How mothers perceive their own domestic violence victimization and how it impacts their children

ABSTRACT

Children’s exposure to domestic violence has been associated with various negative outcomes. This study explores the effects of children’s exposure to domestic violence through the lenses of the primary victims of abuse. Specifically, the consequences associated with their children’s exposure to domestic violence, the coping mechanisms employed, and identified preventative measures to address this social problem. Semistructured interviews were conducted to obtain the mother’s perspective. Participants for this study were randomly obtained from the database of the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority. Findings revealed that children are used as a bargaining tool by both mothers (to prevent DV) and perpetrators (to exert control). The coping mechanisms that mothers believed their children used included listening to music, adopting care taking roles, and positioning themselves away from the violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Abuse
• coping mechanism
• effects
• exposure
• incidents
• prevention
• victimization

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge all the participants in this study for sharing valuable information.

Ethical standards and informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the Ethical Standards of the Responsible Committee on Human Experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.