Coercive Control and Mother–Child Relationships: Exploring Mothers’ Experiences of Talking With Their Children About the Abuse

Coercive control (CC) is a severe and relentless form of domestic abuse whereby perpetrators often directly target and undermine women's relationships with their children. A "conspiracy of silence" can surround the abuse, with mothers and children not speaking to each other about what has happened, which has been described as negatively impacting the mother-child relationship. Our understanding of how mothers experience conversations with their children about their shared experiences of CC is limited. The current study, therefore, aimed to explore: (a) mothers' experiences of their relationships with their children in the context of CC, and (b) mothers' experiences of talking with their children about the CC. Eleven interviews were conducted between July and November 2023 with mothers who had experienced CC who had been separated from the perpetrator/father for at least 1 year. Data were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Five group experiential statements were constructed, with 12 group-level subthemes. Two group experiential statements pertained to women's experiences of the mother-child relationship, one to how women experienced conversations about the abuse as positive for the mother-child relationship, and two to the facilitators and barriers that women experienced when navigating these conversations. The findings are discussed in relation to four key implications: the importance of joint mother-child interventions; the need for education and training for professionals; education in schools; and urgent reform to UK family courts.