Responding to child to parent violence

Responding to child to parent violence was a multi-agency action learning research project led by Dr Paula Wilcox from the 爱豆传媒. RCPV carried out the first ever cross-European, multi-agency, collaborative response to the serious and growing problem of Child to Parent Violence (CPV) in Spain, Bulgaria, Ireland, Sweden and England.

The project was part-funded by the European Commission's Daphne III programme.

Project timeframe

The research project took place between 2013 and 2015.

Project aims

RCPV aimed to help practitioners working on CPV and parents and children experiencing CPV. The project adopted an action research methodology motivated by the quest to understand practice and policy in relation to CPV in each partner country (Spain, Bulgaria, England, Ireland and Sweden) and to learn how to improve both by reflecting on the changes made through project actions. The aims were to:

research understanding and raise awareness
improve policy and practice
develop an evaluation framework
implement intervention programmes and
develop tools for practitioners and families in Bulgaria, England, Ireland, Spain and Sweden with a focus on gender and Violence against Women and Girls.

The project was underpinned by a focus on gender dynamics and preventing and responding to violence against women and children.

Project findings

Most research to date has been conducted in North America and Australia and this indicates that CPV affects approximately 1 in 10 families. In Europe there is currently limited data on prevalence, however, If CPV continues to be hidden, the human and financial costs to society are high and can have a devastating effect within families. Children who learn to use violence as a strategy may be more likely to use violence in future relationships and there is some evidence of links between CPV and other forms of violence in the public sphere (Parentline Plus 2010) and this aspect needs further research. Project partners’ consultations with local services revealed a range of unmet needs in relation to the treatment and prevention of CPV.

Gendered perspective
It is mainly mothers who experience CPV and mainly sons who use physical violence. However, practitioners told us this does not reveal the full story of CPV, since daughters can also be violent to their mothers, and fathers are also victimised by sons and daughters although to a lesser degree. The issue is further complicated by similarities between the gendered power relations that characterise intimate partner violence and CPV. However, whilst there are similarities there are also important distinctions to be made and further in-depth research is needed to explore this dimension.

Issues for professionals
For professionals, family violence forms a substantial part of their caseload and CPV is emerging as an issue although it is not currently identified as a particular category for monitoring purposes and very few of those trained during the RCPV project had received previous training on CPV. Professionals also told us that families who experience child to parent violence and abuse come from a wide diversity of backgrounds

Professionals found the training programmes implemented by RCPV very helpful. The research demonstrates that the training increased practitioner awareness and understanding, provided the relevant skills to work with parents and children and increased practitioner self-efficacy. Indeed, requests for RCPV training exceeded the resources to provide training within the lifespan of the project. This highlights CPV as a social problem and represents the high demand for the practitioner training

Issues for parents
Parents told us that there is a huge lack of knowledge and understanding of CPV which is one reason why it is difficult to talk about. CPV is a stigmatised and complex social problem because of the strong feelings between parent and child. There are many different forms of violence and abuse experienced by parents from their children from emotional to physical and, like intimate partner violence, the process takes the form of coercive control. The impact is extremely severe, debilitating and isolating and parents do not know how to start to tackle it. Emotional abuse and physical abuse are both part of the picture.

Issues for children
Our research reveals that in many cases children who are instigating CPV are likely to become isolated from their friends and family and in some cases to make friends with other peers who have similar issues of conflict with parents. Parents may unwittingly reinforce this isolation by allowing their children to spend more time alone at home (new technology seems to have a role here) and by to a greater or lesser degree withdrawing from a proactive presence in their child’s life. Friendships at school and relationships with teachers often become similarly strained and stressful with school refusal a common problem faced by parents. It is the case that some abusive young people have suffered trauma or loss and this can be part of the explanation for CPV but not an excuse for violence and abuse and this study shows that helping young people learn how to handle their feelings better does them a great favour.

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View our video exploring definitions of child to parent violence

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View our video discussing the findings of the Responding to child to parent violence project

Project results and impact

RCPV has started to transform perceptions of CPV through developing and disseminating a project film for policy makers and wide use of the media (aim i).

Dissemination of project findings at European and national levels with MEPs and senior policy makers has made them aware of the RCPV findings and they are able to use these in Violence against Women & Child Protection projects under way at the European Commission. This work has also enabled collaboration to facilitate data sharing with the Council of Europe/OIJJ (International Observatory for Juvenile Justice) aiming to provide child-friendly justice. Filming and interviewing of children has started to address the lack of attention to the voices of young people on the issue of CPV in the international and European literatures (aim i).

RCPV has contributed to discussions on national responses to CPV as follows:

In Bulgaria, 50 regional managers and practitioners discussed CPV and future national and local actions
The Tusla the Child and Family Agency for the Republic of Ireland has supported the project and is considering incorporating CPV into their policy on domestic violence.
In England, the project has contributed to discussion of a which was published by the Home Office in March 2015 to fulfil the Violence Against Women and Girls policy in England and Wales.
In Sweden, partners are in discussion with the National Board of Health and Welfare on CPV.
In Spain, a new research association called was established in 2014 and partners from Spain and England are contributing to their first national conference (aims i and ii).

Developing and running gender workshops with professionals in Ireland and England started to explore the issues of gender dynamics where CPV is concerned (aims i and ii).
The project has demonstrated the potential savings to the public purse of implementing one specialised CPV intervention through carrying out a cost-benefit analysis of the B4C intervention model over a six month period as compared with no intervention (aim ii).

The project has improved policy and practice on CPV in the following ways by showing:

how CPV is currently being responded to by mapping individual country contexts, analysing these on a cross-country basis and identifying gaps in knowledge, legal and policy frameworks and service provision
how CPV is experienced by parents and children and the stigma and shame which prevent families from seeking help and support
how services are currently failing to respond effectively to parents and children due to a lack of awareness, policy and guidelines on CPV
the links between school problems including bullying or being bullied at school and CPV in the home
the links with previous experience of domestic violence in some cases
the significant improvement in the knowledge of CPV for over 300 frontline workers in key sectors
practitioner knowledge, skills and confidence in intervening with CPV through the providing training on two specialised models: B4C and NVR (aim ii).

RCPV has provided specialised frameworks and tools for senior staff and professionals and enabled sharing of best practice by having:

developed and piloted the first evidence based evaluation framework and tools for CPV which will enable managers to evaluate their work on CPV
developed self-efficacy questionnaires to assess the knowledge and abilities of their staff on CPV
developed and made available practice handbooks and films on NVR and B4C interventions that staff can easily use in work with families where CPV takes place (aims iii and v).

RCPV has supported the development and implementation of new service delivery on CPV in Ireland with NVR and B4C and in Sweden a new B4C parents’ programme. In England as a result of the success of this project, Brighton & Hove City Council has mainstreamed B4C from October 2015-2018 (aim iv).

Recommendations for the EU
The EU should take careful consideration of how the issues of CPV are highlighted within justice legislation and policy making. How to ensure effective practice delivery that holds children to account for abusive and violent behaviour is key; however making policy on this issue requires a task force bringing together justice and social welfare policy makers to ensure a fit for purpose European approach to tackling CPV. Our findings seemed well received during our policy round table in Brussels and the focus now is to engage a greater number of policy makers from Youth Justice in particular, Health and Children and Families Services across Europe on this issue.

As highlighted in the recent All Wales Youth Offending Strategy – Children and Young People First, our recommendation would be for the EU to ensure that wherever possible children and young people are prevented from entering the youth justice system via an early intervention approach that is clear that violence and abuse is not to be tolerated. In cases where children are at risk of entering or in the youth justice system we recommend they be treated as children first and offenders second and the services work together to redress the issue of CPV: “Offending behaviour is challenged and responded to proportionately with an opportunity for young people to make amends” and reflect on and change behaviour – www.cymru.gov.uk, July 2014.

This project has highlighted the important interplay between policing, child protection, adult safeguarding education, health, domestic violence and child maltreatment prevention and therefore needs to be recognised in each of these policy areas. Any policy change will also require effective skills and expertise to be developed and therefore consideration of effective academic, policy and workforce training is critical for all statutory, private and non-government organisations. We recommend that policymakers work with those specialised evidence-based interventions which are closely linked to knowledgeable practitioners in mainstream services, to inform their policymaking decisions.

Research team

Dr Paula Wilcox

Output

EU DAPHNE project JUST/2012/DAP/AG/3086TS

Reports

Forthcoming

Conference presentations

20 January 2015 Final Policy Round Table, Martins Hotel EU, Brussels with 26 external participants.

28 & 29 January 2015 All partners presented at the RCPV international end of project conference Responding to Child to Parent Violence: European Perspectives, 爱豆传媒.

12 & 13 June 2014 All partners presented at the RCPV international conference ‘Child to Parent Violence: Innovations in Practice, Policy and Research’, NUI Galway, see http://cpvireland.ie/. nd Violence, University of Vienna.

2 April 2014 Michelle Pooley presented a paper on RCPV at the ‘Reimagining Youth Justice’ Conference at the Howard League, London.

25 March 2014 Paula Wilcox presented a paper on RCPV at the Respect 9th National Practitioners Seminar for Those Addressing Young People’s Use of Violence in Close Relationships in York.

29 January 2014 Paula Wilcox presented a paper at the ‘Practitioners Responding to Child to Parent Violence 2013-2015’ run by CoPA Leicestershire at the University of Leicester.

13 June 2013 Michelle Pooley and Paula Wilcox presented a paper at the UK Domestic Violence and Health Forum, Kings College, London.

17-19 April 2013 Paula Wilcox presented a paper and discussion on RCPV at the European Network on Gender and Violence, University of Vienna

27 November 2013 Paula Wilcox chaired and Martyn Stoner presented on Child to Parent Violence at the Annual Youth Justice Convention in Birmingham.

13 and 14 November 2014 Michelle Pooley presented a paper ‘Reflections and Learning from a Groupwork Based Child to Parent Violence Intervention – Break4Change’, at the Rise Conference, Brighton.

Social media

Twitter account

Newsletters

Electronic newsletters were released in April and October 2014

Press releases

at project launch in Brighton in March 2013
in Åmål post the Study visit/Seminar in June 2013
post NUI Galway conference in June 2014
post Policy Round Table in Sofia in October 2014
post the Brussels Round Table and Brighton conference in January 2015

Partners

爱豆传媒, UK

, UK

, Republic of Ireland

, Universitat de València, Spain

, Sweden

The National Association XXI Century Rhodopa Mountain Initiative, Smolyan, Bulgaria