Staff, students and public are invited to hear Amanda Holt speak at a seminar, “Youth-to-Parent Abuse: Current Understandings in Research, Policy and Practice”, on Wednesday 2nd May 2012. The event will be held at the University of Surrey, UK, from 16.00 to 17.30. Dr Amanda Holt also has an article in the most recent edition of Social Policy and Society, a parent abuse themed issue.
Tag Archives: Parent abuse
Dr. Phil has advice for abusive children
Dr. Phil picked up on the topic of parent abuse where Anderson left off, in his show on February 29th. The clips, which are also available on Youtube, show interviews with women still experiencing abuse from their adult children, unable to break free from a longstanding pattern of destructive behaviour. There is also a link on his site to a clip from an earlier programme, “Stabbed in the heart by my teen”, where he counsels the family that this longstanding relationship issue needs proper professional long-term help. “It’s never easy to confront this stuff and deal with it. Somehow, it’s easier to suffer and let days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months and months into years.”
Without the benefit of seeing the whole show, it’s hard to know how to respond to the clips, which are obviously chosen to draw the viewer in.
Filed under TV and video
Respectful relationships can follow exposure of parent abuse
The 2010 report, Exposing the dark side of parenting: A report on parents’ experiences of family violence, published by the Regional Alliance Addressing Child and Adolescent Violence in the Home, South Australia, documented the results of a public phone-in exercise which took place in Southern Australia in 2008, designed to contribute to the body of knowledge on parent abuse. The report is important not just for its findings, which are broadly congruent with other similar studies, but also for the series of recommendations made: (i) the raising of community and agency awareness about child and adolescent family violence, (ii) the training and development for professionals about appropriate resources, (iii) the provision of effective accessible support for families and (iv) the establishment of a dedicated agency to provide ongoing support to parents, families and young people. Continue reading
Filed under projects, publications
Parent abuse in the Independent
An article about parent abuse in the Independent this weekend managed to reference and quote Family Lives, Lynette Robinson, Rachel Condry and Hertfordshire Practical Parenting Programme, all in under 500 words. Well done, Sarah Cassidy!
The Big Lottery grant to Hertfordshire Practical Parenting Project has brought the subject of parent abuse once more to the attention of the media. An informative piece is illustrated with a case study from an interview with one of the Hertfordshire parents
Sadly, the ‘comments’ go some way to explaining why this aspect of family violence remains so under-reported. Breaking through this barrage of ignorance, prejudice and downright vitriol, seems as far away as ever.
Filed under news reports, projects
Parent abuse project wins Big Lottery funding
Congratulations to Hertfordshire Practical Parenting Programme, awarded £186,500 from the Big Lottery Fund, for their “I-Trust-U-Trust-Me” project which aims to reduce violence by children and young people against their parents.
The announcement was picked up by the Bourne Local news:
Director, Sandra Ashley, said: “Our new project is about breaking cycles of child-on-parent domestic violence. This behaviour can often be learned after witnessing partner-to-partner violence, which continues following one parent leaving and the child taking on the role of aggressor. We work to ensure that parents understand the importance of staying safe and dealing with this emotive issue. There are a lot of agencies set up to deal with adult-on-adult domestic violence, but not child to parent.” Sara Betsworth, Big Lottery Fund’s head of the East of England region, said, “Domestic violence between adults damages families but it is not well known that child-on-parent abuse can also follow from that. Hertfordshire Practical Parenting Programme is an extremely interesting and valuable new project to tackle this under-reported domestic violence and break this cycle of abuse.
The project also won a mention in the Society section of the national Guardian.
My plan to create a resources page here, listing projects such as this, still remains a plan . . . but will hopefully come to fruition soon!
Filed under news reports, projects
In Cold Blood: Parent abuse in Singapore
This powerful video from Singapore was posted in the week. Some viewers have already told me how distressing they found it.
Addresses are given at the end for those wishing to access advice and support.
Filed under TV and video
I don’t believe it!
We should feel encouraged that, increasingly, friends, colleagues, acquaintances are accepting of the fact that there are parents who face regular abuse from their own children; and understand that parents may suffer further humiliation at the hands of the authorities when they do report the abuse, and its cause is identified as a failure of proper parenting. But there are still some aspects of this phenomenon that seem a step too far, even for convinced supporters. I was in just such a conversation recently when I introduced the problem of parents actually being punished for their children’s behaviour. “I don’t believe it – show me the evidence” was the response. It is indeed hard to believe that we still live in a society that is so procedurally rigid that we cannot accommodate the situations that do not fit the standard template.
I would suggest that there are a number of different scenarios here. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion
Parent Abuse Research Review
Another literature review came out in December 2011. The Social Ecology of Adolescent-Initiated Parent Abuse: A Review of the Literature, by Jun Sung Hong, Michael J. Kral, Dorothy L. Espelage and Paula Allen-Meares, is available on line. The abstract indicates that it focusses on context and risk factors, and suggests further avenues for research.
I plan in the near future to create a separate page here for links to articles as I become aware of them, and also a page dedicated to resources. Watch out for these exciting developments!
Filed under publications
A rock and a hard place
Writing a piece for PSW magazine over the holiday, and then watching the Archbishop of Canterbury’s new year’s day speech, has reminded me of the difficulties inherent in raising awareness of a serious issue – such as parent abuse – while avoiding demonising the various players. Much is made within the literature on child to parent violence, of taking care not to apportion blame, thereby increasing the shame parents already feel and making them less likely to seek help. Fundamental to the Respect agenda of the mid Labour years from 2006 was the notion of parental responsibility, and of holding parents to account for the behaviour of their children, credited with damaging further the precarious balance of power within some families. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion
Broadening the definition of domestic violence
The announcement yesterday by the government that there is to be a consultation on the definition of domestic violence, in England and Wales, is to be applauded, notwithstanding criticism that current policy contradicts this possibility of progress.
The consultation looks specifically at whether to include coercive control within the definition, recognising that this is a very real aspect of domestic abuse and can contribute itself to deaths; and whether to lower the age to 16 / 17, or remove the lower age limit completely. It is important to state here that the lowering of the age is intended to bring within the legislation abuse experienced by teenagers as victims, and comes as a response to reports by groups such as Respect, who have been campaigning hard on the issue of dating violence. Nevertheless, lowering the age would also seem to include the possibility of bringing parent abuse within the definition, a small step towards full recognition.
The arguments about the impact of this have been rehearsed before: the potential effects of criminalising young people, the need to back up law with services, the need to change attitudes as well as the law, as well as the question of whether domestic violence offers the most appropriate framework of understanding. Nevertheless, it remains the case that, for some parents calling the police is a matter of life and death and we should afford them the respect of being able to name the violence for what it is.
The consultation exercise runs till 30th March 2012.
Filed under Discussion
HOLES IN THE WALL 