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Background: If women's use of agency to protect their children from domestic abuse is considered at all, it is usually in terms of women staying or leaving abusive partners. Elsewhere women's mothering, when they are enduring domestic abuse, is viewed from a perspective that focuses on finding deficits by observation and categorising the relationship between them and their children. Objective: The study, which informs this article, looked to the lived experiences of women who had mothered while enduring domestic abuse to better understand their thoughts, feelings and actions during that time. Participants and methods: The qualitative study considers the lived experience of 16 women, residing in South Australia, who raised young children while enduring domestic abuse. Semi-structured interviews followed by focus groups, which utilised creative methodologies were employed to collect data. Results: The study casts light on myriad ways that women exercise agency to protect their children. When lived experiences inform our understanding, it becomes clear that many women enduring domestic abuse exercise their agency to protect their children. Conclusion: We posit that, if agency is not a focus of enquiry it is overlooked by social workers focusing on deficits when considering mothering in domestic abuse. Too often, women are perceived solely as passive victims, unable or unwilling to protect vulnerable children. Yet important strategies to enable empowerment of both women and children are uncovered if social workers acknowledge and work with women and children to focus on the ways women exercise agency to protect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This article reports on a project that explored the complexities of engaging and working with men when domestic violence is noticed in a couple counselling context. There are concerns and controversy surrounding domestic violence and couple counselling; however, it has also been noted that many couples want to remain together and voluntarily approach services for couple counselling. The project reported on in this paper adopted a qualitative methodological design influenced by participatory action research ideas and memory work methods to analyse engagement of men used by nine social work family relationship counsellors. Findings: Counsellors used narrative therapy ideas to maintain a stance of curiosity when working with couples when domestic violence was noticed. Curiosity was described as a way of opening up conversations to explore power differences and gender relations and as a method to balance safety with engagement. Specific engagement strategies identified included identifying ethics as a conversation point to explore the effects of power, violence and fear perpetrated by the male partners; exploring dynamics of power and control in relationships and exploring other possibilities in relationships. Applications: Alongside debates about the effectiveness and success in domestic violence men's perpetration intervention programmes, there is a need to look at engagement of men more broadly. Family relationship counselling can be viewed as an opportunity to engage with men where domestic violence is noticed. Engagement of men is an important piece of practice that can potentially set up effective and successful behaviour change when responding to domestic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aimed to explore the complications and complexities of mothering in the contexts of domestic violence. Through interviews with nine women who had mothered in domestic violence, it was found that women do attempt to protect children from physical and emotional harm; however, the climate of fear, power, and control present in domestic violence limits protection, and women try pleasing their partners to prevent violence. This article argues the hostility of this environment needs to be acknowledged in constructions of protection and gender needs to be central in understandings of mothering in domestic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into maternal protectiveness in domestic violence has focused either on women's experiences of mothering or children's experiences of growing up in domestic violence. This paper reports on a qualitative research study with both mothers and individuals who grew up in domestic violence that sought to explore perspectives on, and experiences of, maternal protectiveness in the two groups. The study used a feminist social constructionist theoretical perspective and a relational empowerment methodology, and involved interviews with nine mothers and 16 individuals who grew up in domestic violence. Thematic analysis revealed the different ways that mothers and children approached the question of so-called 'failure to protect'. Analysis revealed that themes of self-blame by the mothers and mother-blame by those who grew up in domestic violence were common, with three main thematic categories capturing the ways in which blame was constructed: (1) centring feminine traits; (2) self-blame and guilt; and (3) the double bind of protection. The paper explores the gendered discourses about mothering and femininity that frame practices of self-blame and mother-blame, elaborating the double bind of protection that women face. The paper also explores the implications for practitioners who work with domestic violence in balancing the need to strengthen connections between mothers and children and, at the same time, safeguard children. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Messages Mothers commonly blame themselves for so-called 'failure to protect' their children in domestic violence., Individuals who grew up in violence often blame their mothers for 'failure to protect'., Mother-blame draws on a range of femininity and victim-blaming discourses that can entangle women and children further in violence., Practitioners can encourage communication between mothers and children to repair relationships after violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited understanding at the current time about the nature of relationships between women and their children in contexts of domestic violence. This is particularly the case in relation to maternal protectiveness, which tends to be seen in simplistic terms of whether women stay in violence or leave to protect their children. This article reports on a qualitative research study that explores mother–child relationships in the context of domestic violence. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 women and two men who were raised in contexts of domestic violence. Thematic analysis revealed complexities between the former children’s perceptions of their own needs and their mothers’ vulnerabilities in the context of violence, as well as shifting understandings over time that involved development of deeper insights into the impact of violence on their mothers and themselves. The nuances of maternal protectiveness identified through this analysis can help social workers appreciate the multiple factors that impact on children’s relationships with their mothers in contexts of violence. The findings therefore have practice implications for social work with women who mother in domestic violence as well as children and adults who grow up in these environments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Until now, research into the effects of domestic violence on the formation of relationships between women and their babies has been from an attachment theory perspective. The research reported in this article takes a different approach. Innovative qualitative research methods are used to uncover knowledge about the formation of such relationships from the lived experiences of sixteen women who have mothered babies while enduring domestic violence. Analysis of the findings in this study identifies domestic violence constitutes an environment of sustained hostility where women respond with maternal protectiveness to maximise their babies' physical and psychological safety whether or not they had attained a secure relationship. However, women recognize domestic violence constricts space to form close mother/baby relationships. Supported by these findings, this research suggests policy and practice concerned with relationships between women and babies subjected to domestic violence address protectiveness and space to attach. The article concludes with suggestions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It should come as no surprise that when women who have raised babies in domestic violence come together to discuss the formation of relationships with their babies they raise issues of fear. Yet in current attachment studies about the formation of relationships between women and their babies, knowledge of fear based in lived experiences is undervalued. This article draws on a qualitative study of such experiences to explore ways in which fear impacted on 16 women and their babies. From this study it is discerned that fear impacts in diverse ways on women, babies, and their relationships with each other. Women’s experiences show that fear is a complex emotion that cannot be understood outside of context, relations, and subjectivity. Furthermore, fear can be the motivation for protection, whereby actions by women are in the interests of safety of their babies. These insights look beyond attachment theory to the manifestations of and responses to fear identified by women who have raised babies while enduring domestic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]