Stopping family life sliding over the line

The need for better understanding of the thin line between domestic violence, child maltreatment and the routine turbulence of ordinary family life, and for interventions that recognise the sliding scale of seriousness, is the theme of a Unit presentation at the annual UK congress on child abuse and neglect.

Researchers Tim Hobbs, Vashti Berry and Michael Little will argue that although domestic violence is recognised globally to be the cause of social problems that have the potential to disrupt children’s development, interventions are confined to crude rescue attempts.

Such services only benefit a small proportion of children, many of whom will already have had damaging experiences. Hence the need for a better understanding of the wider, contextual dynamics of aggression and violence in the home.

For example, parents’ efforts to discipline children and to socialise them provide regular opportunities for conflict or dispute. Similarly, partners will disagree with one another on a range of issues, some trivial others significant.

Their findings will be reported at the annual British Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (BASPCAN) conference at the University of Wales, Swansea.