Children's experiences of domestic violence and abuse

In this chapter, I explore children's experiences of domestic violence and abuse, with a particular focus on the capacity to resist, and the complexity and locatedness of their resilience. Resilience is typically understood in the psy-disciplines as a property of individuals – their capacity to “bounce back” from adversity (Masten, 2001). I will first examine the literature on the harmful impact of domestic violence and abuse on children, before turning to consider research that explores what promotes resilience for this group. I will then present a few examples of children's own talk about domestic violence and abuse and their capacity to live and cope with it, suggesting that resilience can only be understood properly as a contextual phenomenon, rooted in resistance.