Child-to-Parent Violence and Abuse: Navigating the Ethical Line When Involving Children in Biographic Research

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the application of ethical thinking from the perspective of someone with the dual role of social worker and PhD researcher. The focus of the research was family secrets and their influence upon child-to-parent violence and abuse (CPVA). The participants were children and their parents, who, at the time of the research, were experiencing family violence and abuse.

This paper was developed from a conversation between Lee-Ann and Louise. Lee-Ann was Louise’s PhD supervisor and was therefore involved in supporting Louise in gaining ethics approval, as well as holding continued reflexive conversations about the ethical questions and dilemmas that arose throughout this study.

This paper has shown the importance of hearing the voices of children within research about CPVA. Children can offer a rich layer of information that is seldom heard. It also shows that there may be a different lens through which ethics can be considered during research, not only the purely objective or academic, but also from a practitioner-researcher in a social care setting position.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethics
• children
• social work
• practitioner-researcher
• biography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Dr Louise Oliver is a qualified social worker who has predominantly worked within children's social care and is now a lecturer at Bournemouth University. Her doctoral research was about Child-to-Parent Violence and Abuse, with a focus upon secrets. She is interested in biographic research methods as well as the use of biography in practice.

Lee-Ann Fenge, Professor of Social Care, has worked in higher education for over 25 years and is an experienced qualitative researcher. She has expertise in using participatory methods to engage the voice of seldom heard groups and uses creative and arts-based methods for both research and dissemination. She is Director of the Centre for Seldom Heard Voices at Bournemouth University which specialises in research with marginalised communities and seldom heard groups.