Witnessing Intimate Partner Violence Summary

Witnessing intimate partner violence:
Review of the literature on coping in young persons
Kate van Heutgen and Elizabeth Wilson
Keuka College

All elements and directions contain in this writing complied by Mary Kate Slattery, BSW student, Keuka College Social Work Program and taken exclusively from:
Heugten, K. V., & Wilson, E. (2008 ). Witnessing intimate partner violence: Review of the literature on coping in young persons. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 52-62.
When first reading the title of the article I was excepting the article to talk a lot about the after math and ways to help kids after witnessing intimate partner violence but it really focused on how kids help cope on their own. The article also did talk
about the programs for children who go through this.
This article first talk to us about different ways the children who witness intimate partner violence may cope.
Including but not limited to suicide, substance abuse, self-injury, promiscuity or early parenting. Kids may use all different coping mechanisms to help them deal with what they are going through. They are normally categorized into two different sections: externalizing or internalizing behaviors. They talked about not only the negative cope mechanisms but also the positive ones that some kids had. Or how some kids didn’t have any coping mechanisms and they just became numb or blocked out all the pain they were feeling from the experience they went through.
Safety planning was also talked about and how children learn at young ages to seek help if something like this is going on. Also there are programs to help people in the community realize when these things are going on to someone. These programs can help children and the spouse be taken out of the harmful situation and get the help they need.
Overall I thought this article was okay it touched on many different things but never really went into detail on many things. I also feel like they left some important facts out. The article wasn’t bad but it definitely could have been better by adding more details and
variations.
The first thing I would change was when they started to talk about intimate partner violence they never really fully explained what that was. You can make references about what it could be but you don’t know in the context of what they were talking about what exactly it was. They briefly say how it could be seeing, hearing, aftermath or being involved but that is really all they say about what it could be, and it left you guessing. The second thing that really stuck out to me in this article they frequently mentioned protection for the children and women but never said anything about men.
In relationships it could just as easily be the women being violent with the men. It goes both ways but this article never seems to mention that, they only mention women. At times the use terms that could be for the men as well but they never come out and say they have these programs for men, they only say it for the women. They also didn’t really get into detail about what a lot of the programs do for these victims. The third thing I would change would be in the universal section of the journal. When first reading the title I was excepting to read about different approaches they had around the world instead it was more about how the other places were starting to take lead from New Zealand. I thought it would have been really interesting for them to say what other places in the world are doing and how they differ. You really only saw one places view on how intimate partner violence effects children compared to other
places. This article was very informative, before reading this I never really knew much about the topic. After reading, while I wish there was more detail, I still believe I learned a decent amount from it. The base content is all there and it sets you up to be able to read other things and have base knowledge on the context.

Reference:
Heugten, K. V., & Wilson, E. (2008 ). Witnessing intimate partner violence: Review of the literature on coping in young persons. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 52-62.