Children's Resilience in Living Violent Families

Abstract

Work with domestic violence gained greater exposure after the amendments to the Women's Charter in May 1997. It allowed an avenue of help to both victims and the abusers, to seek professional help through the mandatory counselling programme at participating family service centres.

However an important component of the family, the children, who either witness and/or experience the violence have somehow been given minimum attention from the current continuum of services.

Recognising the need for a holistic service for families experiencing violence, the Ang Mo Kio Family Centre piloted a specialised centre for family violence called PAVE (Promoting Alternatives to Violence). This centre offers a one-stop service to families living with violence. Among the programmes offered is groupwork for children who witnessed violence.

The paper discusses the experiences of 21 children between the ages of four to ten who have been through the child witnesses of violence programme over the last two years. Adopting a qualitative approach to understanding the experiences of children, it describes their responses to the violence and examines their strengths and resources, which appear to have contributed to their resilience.