Research indicates children's exposure to family violence results in long-term negative consequences, hindering social skill development and impacting on the ability to function as healthy, productive adults. Also, there exists a widely accepted theory, called the 'cycle of violence', which hypothesises that children who have experienced violence at the hands of their parents tend to grow up to become violent parents themselves. Some evidence for this theory has been found following research with groups of abusive parents and people who have committed crimes, This study explores the specific impacts of childhood exposure to family violence on the subsequent mothering of a group of women drawn from the general population. A qualitative approach using a methodology that combined feminist and narrative approaches was used. Nine women who have been exposed to family violence in childhood including physical, emotional/psychological, sexual abuse and witness to violence between parents participated in interviews which explored their experiences of mothering
Each woman was interviewed twice to collect stories of childhood and of mothering experiences. These were analysed revealing that the women's mothering was affected by their childhood exposure to family violence in several ways, ranging from direct emotional impacts to indirect impacts of conceptualisations formed in the light of childhood experiences. This study adds to the existing knowledge of the long-term impacts of childhood exposure to family violence by focussing specifically on subsequent mothering. The findings encourage social work and health care personnel to appreciate that women exposed to family violence in childhood have specific issues with their mothering and there is a need to address these issues. It also challenges the weight given to the cycle of violence theory in intervention and prevention strategies in child abuse and family violence sectors
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/239379 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Mendis, Kathy, kamen3@bigpond.com.au |
| Publisher | La Trobe University. School of Social Work and Social Policy |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.latrobe.edu.au/copyright/disclaimer.html), Copyright Kathy Mendis |
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