Papers: Child maltreatment, partner violence & parenting

NZFVC Issues Papers: Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting

2013-04-16

Two new Issues Papers have been released today by the New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse.

Understanding connections and relationships:

Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting reviews the evidence on the frequency with which intimate partner violence and child maltreatment co-occur.

Policy and practice implications: Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting explores the system responses required to support children exposed to intimate partner violence.

NZFVC is co-hosting a one-day conference, Children, child maltreatment and intimate partner violence: Research, policy and practice on 5 June 2013. Speakers include Professor Jeff Edleson, one of the world's leading authorities on children exposed to domestic violence. The full programme and registration information is now available on the Families Commission website.

ENDS

Understanding connections and relationships: Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting

Issues Paper 3, April 2013

Understanding connections and relationships:

Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting

Authors: Clare Murphy, PhD, Nicola Paton, Pauline Gulliver, PhD, and Janet Fanslow, PhD

Downloads

Understanding connections and relationships:

Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting (PDF, 392 KB)

Understanding connections and relationships:

Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting

(Word DOC, 570 KB)

Key Messages

This Issues Paper reviews the evidence on the frequency with which intimate partner violence and child maltreatment co-occur. The United States NatSCEV study showed:

• 34% of the children who had witnessed intimate partner violence had also been subjected to direct maltreatment in the past year, compared to 9% of those who had not witnessed intimate partner violence.

• Over their lifetimes, over half of those (57%) who had witnessed intimate partner violence were also maltreated, compared to 11% of those who had not witnessed intimate partner violence.

• Men were more likely to perpetrate intimate partner violence incidents that were witnessed by children than were women, with 68% of children witnessing violence only by men.

Exposure to violence can have ongoing negative impacts on children and young people’s health, education, social and economic wellbeing.

Recommendations from this paper include the need for greater recognition of:

• The links between child maltreatment and intimate partner violence

• The detrimental effects of children’s exposure to intimate partner violence

• The disruption to mother-child relationships due to intimate partner violence

• The poor fathering that can accompany perpetration of intimate partner violence

This needs to translate to greater understanding of the importance of supporting children’s relationships with the non-abusive parent. This work needs to include creating conditions of safety, and may need to include active work to help restore relationships between non-abusive parents and their children. Work to address poor fathering is also necessary.

NZFVC Issues Paper 4, Policy and practice implications: Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting, explores the system responses required to support children exposed to intimate partner violence.

Note: The Clearinghouse is co-hosting a one-day conference, Children, Child maltreatment and intimate partner violence: Research, policy and practice on 5 June 2013. Speakers include Professor Jeff Edleson, one of the world's leading authorities on children exposed to domestic violence. The full programme and registration information is now available.

Recommended citation

Murphy, C., Paton, N., Gulliver, P., & Fanslow, J. (2013). Understanding connections and relationships: Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting Auckland, New Zealand: New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse, The University of Auckland.

ISSN: 2253-3222, published online only

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Policy and practice implications: Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting

Issues Paper 4, April 2013

Policy and practice implications: Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting

Authors: Clare Murphy, PhD, Nicola Paton, Pauline Gulliver, PhD, and Janet Fanslow, PhD

Downloads

Policy and practice implications:

Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting (PDF, 392 KB)

Policy and practice implications:

Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting

(Word DOC, 570 KB)

Key Messages

This paper explores the system responses required to support children exposed to intimate partner violence. Guiding principles for protecting children and adults exposed to child maltreatment and intimate partner violence include:

• Provide holistic support for children

• Support the non-abusing parent

• Support the mother-child relationship

• Hold the perpetrator accountable

• Be culturally responsive

Children’s safety and wellbeing is highly dependent on the quality of their bond with their non-abusive parent (most often the mother). Programmes to support mothers and children need to include a focus on supporting them to strengthen or re-establish their relationship, which may have been damaged by exposure to violence.

Parenting programmes for fathers who have used violence need to emphasise the need to end violence against their children’s mothers (they cannot be “a lousy partner but a good dad”).

There needs to be adequately resourced services to support children, adult victim/survivors and perpetrators. These services need to work in co-ordinated and collaborative ways, as part of multi-agency response systems, and work from a sophisticated understanding of intimate partner violence.

The United States Centers for Disease Control have identified safe, stable, and nurturing relationships as fundamental in supporting children to thrive. Exposure to intimate partner violence and the impact of violence on the parenting children receive need to become key areas of work in responding to ‘vulnerable children’.

Note: The Clearinghouse is co-hosting a one-day conference, Children, Child maltreatment and intimate partner violence: Research, policy and practice on 5 June 2013. Speakers include Professor Jeff Edleson, one of the world's leading authorities on children exposed to domestic violence. The full programme and registration information is now available.

Recommended citation

Murphy, C., Paton, N., Gulliver, P., & Fanslow, J. (2013). Policy and practice implications: Child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and parenting Auckland, New Zealand: New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse, The University of Auckland.

ISSN: 2253-3222, published online only

ENDS

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