Representations of family relationships and responses to parents' marital conflict among children of battered women

• Main Author: Tabanao, Ebony B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2007
• Subjects: Children of abused wives—Psychology; Children of abused wives—Family relationships; Clinical Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/6143; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=12700&context=etd_masteral
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study described the children’s representations of family relationships and their responses to their parents’ marital conflict. Data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. A semi-structured interview was given to 8- to 11-year old children of battered women who were referred to a women’s agency. The results showed that children represented their family relationships as unstable, disengaged and improving. Children who represented their parents’ marital relationship as unstable and disengaged mainly had disengaged father-child relationship. Conversely, these children maintained a close mother-child relationship despite some of their negative perceptions of the mother. Children responded to their parents’ marital conflict by getting involved, acting passively and/or comforting the mother; their corresponding cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses in dealing with their parents’ marital conflict were described. Implications on the child and the family were discussed.