January New Book Offers Solutions to Child to Parent Violence and Abuse

Parents in Ireland are living in fear of their under-age child – but book says there is help out there

A new book launched by Declan Coogan, a lecturer in Social Work in the School of Political Science and Sociology at NUI Galway, entitled, Child to Parent Violence & Abuse – Family Interventions with Non Violent Resistance, steps into the gap left by a lack of easily available and adaptable intervention programmes designed to help parents living with child to parent violence and abuse, and the practitioners who work with them in children and family services.

Some parents in Ireland are living in fear of their child under the age of 18 years and experience abuse and violence from their children. This problem is known as child to parent violence and abuse. This book aims to help people working with families where this takes place to resolve these problems using a relatively brief and research supported model of intervention known as Non Violent Resistance.

Speaking about the book, Declan Coogan at NUI Galway, said: “There are tremendous difficulties in arriving at any clear picture of the prevalence and nature of child to parent violence and abuse. Some studies in the US suggest that approximately 9% to 14% of parents are at some point assaulted by their adolescent children. Research and reports from people working with children and families also make it clear that problems of child to parent violence abuse is emerging in a range of child and family services.

“This is a growing problem for psychotherapists in public and private practice, social workers and psychologists in mental health, child protection, juvenile justice teams and from practitioners in both out-patient and in-patient child and adolescent mental health services. Threats of self-harm and suicide have also been reported as part of child to parent violent behaviour and practitioners are frequently uncertain about how best to treat these kinds of presentations. The problem has been reported among families from a wide range of social and cultural backgrounds.”

What is addressed in the book:

• Explains the issue of the abuse and violence towards parents and within the family by children and young people under 18 years of age.
• Provides a solution focused and strengths based best practice guide to supporting children and families.
• Explains how Non Violent Resistance (an evidence based approach for resolving the problem of child to parent violence and abuse) is a particularly effective approach to child to parent violence abuse, and what the research tells us about how effective it is.
• Provides detailed guidance for the reader on how to use the Non Violent Resistance intervention model in their own practice, providing the knowledge and skills they will need.
• Includes sample case studies and quotes from practitioners in different parts of Ireland who used the Non Violent Resistance model in their own work with families.

While this book is aimed primarily at practitioners working with children and families in the areas of child and adolescent mental health, domestic violence, family support, child protection and welfare, juvenile justice and police service fields, it is written in a clear accessible style that brings together experiences from working with families and the latest research from Ireland and abroad. 

The book is available now from bookshops, from https://www.jkp.com/uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=coogan and from other book suppliers.

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