Children who experience domestic violence – dilemmas in social work practice

ABSTRACT

This article presents an analysis of social workers’ discourse about children who experience domestic violence (DV). The data consist of interviews with 12 employees within family counselling and child welfare services in 4 different regions of Norway. The question asked is: How are dominant discourses reflected in informants’ descriptions of children who experience DV and what are the consequences for social workers’ practice? The analysis shows that the informants encounter a variety of ethical and practical dilemmas in cases where children experience DV. Significant differences were found between how social workers discursively expressed their ideals and how they acted in practice. When helpers spoke generally about children and violence they employed the discourse of the competent child and defined violence more broadly. However, when helpers moved from a position of looking in from the outside to that of experiencing a situation, they employed a discourse of physical and specific violence, and the traditional discourse about children as vulnerable was dominant. We discuss the available positions, possible dilemmas, paradoxes and challenges highlighted by social workers’ discursive practice.

SAMMENDRAG

Denne artikkelen presenterer en analyse av sosialarbeideres diskurser om barn som opplever vold i nære relasjoner. Datagrunnlaget er innhentet fra fire ulike distrikter i Norge, og består av til sammen 12 intervjuer med ansatte på familievernkontor og den kommunale barneverntjenesten. Følgende spørsmål ble stilt til materialet: Hvordan blir dominerende diskurser reflektert i informantenes beskrivelser av barn som opplever vold i nære relasjoner, og hvilke konsekvenser får det for sosialarbeidernes praksis? Analysen peker på at informantene møter på en rekke etiske og praktiske dilemmaer i saker som omhandler barn som opplever vold i nære relasjoner. Det var stor forskjell på hvordan sosialarbeiderne diskursivt i-tale-satte sine idealer og hvordan de i praksis handlet. Når hjelperne snakket om barn og vold generelt tok de i bruk diskursen om det kompetente barnet og hadde en vid definisjon på vold. Når hjelperne derimot forflyttet posisjon fra å snakke om barn og vold generelt til hva de i praksis gjør, tok de i bruk diskursen om den fysiske og spesifikke volden, og den tradisjonelle diskursen om barn som sårbare var dominant. I denne artikkelen diskuterer vi tilgjengelige posisjoner, mulige dilemmaer, paradokser og utfordringer som ble løftet fram av sosialarbeidernes diskursive praksis.

KEYWORDS:

• Domestic violence
• children
• social work
• dilemmas
• discourse

NØKKELORD:

• Vold i nære relasjoner
• barn
• sosialt arbeid
• dilemmaer
• diskurs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ann-Kristin Johansen is a lecturer at University College Østfold, Norway, and Ph.D. candidate in Psychology at Norwegian University and Technology, Trondheim. She is also a family therapist and has broad experience of working with people exposed to domestic violence. Her Ph.D. topic is about children who experience domestic violence. The overall aim in this project is to collect systematic knowledge about children’s experiences of domestic violence, and also to map out and highlight social workers’ discourses about children who experience domestic violence.

Birgit Svendsen is an Associate Professor in psychology, at the Department of Psychology, Norwegian University and Technology, Trondheim. Qualitative analysis is one of her main research methods, special discourse analysis. She is a supervisor for Ph.D. students doing qualitative research. She is also a clinical psychologist and currently manages a psychotherapy project with depressed and anxious children and their parents. The project’s goal is to get elaborated understanding of how parents can help their children with increased emotion regulation – and thus better mental health.

Rolf Sundet, Ph.D. is working at the University College of Southeast Norway, Drammen, Norway, as a professor of clinical mental health work and specialist in clinical psychology. He is also a freelance supervisor and consultant. He has published in both English and Scandinavian books and journals. His Ph.D. is on the use of client feedback as a monitoring and conversational tool in family therapy practice.