In this presentation, we hear from researcher, Dr Vicky Baker, a Senior Lecturer in gender-based violence at Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) and an independent social researcher.
Dr Baker presents findings from her doctoral research, Young People’s Accounts of their Violence and Abuse Towards Parents: Causes, Contexts, and Motivations Findings from this research explore the different types of violence used by young people, and their own perspectives into the causes, contexts and motivations for their behaviours. In this presentation, we focus on three of the five themes identified in the research: power, control and agency; communication, and anger and emotion regulation.
Who is this presentation relevant for?Frontline staff, researchers and policymakers
The young people in the study referred to behaviours ranging from physical violence, verbal abuse, emotional or psychological abuse and economic or material abuse. These behaviours are typically targeted toward mothers and female caregivers, as they are closer in availability, emotionally, and represented ‘safer’ targets.
Dr Baker refers to a socioecological model for considering the range of factors influencing a young person’s range of violent behaviours. Five key factors identified were victimisation and trauma; struggling for power, control and agency; stress and maladaptive coping; poor parent-child communication; and anger and emotion dysregulation. Dr Baker stressed that these contexts are not separate; they are factors which intersect with and reinforce in each other. In a vast majority of cases, victimisation experiences was at the heart of these young peoples’ stories.
This presentation highlights a number of implications for practitioners engaging in this complex work. Key tasks for any AVITH intervention should include mapping out relational and environmental dynamics, attempting to balance multiple perspectives of family members, and considering the ‘functions’ that the behaviour serves. Centring family communication was also highlighted as a crucial piece of any AVITH intervention. Approaching this work with a strong therapeutic focus is essential to nurture these communication skills, so that each individual family member feels heard and supported.
Dr Baker welcomes any feedback about these research themes or their own practitioner insights, by emailing v.baker@mmu.ac.uk
Dr Vicky Baker is a senior lecturer in gender-based violence at Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) and an independent social researcher. Her key areas of interest and expertise include filial violence, wider family violence and domestic homicide, with her PhD research centring young people’s accounts of using violent and harmful behaviour towards parents. Vicky’s recent work has included evaluations of child-to-parent violence programmes, a rapid review of child/adolescent-to-parent violence for the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, exploration of adult child to parent violence for the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, and analysis of domestic homicide reviews within the ESRC-funded ‘HALT’ study. Vicky is a mixed methods, intersectional researcher, drawing on a range of methods to explore complex social problems, with a view to improving services and supports to victim-survivors, children and their families.
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