Understanding agency and resistance strategies: Psychological discourses of children in situations of domestic violence

Understanding Agency and Resistance Strategies is a four nation European Commission funded project, focused on the experience of young people living with domestic abuse. The project explores how we might facilitate young people's capacity for agency, resistance and resilience in situations of domestic violence. In this invited workshop, we presented the preliminary findings of the UK and Italian project partners (University of Northampton, Women's Aid, and Il Meridiano). 74 individual interviews with children and young people were analysed thematically, with key themes including: Escapism; Gestures of Defiance; Care-taking and Relationships; and Paradoxical Resilience. The implications of the findings in relation to European and Italian policy development around domestic abuse were discussed.