Children who experience domestic violence and abuse (DVA) are challenged in every aspect of their health and well-being, right through into adult life. Impacts include poor emotion regulation, lower academic performance, risky health behaviours, substance abuse, mental health issues, and increased risk for violent behaviours in relationships. Additionally, parenting practices encountered during childhood influence the way adults will parent their own children, prolonging the intergenerational DVA cycle.
Traditionally, when families experiencing DVA have sought help, therapy has focused on adjusting parenting techniques or changing the behaviour of the abuser. Whole-family interventions are an alternative approach that include every member of the family – mothers, fathers, and children. In the case of male perpetrators, the focus is on promoting the safety and wellbeing of women and children while supporting behaviour change in the abusers.
Whole-family interventions address the dynamics of abuse by offering both individual sessions and joint work with different family members. This approach recognises the complexity of relationships within families and offers flexible, non-blaming support.
Federica Taccini et al. (2026) conducted a study of For Baby’s Sake participants in order to investigate whether a whole-family early-intervention programme would change parents’ perceptions of parenting and abuse in high-risk families. They assessed changes in understandings and attitudes across three time-points.
Methods
To participate in For Baby’s Sake, a woman must have experienced domestic violence or abuse from the father of her unborn child.
26 mothers and 13 fathers participating in the For Baby’s Sake programme were interviewed individually at three different time periods: during pregnancy at the start of the programme; one year after enrolment; and at the end of the programme, approximately two years after childbirth.
For Baby’s Sake incorporates diverse therapeutic approaches, including Cognitive Behaviour, Gestalt, Mindfulness, and Inner Child. It includes a video interaction guidance module designed to foster attuned parenting by helping parents understand their own adverse childhood experiences and reconnect with their own resilience.
The interviews were assessed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis.
Results
In each of their three interviews, each of the participants was asked about violence and about parenting. Data was analysed to assess change over time from baseline to the two-year follow-up.
The majority of the mothers’ baseline interviews showed a strong desire to preserve their relationship with the perpetrator, and a reluctance to recognise their experiences as DVA. For example, “I want to make this relationship work. There’s nothing wrong with this man. I’m in love with him.” And, “For the children, we both want them to have a dad and mum.”
Similarly, most of the fathers minimised their use of violence, and emphasised their desire to stay together as a family. For example, “I’m not aggressive at all, I’m more emotional,” and “Perfect scenario is that we are able to have a really healthy relationship and can stay together and have this wonderful happy life.”
By the one-year follow-up, most mothers had identified their relationship with the father of their child as abusive, and half had ended that relationship. They talked about DVA recognition as a gradual process that requires a secure, trusting and non-judgmental relationship with a therapist. They also identified growth in their own emotional regulation and self-esteem that was helping them become better parents. For example, one mother said, “It’s just a really positive outcome and different ways of learning how my feelings affect their [children’s] feelings, my emotions bring out their emotions.”
Many of the fathers who completed the first-year follow-up interviews showed an improved ability to see and confront their tendencies to violence, as well as improvements in emotional regulation and parenting confidence. For example:
I feel that I am a lot less angry, I feel I am able to communicate my emotions a lot better. Rather than hiding behind anger, which has been my number one.
I think my parenting has improved…I have become more, I suppose, a bit more relaxed, calmer about parenting.
Some fathers, however, continued to minimise their DVA.
By the two-year follow-up, most mothers felt better able to protect themselves and their children from violence and abuse. They also felt more confident in their ability to be a good parent. For example, “It’s improved my parenting skills, in a way, of just how to relate to them, how to speak to them, how to teach them to express themselves”
Of the six fathers who completed the two-year follow-up, only two acknowledged their violence. The others downplayed the violence or blamed the mother for it. Most of the fathers did make some progress, however, and many of them mentioned better emotion regulation and parenting skills. For example, “I’m putting my kids first, instead of myself,” and, “It’s getting there. I’m doing really well with it.”
Conclusions
Most of the participants in the whole-family intervention programme became more confident parents. Most of the mothers learned to identify DVA and to protect themselves and their children from it. Fewer fathers, however, acknowledged their abusive behaviours.
The most beneficial aspects of For Baby’s Sake were psychoeducation on child development, emotion regulation, DVA recognition, safety planning, and adverse childhood experiences; positive feedback from filmed parenting interactions; and a nonjudgemental therapeutic environment.
In addressing the sex differences, the authors suggested incorporating motivational strategies, as well as challenging traditional social attitudes that normalise violence for men, and put the burden of maintaining family relationships entirely on women.
Strengths and limitations
Breaking the intergenerational cycle of violence and abuse is extremely challenging, so kudos to For Baby’s Sake programme designers and deliverers, as well as to the researchers for tackling this complicated and thorny problem.
An important strength of this study is its longitudinal nature, and its attempt to capture change over time. Two years is very early in children’s lives, however, and I would love to see the study extended for a few more years (or longer), in order to see whether the changes are lasting.
Another strength is the inclusion of both parents whenever possible, including victims as well as perpetrators. The research team did well to include as many fathers as they did, but the small number of fathers who made it to the two-year follow-up makes it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions about change over time in abusive fathers’ behaviour.
Another limitation is the absence of triangulating data that might have shown the real-world impact of programme participation. It would have strengthened the findings enormously to have observational data on parenting or children’s behaviour, or information on changes in family members’ health or well-being. This data may be available (this was ambiguous in the article); if so, it would be great to see it included here, if only in summary form.
Another factor that limits generalisability of the findings is the lack of racial and cultural diversity in the respondents. Most were White British; the authors are right to suggest that future studies investigate DVA parenting issues in other populations.
As the authors mention, there is a selection bias: the participants don’t represent a random group of parents who have experienced DVA. Instead, they represent those who are motivated to make changes. The findings are nonetheless important in showing that those who want to make changes (especially mothers) can be helped to move beyond family violence.
Implications for practice
Living in a family that includes domestic violence and abuse leaves terrible scars on a child’s physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development. This analysis of the For Baby’s Sake whole-family intervention programme offers some ideas for moving forward in helping parents move past their DVA history.
Awareness is the first step toward making changes, and that was the focus in the For Baby’s Sake programme. These results suggest that comprehensive, non-judgemental, whole-family interventions like this one can help parents avoid violence and save children from the damage caused by living with DVA.
Based on these results, it would seem an excellent investment in the future to bring such programmes to scale, so that every family at risk of DVA had a chance to learn more effective and beneficial parenting practices. Saving children from the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional damage caused by living in an abusive situation is economically wise, in addition to the savings it brings in reduced human suffering.
Looked at from a more positive angle, I would argue that it always makes sense for a society to improve the likelihood that its children will thrive in every way possible, so they grow into adults who make a contribution to society. This study shows that programmes like For Baby’s Sake can help make that happen.
Statement of interests
Dona Matthews has no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Edited by
Dr Dafni Katsampa.
Links
Primary paper
Federica Taccini, Kylee Trevillion, Jill Domoney, Stefania Mannarini, Josephine Ocloo, Margaret Heslin, Debra Bick, Louise M Howard, Harriet MacMillan, Paul Ramchandani & Nicky Stanley (2026). Can whole-family interventions target violence and parenting in families experiencing domestic violence and abuse? A longitudinal study of the For Baby’s Sake programme. BMC Psychology (2026) 14:1018.
