Young people and family violence in the Norwegian multicultural context. An exploratory study.

In this paper, I will present my ongoing PhD-study with young people who have experienced family violence. I will share some analysis in progress where I explore how the young people, as well as professionals working with... [ view full abstract ]

In this paper, I will present my ongoing PhD-study with young people who have experienced family violence. I will share some analysis in progress where I explore how the young people, as well as professionals working with family violence cases, understand and define this phenomenon, how they identify and contextualize it, and what actions or non-actions counts as violence. The family category is wide and includes close family members like parents and siblings, as well as other of kin like grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts, partners, and in laws.

The background of this Norwegian study is an articulated lack of research where children and young people have had the chance to express themselves regarding experiences of family violence. Furthermore, there is a particular deficiency of research where ethnic minority children and young people are included. The PhD-study addresses some of these deficiencies by conducting qualitative interviews with minoritzed as well as majoritized young people about their experiences of violence within the family. Additionally, I have interviewed professionals about their understandings of family violence in a multicultural context.

The interviews were conducted among young people between the age of 16 to 30 years, and among professionals within the Norwegian child welfare service and family help centers. The data consist of approximately 35 individual interviews, 15 of them with young people and 20 of them with professionals.

In this presentation, I will share some preliminary analysis of the understandings and definitions of family violence as expressed by both the young interviewees and the professionals. I use social constructionism and intersectionality perspectives to deconstruct how the phenomenon is identified and contextualized, and to explore how categories such as culture and ethnicity are at work and might influence the conceptualization and the understanding of what family violence is.