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Qualities of Children’s Fear in Therapeutic Action Groups Addressing Post-separation Parental Stalking

This paper examines the way in which parental stalking — as a form of domestic abuse — raises fear in children and affects their sense of safety. The study draws on three therapeutic action groups involving 13 children who have experienced stalking by their fathers/stepfathers after the parents’ sep...

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Autores principales: Nikupeteri, Anna, Marttala, Pia, Laitinen, Merja
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10540483/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36341709
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13591045221136638
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author Nikupeteri, Anna
Marttala, Pia
Laitinen, Merja
author_facet Nikupeteri, Anna
Marttala, Pia
Laitinen, Merja
author_sort Nikupeteri, Anna
collection PubMed
description This paper examines the way in which parental stalking — as a form of domestic abuse — raises fear in children and affects their sense of safety. The study draws on three therapeutic action groups involving 13 children who have experienced stalking by their fathers/stepfathers after the parents’ separation. The research question is as follows: How does children’s sense of fear manifest in therapeutic action groups? The qualitative analysis revealed three qualities of fear among the children: (1) internalised, (2) constant and (3) episodic. Internalised fear appeared as a child’s mental state that materialised as an overwhelming sentiment in the group sessions and elsewhere. Constant fear activated at times, and the senses of fear and security alternated both in the sessions and elsewhere. Episodic fear related to the children’s memories of violent events and father’s stalking behaviour. The children were able to sense security in the group and in daily life owing to a temporal distance to their father’s stalking. Our findings underscore the importance of professionals’ awareness of the qualities of children’s fear and the significance of assessing their fear and sense of safety in a child-centered manner in therapeutic practices.
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spelling pubmed-105404832023-09-30 Qualities of Children’s Fear in Therapeutic Action Groups Addressing Post-separation Parental Stalking Nikupeteri, Anna Marttala, Pia Laitinen, Merja Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry Parents This paper examines the way in which parental stalking — as a form of domestic abuse — raises fear in children and affects their sense of safety. The study draws on three therapeutic action groups involving 13 children who have experienced stalking by their fathers/stepfathers after the parents’ separation. The research question is as follows: How does children’s sense of fear manifest in therapeutic action groups? The qualitative analysis revealed three qualities of fear among the children: (1) internalised, (2) constant and (3) episodic. Internalised fear appeared as a child’s mental state that materialised as an overwhelming sentiment in the group sessions and elsewhere. Constant fear activated at times, and the senses of fear and security alternated both in the sessions and elsewhere. Episodic fear related to the children’s memories of violent events and father’s stalking behaviour. The children were able to sense security in the group and in daily life owing to a temporal distance to their father’s stalking. Our findings underscore the importance of professionals’ awareness of the qualities of children’s fear and the significance of assessing their fear and sense of safety in a child-centered manner in therapeutic practices. SAGE Publications 2022-11-05 2023-10 /pmc/articles/PMC10540483/ /pubmed/36341709 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13591045221136638 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Parents
Nikupeteri, Anna
Marttala, Pia
Laitinen, Merja
Qualities of Children’s Fear in Therapeutic Action Groups Addressing Post-separation Parental Stalking
title Qualities of Children’s Fear in Therapeutic Action Groups Addressing Post-separation Parental Stalking
title_full Qualities of Children’s Fear in Therapeutic Action Groups Addressing Post-separation Parental Stalking
title_fullStr Qualities of Children’s Fear in Therapeutic Action Groups Addressing Post-separation Parental Stalking
title_full_unstemmed Qualities of Children’s Fear in Therapeutic Action Groups Addressing Post-separation Parental Stalking
title_short Qualities of Children’s Fear in Therapeutic Action Groups Addressing Post-separation Parental Stalking
title_sort qualities of children’s fear in therapeutic action groups addressing post-separation parental stalking
topic Parents
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10540483/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36341709
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13591045221136638
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