October 3, 2024
12:00pm - 1:00 pm
Online

About

This AVITH in Context webinar focused on the 2024 report, ‘Young people’s experiences and use of violence in the home’ which investigates four types of child maltreatment, their intersections and self-reported use of violence in the home.   

The webinar was facilitated by Karalyn Davies (Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare), and featured: 

  • Prof Silke Meyer (Leneen Forde Chair in Child & Family Research and a Professor of Social Work, Griffith University)
  • María Atiénzar-Prieto (PhD Candidate, Griffith University)


Resources

Key Messages and Learnings

Intersection between childhood experiences of domestic violence (CEDV) and other maltreatment

Young people reporting regular CEDV are:

  • 5.5x more likely to experience regular physical abuse
  • 29.7x more likely to experience regular emotional and verbal abuse.

These findings highlight the significant overlap of different forms of childhood maltreatment experiences.

Intergenerational transmission of violence

  • Young people who reported physical abuse were 1.5x more likely to use AVITH.
  • Young people who reported emotional abuse were 5.5x more likely to use AVITH.

This highlights the significant impact of non-physical forms of child maltreatment.

Individual characteristics and use of violence in the home

  • Individual characteristics like gender, sexual orientation or disability were found to NOT be a predictor of the use of violence when controlling for experiences of childhood maltreatment experiences.
  • In other words, it is the experience of being a victim of childhood maltreatment that is the greatest predictor of going on to use violence in the home.

Recognising children as victim-survivors in their own right

  • This research highlights that children have unique support and recovery needs, including early intervention and prevention.
  • Service responses should focus on addressing the non-physical forms of victimisation experiences (i.e., verbal and emotional abuse and CEDV).

Raising awareness and education opportunities

  • In the research, young people shared not realising that what they were experiencing was abuse.   
  • Young people made suggestions for more information and education for themselves around understanding what is okay and what isn’t okay, to validate if what they are experiencing is abusive and unsafe.
  • Young people also wanted more education and awareness raising for parents, particularly of communities of migrant of refugee backgrounds, where they reported that this kind of violence has been normalised as a parenting strategy. 



Want to know more about AVITH?

Visit out AVITH Knowledge Hub for AVITH-specific resources developed by the Centre.

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