PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS IN FAMILIES WITH INTERPARENTAL VIOLENCE

The present study attempted to explore the relationships between the parents and their children in the context of families with interparental violence (violence perpetrated towards mothers). The exploration was grounded on the family systems and attachment theories. Through qualitative method, the researcher has tried to understand the subjective experiences of adolescents living in families with violence. Narratives of adolescents traces the various forms in which they had been exposed to interparental violence. The study was conducted among school going adolescents in Kasaragod district of Kerala, India. In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 adolescents, who reported of living with interparental violence since their childhood. The study reveals adolescents growing up with continuous exposure to various forms of physical abuse and its aftermath, involvement of adolescents during violence, co-occurrence of abuse, has to a large extent affected the quality of relationships with their parents and resulted in insecure parent-child attachments