Promoting Resilience and Agency in Children and Young People Who Have Experienced Domestic Violence and Abuse: the “MPOWER” Intervention

Abstract

The MPOWER programme is a resource oriented intervention to support children and young people (CYP) affected by domestic violence and abuse. It draws on principles from feminist informed systemic family practice and creative therapies. The intervention was delivered in 4 European countries (Greece, Italy, Spain and England), reaching 58 CYP. This paper reports on young participants' wellbeing outcomes and perceptions of the intervention. Participants completed the Children's Outcome Rating Scale, and the Children's Group Session Rating Scale (Duncan et al. Journal of Brief Therapy, 3, 3-12, 2003). A descriptive analysis of this data suggests improvement in subjective wellbeing as CYP moved through this programme. Qualitative interviews were also conducted with 21 CYP, exploring their experience of the group intervention and of its impact. These interviews were analysed thematically (Braun and Clark Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101, 2006). Three themes are discussed: These were BWorking Together: Building Trust and Sharing Common Experiences^; BDisclosures, creativity and working with emotions^; and BRoots and Branches: Working with relationships^.

Panorama científico de la relación entre la violencia intrafamiliar y de género y la resiliencia familiar: posibilidades, retos y límites

“…En cuanto a los programas y estrategias de promoción de resiliencia, estos se caracterizaron por orientarse hacia el desarrollo de: Resistencia al control coercitivo a través del cuerpo y el espacio (Callaghan, Alexander, & Fellin, 2016, Callaghan, Fellin, Mavrou, Alexander, & Sixsmith, 2017) la recuperación de la experiencias y su resignificación (Callaghan, Fellin, & Alexander, 2018;Grogan-Kaylor, Galano, Howell, Miller-Graff, & Graham-Bermann, 2019), la expresión de sus emociones de manera profunda a través del drama (Dix, 2015).…”

Consenso de expertos sobre las medidas de protecci´ón a hijos e hijas víctimas de violencia de género

“…Asimismo, las personas expertas otorgan valor a las acciones de sensibilización centradas en el cambio de actitudes y en la promoción de estilos de relaciones igualitarias, dirigidas tanto a la población en general, como a las víctimas de violencia de género y personas allegadas. Estos resultados refuerzan grosso modo algunas medidas incluidas en nuestro país en el Pacto de Estado contra la Violencia de Género, pero a tenor de la valoración de los expertos/as, en el diseño de la formación a los profesionales y de las acciones de sensibilización de la población, se ha de poner en mayor medida el foco sobre las necesidades de los hijos e hijas como víctimas (Callaghan et al, 2019;Hester, 2011;Reif et al, 2020).…”

The Contact Zone and Dialogical Positionalities in “Non-Normative” Childhoods: How Children Who Language Broker Manage Conflict

“…There has been a long-standing debate within research on child language brokering, balanced with understandable discomfort, about the kind of advocacy or intermediary role that children and young people might play on behalf of their family (Cline et al, 2017; Orellana, 2009; Valdés, 2003). In her study with adults reflecting on their child language brokering experiences, Bauer (2017) describes brokers’ abilities to edit or censor information as a capacity for active agency, which may be enabled or constrained by the social context (Callaghan et al, 2018). In this study, there were frequent references to taking an active brokering role, wherein they rephrased conversations, made judgment calls about changes to content and meaning, assisted in regulating the emotions of those involved, or used their own cultural knowledge to navigate some of the perils or pitfalls of difficult conversations.…”