“comprendiendo agencias y resistencias: niñ@s en situaciónes de violencias doméstica.”

8/11/2019 Comprendiendo agencias y resistencias: ni@s en situacines de violencias domstica.

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Jane Callaghan, Jo Alexander, Judith Sixsmith, Lisa FellinUniversity of Northampton


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Understanding Agency & Resistance StrategiChildren in Situations of Domestic Abuse (UN

Project aims:

To explore young peoples capacity for resistance, agency and in situations of domestic abuse

To enable an articulation of young peoples voice, in situations domestic abuse

To challenge dominant professional & academic representatioyoung people as damaged or as passive victims of domestic

To build an intervention for young people to facilitate the exprand development of agency and resistance, and to build resilie

To develop a training intervention for professionals working wipeople in situations of domestic abuse.


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Project Overview

Methods

Semi-structured, one-to-one interviews with children & young people Creative methodologies are used in conjunction with interview

Photovoice

Policy analysis conducted in each participating country

Focus groups with carers & professionals

Progress

Conducted 74 out of the 100 planned individual interviews

12 Focus groups with professionals, 5 with carers

Challenges

Recruitment of young people in some countries - dual parental consent required

Austerity Politics Statutory funding allocation - competition Vs collaboration


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What does the literature say?

all academic literature published between 2002 and 2013 focused on child

health, resilience and domestic abuse

183 articles were included in the review:

84 papers described psychopathological consequences of exposure to violenc

5 papers focused on damage to neural system

6 articles outlined other poor outcomes like educational difficulties, criminality

The term exposure appears in 85% of the articles included in the review

The term witness is used in 67% of the articles

77% of the articles described children as victims or as victimised

Intergenerational cycle of violence

Children as contaminants (e.g. Carrell and Hoekstra, 2009: Externalities in the CHow Children Exposed to Domestic Violence Affect Everyone's Kids)


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Pulse para editar los formtexto del esquema

Segundo nivel del esq

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Mother blaming

Childs response to violence is seen as mediated

by the mothers pre-relational psychologicalfunctioning and her coping responses

Discursive construction Mothers experienceviolence, children watch

A significantly large number of children are

exposed to maternal addiction and mental illness,as well as interpersonal violence... Childrenwitness between 68% and 87% of all domesticviolence incidents, and are aware of violencetoward their mothers 90% of the time.

From Finkelstein et al, 2005: Building Resilience inChildren of Mothers Who Have Co-occurring Disorders and

Histories of Violence


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How does this translate into practice?

These constructions of the child have implications for professional and sodiscourses around children in situations of DV

They have implications too for how children are able to position themselcapacity to construct a self-identity as agentic, resistant, capable...


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UNARS

We want to explore childrens capacity to think and act to cope, to be cmanage, and to resist

Challenge dominant representations of children as passive witnesses

What are we finding?

The creative and complex coping responses young people use in situations of abuse

At odds with policy and professional discourses that position young people asvictims


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Why use creative methods?

Counter-hegemonic experience can be difficult to articulate verbally

Photo elicitation, drawing and other creative approaches enable articulacomplex self accounts that extend beyond the dominant categories of wand victim

Enables an articulation of spatial and systemic dynamics to enable con

of resilience and resistance as contextual and processual, not just individ

Enables young people to re-vision the world in which the violence took p

Enables the envisioning of alternative futures and alternative understandself-in-context

.


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Safe Disclosure and Risky Speech

Lucy: Id always hesitate of what I would say...even if I said Hello, Id always tlike, is he just going to shut me out? Is he going to respond in a nice way, or be aanything like that? Id always think ahead of what I was saying


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Production of sanitised narratives andrehearsed or therapeutised accounts George: Sometimes you dont want to

say stuff but you need to.Int: Does it help to talk or ?George: It helps because then youcan leave the past behind and youdont get in trouble and stuff.Int: Do you want to leave the past

behind?George: Yeah. ()Int: Why?George: Because you can start fresh

Int: What does it feel like when youremum

George: Nice

Int: Nice?

George: Yes

Int: Tell me a little bit more about nice

George: Its just nice.

Paul: You need to put it another way!

Int: How do you feel about yourself wwith you mum?

George: Happy


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Taken for grantedness

Ali: It just happens for everyone, like eating, everyone has to eat so whasame, whats the same with learning. You learn maths and science in here((referring to school)) so whats the difference about learning how to proyourself at home.

Unterhalter (2013) the limitation of voice in research with children


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Creative Methodologies

Family Configurations Inclusion & Exclusion

Draw your family

Double moon

Ecograms and systemic maps

Spaces Exploring the family home

Photovoice Imaging agency & resilience, photo elicitation & communit


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Family Configuration

Functionalities:

On a practical level- drawings of the family aid researcher understandingconfigurations & hierarchies from the childs perspective

Act as a shorthand during interview e.g. Children can refer to particularmembers


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Inclusion & Exclusion Absence of fathers in family drawings

Out of 13 family drawings 9 did not include afather. Of the 4 which included a father, 3 weretalked about or drawn in a negative light. Only 1child included a neutral representation of theirfather.

Oliver, 12 years old

Dylan, 15 years old

Sophia, 14 years old


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Self-Defining Family:Choosing relationships

Int: ...Josh, I notice you dont cDad.

Josh: No I dont call him Dad

Int: Did you ever call him Dad

Josh: erm not really, I just call(name), even at home when with him

Int: Why was that?

Josh: Because I dont want mythink hes my dad, cause hedont want a dad that hits m

Josh, 9 years old


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Self Defining Family When aspicture oJess reprperceivedivisions

Boundarcreation

Redefineincluding

Jess: Shfamily, bfamily, I sister becalways thshes bee

everythin(People


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Bethany

Refused to include father

Wont be pinned down to a close relationship

She is both central, and colounder a bright smiley sun

Brothers initial sad face (linfamily division, and his desifather) is re-drawn by her as

Le s?

Bethany, 10 years old


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Family Roles& Hierarchies

Int: Okay Nancy, so were herpicture of your family. To stayou tell me a little bit about y

Nancy: Im the youngest. I

scaredest.

Int: Youre the scaredest?

Nancy: ((smiles)) Im scareeverything

Int: Youre scared about

Nancy: (Nods), I love animfrom arguments so I donUmm.

Nancy, 10 years old


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Birth Order

Angels

Cheated Death

Alison: Im protecting my faalive, if I wasnt here, I couldcould I?

Used within the family to m

Confides in absent sisters:

Alison:For me, if I was closclosest to my two dead sisterthis is weird and all that, but

Alison, 15 years old


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Spaces Exploring the family home

Functionalities:

Drawings of the family home layout can generate rich data when used inconjunction with semi-structured interviews

Tells us how children experiencing DA use space within their immediate fhomes

Risky places Vs Safe places

Risky times Vs Safe times

What/who helps children to cope (Material, personal or relational)


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Josh- Identifies Living room

Bathroom as places of conf

Seeks safety & solitude in thShed:

Int: Was there anywhere you felt sa

Josh: In my bedroom, or I would haveshed

Int: What was it about those places tyou feel safe?

Josh: Because he didnt know really w

Josh, 9 years


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Rachel: ...sometimes wed gowhen they were fighting and Marcus on the rope swing andlay on the hammock and stuffthe net and go like fishing in t

stuff trying to catch the fish ((

_______________________________

Accesses place of safety prior observation:

Rachel, years


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Negotiatingunsafe

spaces

Int: When there was fightinon, where was it most likely tJess: Well when it would hap(older brother) it was always

bathroom, but with mum, it wbetween the kitchen, the garroomall downstairs basicaDownstairs was never safe ifabout because theyll be an aHed make an argument out argument, so downstairs was

power, I suppose.

____________________

Emma:...when I had friends rou

nothing would happen, he woultr an thin so...then when I d

Jess, 18 years


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Hideaways

Int: You know you said that when you go toyour dads and if theres fighting, you go to atight space, why a tight space?Nancy: That way they, they couldnt get to meInt: Who?Nancy: Everyone. It means like, they cantcome and start bothering me, which means Ifeel safer, which means when I feel calm, I go

back, ((.)) and being in a tight space it feels likepart of a game, like being in a cave

Int: Was there a particular spthat you felt safest?

Jess: Upstairs cupboardInt: Why did you feel safest

Jess: Because it was dark andoor behind all of it.

Lizzy: ...hed take her into the livingand sometimes I had to hide in a tinycupboard with little like piles of blankestuff in there and just hide in there andjust, there was a neighbour next door every time that he used to start I used out, I used to run over to the other peo

Int: Sowhen there was fightingwould you go to?...Rachel: My brothersroom.Int: You went to your brothersroRachel: Yeah, we used to h((jovial)) and stuff like that caden built and we used to hide in t


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Photovoice The Process

Following initial interview children are invited to take photos:

Telling us about their lives

How they cope & manage difficult circumstances & what helps

Participants are also invited to include text with their photos

Children & young people are asked to be mindful of their own & others prwhen taking photos and not to take identifiable pictures of people

-


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Dichotomous relational constructions

Nice Mums & Bad Dads

Int: What does it feel like when youre with your mum

George: Nice

Int: Nice?

George: Yes

Int: Tell me a little bit more about nice?

George: Its just nice.

Paul: You need to put it another way!

Int: How do you feel about yourself when youre with you mum?

George: Happy


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Escapism

Emma talks about walkhelps if I have a lot on myIm just over-thinking...I alone in the nature and nlistening to music. It giveminutes of thinking of nocalming down and lettingblow everything away


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Xbox

When physical escape isnt an option,escaping into other worlds :

George and Paul

Grand Theft Auto- A game reflective offathers lifestyle, but a space in whichthey are in control of the dangerousthings around them

Oliver - Xbox Lizzy Super Mario

h h h


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Catharsis? through Sport

Emma: So it would be fand gym right now and

get upset or angry I let oIm playing the sport, thme deal with things


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Music

First visit Oliver took Jo ouat drums


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Creative outlets

Int: ...when it was very difficult at home, was

there anything that made you feel better?

Emma: Drawing.

Int: Drawing?

Emma: Yeah.

Int:And what is it about drawing?

Emma: Its like, this is how I put it to my artteacher, its like letting out your emotions on abit of paper.


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Conclusions

Overwhelmingly the imagery and talk associated with children and domeviolence positions them as passive recipients of damage, and as consequpathologised.

Need for alternative ways of talking about children and young people thapositioning as agentic, resistant and resilient

Make space for young people to articulate their experiences and take poof their sense of agency and creative coping

Create space for positive framing of young people in situations of violencfuture for young people to populate


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Finding us

UNARS website www.unars.co.uk

Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/JaneEMCallaghan

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/428946693916205/?fref=

thats a really handy, memorable address)
http://www.unars.co.uk/https://twitter.com/JaneEMCallaghanhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/428946693916205/?fref=tshttps://www.facebook.com/groups/428946693916205/?fref=tshttps://twitter.com/JaneEMCallaghanhttps://twitter.com/JaneEMCallaghanhttp://www.unars.co.uk/http://www.unars.co.uk/

“comprendiendo agencias y resistencias: niñ@s en situaciónes de violencias doméstica.”

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