Negotiating agency in cases of intimate partner violence in Vietnam

Abstract

Understandings of women's agency in cases of intimate partner violence (IPV) have been dominated by an individualistic focus on help-seeking behaviour. The role of children in influencing, enabling and restricting the decision-making processes of their mothers has been largely ignored. We adopt biographical analytical approaches to qualitative longitudinal data collected as part of the Young Lives study to highlight the interdependency of women's and children's agency in contexts of IPV in Vietnam. We illustrate how women's agency is both enabled and constrained by their relationships with their children, as well as by wider structural processes, and examine how gender and generation intersect. In marginalised settings where few formal services exist or strong social norms preclude women from accessing support, understanding these informal coping strategies and the processes by which these are negotiated is essential for developing more effective policy responses.

Understanding Children’s Experiences of Violence in Viet Nam

“…Recent research by Pells et al (2015a;2015b) analysed Young Lives qualitative longitudinal data to examine children's experience of violence in the home and the impact of violence on children's feelings and perceptions, social relationships and schooling. The authors suggest that poverty and gender hierarchies shape children's experiences of violence in the home and that children's responses to violence are far from predictable.…”

“…Children can both reproduce and resist violence, with both positive and negative implications for their well-being, social networks, and engagement with school. Children's responses to violence can change over time: while younger children exhibited confusion and uncertainty about how to respond to violence, older children adopted multiple strategies to negotiate and challenge violence (Pells et al, 2015b), thus playing an active and influential role in their mothers' decision-making in the context of domestic violence (Pells et al, 2015a).…”

“…Qualitative research highlights the differing understandings of violence from adults to children, and the role of gender norms and cultures of masculinity. Building on Pells et al (2015a;2015b) and drawing on Young Lives' qualitative longitudinal data, this paper describes the types of violence children experience (including multiple forms); the factors that shape children's knowledge of violence, including place (urban/rural locality), ethnicity (majority/minority group) and gender norms; and finally, the sources of support that children and young people suggest are needed to address violence.…”

“…All names of people and places (including all communities) in this paper are pseudonyms. Pells et al, 2015a, for an exploration of mothers' experiences). This suggests an area for further research.…”

“…Violence in the household in Viet Nam, while variable by age, gender and region, is largely framed within gender norms. Several studies have pointed out that social norms of male superiority contribute to intimate partner violence (Rydstrøm, 2003;MOLISA, 2011;Pells et al, 2015a and2015b), and indeed, women and girls identified gender as a crucial factor shaping experiences of violence. For instance, in a community group discussion, the Cham H'roi women discussed men's drinking behaviour in Van Lam, and said that husbands beat their wives badly whenever they were not happy and the wives had to accept this unfair treatment as part of the social norm of male superiority and authority within the household, for the sake of preserving family harmony.…”