Domestic Violence
Tackling domestic violence: Providing support for children who have witnessed domestic violence
This report provides good practice recommendations and suggestions for a range of practitioners and professionals who have a role in commissioning, developing or delivering initiatives to support children who have in the past or are currently witnessing domestic violence.
Title: Tackling domestic violence: Providing support for children who have witnessed domestic violence
Author: Professor Audrey Mullender, University of Warwick
Series: Home Office Development and Practice Report 33
Date published: December 2004
Number of pages: 18
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The types of support work include: counselling, play therapy, life story work, crisis work and safety planning, and this can either be provided on a one-to-one basis or as part of group work.
How should professionals respond?
It is important for all professionals working with children, including teachers, social workers, health visitors, psychologists and doctors to:
find safe and confidential ways of asking children what is really wrong when they see the symptoms
recognise violence at home as one of the common reasons for problems in children's lives
give them a chance to talk
believe what they say
know what help is available for them, and their mothers.
Practitioners can also view the governments guidance 'What to do if you are worried about a child being abused' (Department of Health, 2003).
How can direct work help children?
The benefits include the chance for each child to:
obtain permission to talk about what has happened at home
express their feelings about the violence and its effect on their family
receive reassurance that it was not their fault that these things happened
rebuild their self-esteem
develop individual safety plans for the future.
Individual work
This can be done in two ways:
a piece of in-depth work focused around a particular issue
it can be unstructured, going where the child wants to take it, at the child's pace and only as far as they want to go, using free expression through art, play or other forms of therapy.
Individual work can sometimes be used before moving on to group work. It introduces the children to the workers and reduces their fears about attending the group.
Group work
Group work can:
help children to think about gender roles and to learn that these must not be rigid or demeaning
help children learn to keep safe
help children learn that:
violence is wrong and no one need put up with it
they are not the only one who has lived with violence
it is okay to talk about violence
boys should not grow up to be violent or abusive
girls should not expect to be hit when they grow up
relationships should not be violent or demeaning
we all make choices about whether we are violent or whether we respect other people and their views.
Characteristics of group work
Groups should consist of children of a similar age with similar experiences and there should never be just one girl, one boy or one minority ethnic in a group.
Group sessions often include learning about what domestic violence is and that it is very common in order to get the message out that the violence was not the child's fault.
All sorts of materials can be used in groups, and games and exercises work well. Younger children particularly like activities, while older children can spend longer on discussion without becoming bored.
Watching videos about domestic violence with scenarios for discussion, including going into a refuge, is another good technique used.
Good discussions can be held around topics on television programmes, items in teen magazines, or anything else that features relationships and gender roles
Groups should last 12 weeks.
How does domestic violence impact upon children?
Children are likely to be affected by the fear, disruption and distress in their lives. They may have physical, emotional, learning, behavioural or developmental problems, and their educational performance and achievement may also be affected.
Kitzmann et al. (2003) found children who had witnessed domestic violence had significantly worse psychosocial outcomes compared to those children who had not. He also found that child witnesses often had similar outcomes to those of physically abused children.
Training
Practitioners need training on domestic violence that encompasses the abuse of power and control within intimate relationships, the manipulative patterns, threats and intimidation employed by perpetrators to conceal the abuse, and the coping strategies women and children use to survive.
Without this knowledge, practitioners are likely to fail to identify and assess the risks facing some children and their mothers.
Inter-agency roles and responsibilities
Children's needs and family circumstances will require inter-agency collaboration to ensure full understanding of what is happening and an effective service response. Staff must therefore, understand the roles and responsibilities of other staff working in different fields.
Last update: 13 December 2004