Citation

Gagne MH, Bouchard C. J. Fam. Violence 2004; 19(2): 117-130.

Affiliation

School of Psychology, Universite Laval, Quebec, Canada; Department of Psychology, Universite du Quebec a, Montreal, Montreal, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1023/B:JOFV.0000019842.74408.b0

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the family dynamics that are associated with parental psychological violence. A qualitative theorizing analysis has been performed upon the content of 26 interviews with parents and practitioners, in order to: (1) develop a typology of family dynamics conducive to psychologically violent parental practices, and (2) provide some support to this typology by confronting it with other data and real life cases. The results suggest four types of families in which psychological violence is likely to occur, characterized respectively by a scapegoat child, a domineering and intolerant father, a rigid and manipulative mother, and a chaotic and incompetent parent. Participants' explanations of the occurrence of psychological violence in a given family support the proposed typology: a different explanatory profile is associated with each type of psychologically violent family. Furthermore, the typology has been submitted to practitioners working in the fields of child protection and community family support, who applied the typology to real files in their caseloads in order to assess its usefulness in clinical settings. This procedure supported the relevance of the proposed typology for practice.