Growing Up In Domestic Violence: A Critical Review Of ‘What Does Maternal Protectiveness Mean?’

Contextualising the article within domestic violence prevalence and policy and practice evidence

A critical review of the literature and the production of scientific and rationalised knowledge has been linked with policy formulation and implementation by social workers and scholars. Diverse range of analytical frameworks and approaches are known to produce a huge volume of academic outputs that improve scientific knowledge. The present paper critically reviews the article with the title “Growing up in domestic violence: What does maternal protectiveness mean?” written by Buchanan, Wendt and Moulding (2015). Theselected piece of literature is contextualised within the current environment of the high prevalence of domestic violence in relation to evidence policy and practice. This essay carries out an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the research topic selected. It analyses the methodology to understand its appropriateness and carries out an analysis of the practice implications from the paper. Suitable recommendations are generated for actions based upon the findings from the research paper.  

Women and children share a special bond that is influenced to a great extent by the prevalence of domestic violence in their social context. Research indicates that women having children are more vulnerable to domestic violence as compared to those not having children. In this respect, it is to be mentioned that domestic violence is a repeated and distinctly patterned demonstration of controlling and coercive behaviour for limiting, directing, and more predominantly shaping an individual’s feelings, thoughts and actions (Kalokhe et al. 2017). As opined by Herman (2015) though there is a wide acknowledgement of the fact that domestic violence is indeed an experience for women and children that brngs in trauma and distress, research carried out till date is known to be scarce when it comes to analyse the association between women and children facing domestic violence. Limited attention is witnessed to understand the concepts of maternal protectiveness and whether women stay or leave with the intention of protecting their children.

Previous research on the subject of domestic violence and maternal protection have failed to consider gender power relations and the factors driving experiences of mothers and children. Buchanan, Wendt and Moulding (2015) aimed at exploring maternal protectiveness in domestic violence in a distinct manner through conducting a study that explored the understandings and experiences of former children whose upbringing had been in environments of domestic violence. The research undertaken had a feminist perspective at its core as it explored the children’s understanding of protectiveness against the background of domestic violence, thereby analysing the role of power relations and social discourses. The data obtained was considered against the context of mother-blaming discourses and feminist knowledge of the nature of control and power underpinning domestic violence. Therefore, the present research placed maternal protectiveness in its social context.

Exploration of maternal protectiveness in domestic violence

The study considered a qualitative research method and based the research on feminist social constructivism perspective emphasising on the position language takes in the establishement of social reality. Previous research indicates that this perspective has the power to encourage respondents to express their views and opinions and raise their voices against discourses prevalent in the society. Constructivism research approach positions the researchers within the research context and brings personal values into the research. The collaboration of researchers with the participants is enabled by this approach (Scholten 2017). By having the emphasis on the former children’s level of understanding and experiences of maternal protectiveness, the research gave consideration to the views and voice of the participants on a fundamental basis. The research under scrutiny depended on the relational empowerment methodology known to be responsible for looking and analysing the existence of communicative space, for enhancing the capabilities of the respondents to clarify their thoughts and feelings. In a relational approach, a fulfilling and mutual connection is built between the respondents and researchers that facilitates the research in a manner explicitly suitable for the research goals (Bryant 2016). The approach undertaken allowed the collection and revealation of data that was rich and deep. 

Sixteen people with their upbringing marked by the social context of domestic violence were considered as the selected particiapants for the study. The South Australian Coalition of Domestic Violence Services (SADVS) was considered for recruitment process together with advertisements in the local press. These selected respondents were adults and did not present any mental illness. Confidential counselling were offered for those becoming distressed. Of the total number of participants, two were men and fourteen were women. While their age ranged from 30 to 81 years, their educational background also ranged from primary school to higher degree. The sample was, however, less mixed in terms of cultural background. The sampling was therefore marked by research bias since there were a systematically erroneous gender and cultural background dependent approach (Padgett 2016). Three authors and one research assistant took part in the study, each with one set of interviewees. Interviews were held either at the respondent’s home or by telephone. While conducting the face-to-face interview was appropriate due to provision for accurate screening, and provision for capturing nonverbal cues, telephone interview had certain limitations. The body language of the respondents is be understood, and capturing behaviours and emotions is also not possible (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault 2015).

Methodology and appropriateness analysis

Interview questions included demographic factors and explored the in-depth experiences of all forms of abuse such as sexual, social and physical. Further, the characteristics of the relationship mothers share with their children were also to be highlighted from the questions. In addition, the questions attempted to highlight the influence of domestic violence on the relationship between the mother and the child, and on the nature of maternal protectiveness. Lastly, relationships between adult children and mother after experienced of domestic violence were also explored. The interviews were recorded digitally, and corresponding transcripts were generated. The theoretical thematic analysis was done with the interview transcripts, and key themes were generated from the rich data set. The thematic analysis considered coding of the main themes in the initial stage, called axial coding, after which more detailed selective coding of specific subthemes was done. As stated by (Bryant 2016) thematic analysis allows an theoretically-flexible and accessible appraoch to analysing qualitative data. The Human Research Ethics Committee, University of South Australia gave ethical approval for the study. Ethics approval is mandatory for research governing data collection from human participants (Padgett 2016). Rigour was maintained by addressing subjectivity, linking through relationship and creating deep knowledge by aiming for completeness. Carnevale (2016) had opined that strategies to ensure rigour must be in place while embracing the flexibility of qualitative research.

Study findings identified five main themes and different sub-themes across the data collection. The primary theme was the diversity of protection, limited protection, children protecting mothers, holding mothers responsible and complex feelings/complex lives. The findings highlighted that domestic violence holds the potential to make a huge impact on the mother-child relationship that stretches into the pahse of adulthood. The impact is highly complex in nature, with both negative and positive dimensions. The research suggested that needs of the children are not met as they suffer neglect and abuse. Former children came forward to report feelings of regret and betrayal in association to the relationship with their mothers. The number of unresolved relationships between children and mother was noteworthy, highlighting the extent to which domestic violence can negatively influence lives of people. This finding has crucial implications for the practice of social workers as they grapple with the vision of meeting children’s needs and reducing the impact of domestic violence (DiNitto and Johnson 2015). Since social workers aim at addressing the root cause of distress faced by women and children in the context of domestic abuse, the paper gave valuable insights into the factors driving the relationship between mother and child when faced with abuse and violence. Professionals from the field of health and social care must work must attempt to address the negative drivers of the enstrnagled relationship between mother and children facing domestic violence (Baldwin 2016).

Practice implications of the research

At this juncture, it would be necessary to outline recommendations based on the inference drawn from the study. Since the study findings could not be generalised due to illustrative nature, there is a need of future studies that can explore mother-child interactions uncovering information to drive future policy making and practice in the field of domestic violence. A discussion of such nature would oppose discourses of impracticable anticipations of motherhood, mother blaming, and lastly impacts of maternal alienation. Since the present study had a gender bias at its core, future studies must be eliminating this factor for yielding better results (Turner 2017). Views of men who have experienced domestic violence are to be explored in depth in future since this was not addressed in the present study. Though the study had a number of significant limitations, it paved the way for bringing reforms into how policies are made in relation to domestic violence and social care. In future, policies can be made based on the approaches taken by mothers as an act of protectiveness for their children. Advocating for the victims of domestic violence would be easier for the social workers if concerned authorities push for stronger legislation (Baldwin 2016).

In conclusion, the article under scrutiny articulated distinct experiences and understandings of maternal protectiveness by respondents who witnessed domestic violence in their childhood. The experiences and viewpoints entail social workers to improve own practice by enquiring into complex feelings of individuals. Acknowledgment and understanding of maternal protectiveness would present a dissimilar frame for children’s experiences in relation to domestic violence. Future research is utmost required for assessing the positive and negative drivers for mother’s protectiveness with children who face domestic violence in their upbringing. Translating research into practice would be helpful in all respect within the society. 

References

Baldwin, M., 2016. Social work, critical reflection and the learning organization. Routledge.

Bryant, L., 2016. Critical and Creative Research Methodologies in Social Work. Routledge.

Buchanan, F., Wendt, S. and Moulding, N., 2015. Growing up in domestic violence: What does maternal protectiveness mean?. Qualitative Social Work, 14(3), pp.399-415.

Carnevale, F.A., 2016. Authentic qualitative research and the quest for methodological rigour. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Archive, 34(2).

DiNitto, D.M. and Johnson, D.H., 2015. Social welfare: Politics and public policy. Pearson.

Herman, J.L., 2015. Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence–from domestic abuse to political terror. Hachette UK.

Kalokhe, A., del Rio, C., Dunkle, K., Stephenson, R., Metheny, N., Paranjape, A. and Sahay, S., 2017. Domestic Violence Against Women in India: a systematic review of a decade of quantitative studies. Global public health, 12(4), pp.498-513.

Padgett, D.K., 2016. Qualitative methods in social work research (Vol. 36). Sage Publications.

Scholten, P., 2017. The limitations of policy learning: a constructivist perspective on expertise and policy dynamics in Dutch migrant integration policies. Policy and Society, pp.1-19.

Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M., 2015. Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.

Turner, F.J., 2017. Social work treatment: Interlocking theoretical approaches. Oxford University Press.