Services
Research Centres > Centre for Psychology and Social Sciences
Date:
10 October 2017
Date Type:
Publication
Page Range:
pp. 1-21
Title of Book:
Different Childhoods: Non/Normative Development and Transgressive Trajectories
Place of Publication:
London
Number of Pages:
192
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781138654044
Status:
Published / Disseminated
Refereed:
Yes
Related URLs:
References:
Alexander, J. H., Callaghan, J. E. M., Fellin, L. C., & Sixsmith, J. (2016). Children’s Corporeal Agency and Use of Space in Situations of Domestic Violence. In J. Horton & B. Evans (Eds.), Geographies of Children and Young People. Play, Recreation, Health and Well Being. Singapore: Springer.
Baldry, A. C. (2003). Bullying in schools and exposure to domestic violence. Child Abuse & Neglect, 27(7), 713–732. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0145-2134(03)00114-5
Bancroft, R., & Silverman, J. (2002). The Batterer as parent. The impact of domestic violence on family dynamics. London: Sage.
Bowyer, L., Swanston, J., & Vetere, A. (2013). “Eventually you just get used to it”: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of 10-16 year-old girls’ experiences of the transition into temporary accommodation after exposure to domestic violence perpetrated by men against their mothers. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry. http://doi.org/10.1177/1359104513508963
Buckley, H., Holt, S., & Whelan, S. (2007). Listen to me! Children’s experiences of domestic violence. Child Abuse Review, 16(5), 296–310.
Burman, E. (2016). Deconstructing Developmental Psychology (Third Edition). Hove: Routlege.
Byrne, D., & Taylor, B. (2007). Children at Risk from Domestic Violence and their Educational Attainment: Perspectives of Education Welfare Officers, Social Workers and Teachers. Child Care in Practice, 13(3), 185–201. http://doi.org/10.1080/13575270701353465
Callaghan, J. E. M. (2015). Mothers and Children? Representations of mothers in research on children’s outcomes in domestic violence. Psychology of Women Section Review, (16), 2–5.
Callaghan, J. E. M., & Alexander, J. H. (2015). Understanding Agency and Resistance Strategies: Children’s Experiences of Domestic Violence Report. Northampton. Retrieved from www.unars.co.uk
Callaghan, J.E.M., Alexander, J.H., and Fellin, L.C. (2016) Children’s embodied experience of living with domestic violence: ‘I’d go into my panic, and shake, really bad’’, Subjectivity. Online ahead of Publication.
Callaghan, J. E. M., Alexander, J. H., Mavrou, S., Fellin, L. C., & Sixsmith, J. (2016). Practices of Telling, and Not Telling: The Management of Disclosure in Children’s Accounts of Domestic Violence. Journal of Child and Family Studies. In Press.
Callaghan, J. E. M., Alexander, J. H., Sixsmith, J., & Fellin, L. C. (2016a). Beyond “witnessing”: Children’s Experiences of Coercive Control in Domestic Violence and Abuse. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Online ahead of publication. http://doi.org/10.1177/0886260515618946
Callaghan, J. E. M., Alexander, J. H., Sixsmith, J., & Fellin, L. C. (2016b). Children’s experiences of domestic violence and abuse: siblings’ accounts of relational coping. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 21(4)
Callaghan, J. E. M., & Clark, J. (2007). Feminist Theory and Conflict. In K. Ratele (Ed.), Intergroup Relations: A South African Perspective. Cape Town: Juta.
Callaghan, J. E. M., Fellin, L. C., & Alexander, J. H. (2016). Mental Health of Looked-After Children : Embodiment and Use of Space. In J. Horton, B. Evans, & T. Skelton (Eds.), Play, Recreation, Health and Well Being; Vol. 9 of Skelton, T. (ed.) Geographies of Children and Young People. Singapore: Springer.
Callaghan, J. E. M., Fellin, L. C., Alexander, J., Mavrou, S., & Papathanassiou, M. (2016). Children’s Experiences of Domestic Violence: Embodiment, Context and Emotional Competence. Psychology and Violence. Online ahead of publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/vio0000108
Callaghan, J. E. M., Fellin, L. C., & Warner-Gale, F. (2017). A critical analysis of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services policy in England. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 22(1): 109-127. http://doi.org/10.1177/1359104516640318
Callaghan, J. E. M., Gambo, Y., & Fellin, L. C. (2015). Hearing the silences: Adult Nigerian women’s accounts of “early marriages.” Feminism & Psychology, 25(4): 506-527. http://doi.org/10.1177/0959353515590691
Cooper, J., & Vetere, A. (2008). Domestic violence and family safety: A systemic approach to working with violence in families. Chichester: Wiley and Sons.
Devaney, J. (2008). Chronic child abuse and domestic violence: children and families with long-term and complex needs. Child & Family Social Work, 13(4), 443–453. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2008.00559.x
Dorrer, N., McIntosh, I., Punch, S., & Emond, R. (2010). Children and food practices in residential care: ambivalence in the “institutional” home. Children’s Geographies, 8(3), 247–259. http://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2010.494863
Einarsdottir, J., Dockett, S., & Perry, B. (2009). Making meaning: children’s perspectives expressed through drawings. Early Child Development and Care, 179(2), 217–232. http://doi.org/10.1080/03004430802666999
Eriksson, M. (2012). Participation for children exposed to domestic violence? Social workers’ approaches and children’s strategies. European Journal of Social Work, 15(2), 205–221. http://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2010.513963
Eriksson, M., & Näsman, E. (2012). Interviews with Children Exposed to Violence. Children & Society, 26(1), 63–73. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2010.00322.x
Evang, A., & Øverlien, C. (2014). “If you look, you have to leave”: Young children regulating research interviews about experiences of domestic violence. Journal of Early Childhood Research. http://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X14538595
Finkelhor, D., Turner, H., Ormrod, R., & Hamby, S. L. (2009). Violence, abuse, and crime exposure in a national sample of children and youth. Pediatrics, 124(5), 1411–23. http://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2009-0467
Galbusera,L. & Fellin,L. (2014) The intersubjective endeavour of psychopathological research: methodological reflections on a second-person perspective approach. Frontiers in psychology 5, 1150-1213
Gewirtz, A. H., & Edleson, J. L. (2007). Young Children’s Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence: Towards a Developmental Risk and Resilience Framework for Research and Intervention. Journal of Family Violence, 22(3), 151–163. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-007-9065-3
Gewirtz, A. H., Forgatch, M., & Wieling, E. (2008). Parenting practices as potential mechanisms for child adjustment following mass trauma. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 34(2), 177–92. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-0606.2008.00063.x
Graesch, A. P. (2004). Notions of family embedded in the house. Anthropology News, 45(6), 20.
Harden, J. (2000). There’s no place like home: The public / private distinction in children’s theorizing of risk and safety. Childhood, 7(1), 43–59.
Hays, S. (1996). The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood. Needs publisher and place
Hebdige, D. (1979). Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Accents.
Holloway, S. I., & Valentine, G. (2000). Children’s geographies: playing, living, learning. London: Routledge.
Hornor, G. (2005). Domestic violence and children. Journal of Pediatric Health Care : Official Publication of National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates & Practitioners, 19(4), 206–12. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedhc.2005.02.002
Howell, K. H. (2011). Resilience and psychopathology in children exposed to family violence. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 16(6), 562–569. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2011.09.001
Jaffe, P. G., Crooks, C. V, & Wolfe, D. a. (2003). Legal and policy responses to children exposed to domestic violence: the need to evaluate intended and unintended consequences. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 6(3), 205–13. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14620580
James, A., & Prout, A. (2015). Constructing and reconstructing childhood: Contemporary issues in the sociological study of childhood. London: Routledge.
Kassis, W., Artz, S., & Moldenhauer, S. (2013). Laying Down the Family Burden: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Resilience in the Midst of Family Violence. Child & Youth Services, 34(1), 37–63. http://doi.org/10.1080/0145935X.2013.766067
Kassis, W., Artz, S., Scambor, C., Scambor, E., & Moldenhauer, S. (2013). Finding the way out: a non-dichotomous understanding of violence and depression resilience of adolescents who are exposed to family violence. Child Abuse & Neglect, 37(2–3), 181–99. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2012.11.001
Katz, E. (2015). Domestic Violence, Children’s Agency and Mother-Child Relationships: Towards a More Advanced Model. Children & Society, 29(1), 69–79. http://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12023
Katz, L. F., Hessler, D. M., & Annest, A. (2007). Domestic Violence, Emotional Competence, and Child Adjustment. Social Development, 16(3), 513–538. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00401.x
Katz, L. F., & Windecker-Nelson, B. (2006). Domestic violence, emotion coaching, and child adjustment. Journal of Family Psychology : JFP : Journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43), 20(1), 56–67. http://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.20.1.56
Lapierre, S. (2008). Mothering in the context of domestic violence : the pervasiveness of a deficit model of mothering. Child and Family Social Work, 13(4), 454–463. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2008.00563.x
Levendosky, A. A, Leahy, K. L., Bogat, G. A., Davidson, W. S., & von Eye, A. (2006). Domestic violence, maternal parenting, maternal mental health, and infant externalizing behavior. Journal of Family Psychology, 20(4), 544–52. http://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.20.4.544
Logan, D. E., & Graham-Bermann, S. A. (1999). Emotion Expression in Children Exposed to Family Violence. Journal of Emotional Abuse, 1(3), 39–64. http://doi.org/10.1300/J135v01n03
Lombard, N. (2015). Young people’s understanding of violence against women. Farnham: Ashgate.
Mallett, S. (2004). Understanding home : a critical review of the literature. Sociological Review, 52(1), 64–89.
Martinez-Torteya, C., Anne Bogat, G., von Eye, A., & Levendosky, A. a. (2009). Resilience among children exposed to domestic violence: the role of risk and protective factors. Child Development, 80(2), 562–77. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01279.x
Maughan, A., & Cicchetti, D. (2002). Impact of Child Maltreatment and Interadult Violence on Children ’ s Emotion Regulation Abilities and Socioemotional Adjustment, 73(5), 1525–1542.
McGee, C. (2000). Childhood Experiences of Domestic Violence. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Meltzer, H., Doos, L., Vostanis, P., Ford, T., & Goodman, R. (2009). The mental health of children who witness domestic violence. Child & Family Social Work, 14(4), 491–501. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2009.00633.x
Merleau-Ponty,M. (1964) The primacy of perception: And other essays on phenomenological psychology, the philosophy of art, history, and politics. Northwestern University Press, Illinois, USA
Morrison, F. (2015). “All Over Now?” The Ongoing Relational Consequences of Domestic Abuse through Children’s Contact Arrangements. Child Abuse Review, 24(4), 274–284.
Mullender, A., Hague, G., Imam, U. F., Kelly, L., Malos, E., & Regan, L. (2003). Children’s Perspectives on Domestic Violence. London: Sage.
Øverlien, C. (2009). Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: Conclusions from the Literature and Challenges Ahead. Journal of Social Work, 10(1), 80–97. http://doi.org/10.1177/1468017309350663
Øverlien, C. (2014). “He didn’t mean to hit mom, I think’: positioning, agency and point in adolescents’ narratives about domestic violence. Child & Family Social Work, 19(2), 156–164. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2012.00886.x
Polanyi,L. & Van den Berg,M.H. (1996) Discourse structure and discourse interpretation. in Proceedings of the tenth Amsterdam Colloqium, p 113-131
Peckins, M. K., Dockray, S., Eckenrode, J. L., Heaton, J., & Susman, E. J. (2012). The longitudinal impact of exposure to violence on cortisol reactivity in adolescents. The Journal of Adolescent Health : Official Publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 51(4), 366–72. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.01.005
Saltzman, K. M., Holden, G. W., & Holahan, C. J. (2005). The psychobiology of children exposed to marital violence. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology : The Official Journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53, 34(1), 129–39. http://doi.org/10.1207/s15374424jccp3401_12
Shirani, F., Henwood, K., & Coltart, C. (2011). Meeting the Challenges of Intensive Parenting Culture: Gender, Risk Management and the Moral Parent. Sociology, 46(1), 25–40. http://doi.org/10.1177/0038038511416169
Skelton, T. (2008). Research with children and young people: exploring the tensions between ethics, competence and participation. Children’s Geographies, 6(1), 21–36.
Swanston, J., Bowyer, L., & Vetere, A. (2014). Towards a richer understanding of school-age children’s experiences of domestic violence: the voices of children and their mothers. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 19(2), 184–201. http://doi.org/10.1177/1359104513485082
Trawick, M. (2007). Freedom to move: A bike trip with Menan. In Child space: An Anthropological Exploration of Young People’s Use of Space (pp. 21–40). New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company.
Ungar, M., Ghazinour, M., & Richter, J. (2013). What is Resilience Within the Ecology of Human Development? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54(4), 348-366. DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.12025
Ungar, M. (2015). Varied patterns of family resilience in challenging contexts. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. 42(1): 19-31 DOI: 10.1111/jmft.12124
Unterhalter, E. (2012). Inequality, capabilities and poverty in four African countries: girls’ voice, schooling, and strategies for institutional change. Cambridge Journal of Education, 42(3), 307–325. http://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2012.706253
Ugazio,V. (2013) Semantic polarities and psychopathologies in the family: Permitted and forbidden stories. London, Routledge
Vetere, A., & Cooper, J. (2005). Narrative Therapies with Children and their Families: A Practitioner’s Guide to Concepts and Approaches. London: Routledge.
Wardhaugh, J. (1999). The Unaccommodated Woman: Home, Homelessness and Identity. The Sociological Review, 47(1), 91–109. http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.00164
Whitaker, R. C., Orzol, S. M., & Kahn, R. S. (2006). Maternal mental health, substance use, and domestic violence in the year after delivery and subsequent behavior problems in children at age 3 years. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63(5), 551–60. http://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.63.5.551
Wilson, S., Houmøller, K., & Bernays, S. (2012). “Home, and not some house”: young people’s sensory construction of family relationships in domestic spaces. Children’s Geographies, 10(1), 95–107. http://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2011.638172
 |