Children and young survivors of domestic abuse: A trauma informed approach for health care professionals

Key Messages
• Coercive control-based domestic abuse is distinctly different from parental conflict and anyone noticing conflict between parents/ carers should use professional curiosity to consider if there is, in fact, coercive control-based domestic abuse being perpetrated by one party over the other.

• Where domestic abuse is occurring within a household, the children are not merely witnessing the abuse, but are active agents within their homes, taking on a variety of roles such as a protector, help-seeker or as a confident to either the victim parent or the abuser.

• Domestic abuse does not end when a relationship between the adults has ended. The abuse often continues for years post separation, through means such as economic abuse, abuse of the family court process, harassment and coercive control of the children.

• Perpetrators of abuse frequently use a DARVO strategy, meaning Deny, Attack and Reverse Victim and Offender. This is where a perpetrator presents himself as the victim and uses the systems around the family to seek sympathy and support, further isolating the genuine victim and the children.