'Don't tell anyone anything': How do family secrets influence child-to-parent violence and abuse?

Abstract

The focus of this paper is exploring topic avoidance in the form of family secrets and how they may influence Child-To-Parent Violence and Abuse (CPVA). The research was conducted with two families experiencing CPVA using the Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM). This method was selected with the intention of gaining a deep understanding of the living experiences of families experiencing CPVA. An outcome of using this method was uncovering the ways in which secrets, as part of problematic communication, affect the behaviours of family members throughout their life-course. The narratives collected from each participant were analysed by the researcher and ‘Reflecting Teams’ as recommended by the BNIM approach. The findings showed that there was a pattern of parental avoidance of conflict through the use of topic avoidance and secrecy leading to Child-To-Parent Violence and Abuse, creating a ‘spiral of secrecy and abuse’ operating within the families.