Post-separation Parenting Apps as Tools for Control and Resistance

For many victim-survivors, post-separation coparenting with a perpetrator of domestic and family violence is a daily reality. Post-separation parenting apps are increasingly recommended to manage communication in such contexts, yet their use in abusive dynamics is poorly understood. Drawing on interviews with 18 separated mothers, this study explores how app-facilitated coercive control is both perpetuated and resisted. The record-keeping functions of these apps emerged as a key mechanism through which both control and resistance are negotiated, shaped by the legal settings in which app use is often introduced.