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Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
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Young Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence Describe their Abused Parent: A Qualitative Study

Karin Pernebo1,2, Kjerstin Almqvist3

  • 1Department of Psychology, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden.

Journal of Family Violence
|February 7, 2017
PubMed

Insights

Children who witness intimate partner violence (IPV) develop varied internal working models of their abused parent. These models can be coherent, deficient, or blocked, impacting their development.

Area of Science:

  • Child Psychology
  • Trauma Studies
  • Family Violence Research

Background:

  • Intimate partner violence (IPV) negatively impacts children from an early age.
  • Children's perspectives and internal working models of abused parents are under-documented.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To gather and analyze young children's accounts of their experiences with an abused parent.
  • To understand how witnessing IPV shapes children's perceptions of their caregivers.

Main Methods:

  • Thematic analysis of interviews with 17 children (aged 4-12) who witnessed IPV.
  • Qualitative interpretation of children's narratives regarding their abused parent.

Main Results:

  • Three main themes emerged: "Coherent accounts of the parent," "Deficient accounts of the parent," and "The parent as a trauma trigger."
  • Children's accounts revealed general benevolence, support, protection, nurture, parental distress, vague descriptions, disorganized narrations, avoidance, and intrusive memories.

Conclusions:

  • Children exposed to IPV may form integrated, deficient, or blocked internal representations of their abused parent.
  • Including young children as informants is beneficial for research on the effects of IPV.

Keywords:
ChildChildren witnessing intimate partner violenceChildren’s accountsDomestic violenceQualitative research

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