Seminar: 'Children’s Experiences of Enduring High Parental Conflicts'

The Centre for Childhoods & Social Justice are pleased to invite you to a research seminar on:

'Children’s Experiences of Enduring and High Parental Conflicts'

Speaker: Dr Associate Professor, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

Abstract:

Parental high conflict is characterised by hostile interactions with an escalation over time, reducing focus on the child (Coleman et al., 2007).

When parents split up, but live in an atmosphere of high conflict, both they and their children often suffer dire emotional consequences (Gurman, et al., 2015; Snyder, Castellani, & Whisman, 2006). The conflict can become pervasive, with severe negative effects on the everyday lives and health of all involved (Polak & Saini, 2019). Parental high conflict and children’s experience of growing up with parents in enduring conflict have received greater attention in Norway and internationally in recent years. Attention has been directed not only towards the risk of children’s maladjustment from a present perspective but also to the consequences from a life course perspective, as longitudinal studies have paid attention to how family networks and society are challenged by families entrenched in conflict (Ahrons, 2007). Smyth and Moloney (2019) claim that high-conflict cases are among some of the most complex challenges for professionals to deal with.

When professional mediation assistance, or low-threshold family counselling services are not successful, parental disputes are raised to the court system for solution. Parents involved in parental conflicts to the extent that it causes severe maladjustment for children may result in activating professionals’ mandatory duty to report concerns to Child Welfare Services (CWS). Families involved in both family law litigations and child protection proceedings are becoming more common (Houston et al., 2017). Over the past six years, children living in concerning high-conflict situations have been the subject of several research studies in Norway. These studies have explored the perspectives of family counselling therapists, child welfare professionals, and judges. In addition, reports of concern in high-conflict cases have been analysed. This seminar presents the findings of six published papers on this topic. Whilst the research was conducted in the Norwegian context, the phenomenon of high conflict cases holds strong resonance and significance for understanding children’s experiences and providing support within these circumstances.

Biography of Dr

Dr Samsonsen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Welfare and Participation, at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. She was educated as a social worker at the University of Stavanger in 1997 (bachelor`s degree). Since 1997 she has worked as a Social Worker in Child Welfare and Protection services in Norway. In 2016 she commenced her PhD at the University of Stavanger, titled ‘Assessment in Child Protection – a comparative study Norway- England’. During her PhD she had a two-month stay at the University of Bristol, School of Policy Studies, co-supervised by Professor John Carpenter. Currently she teaches and supervises Masters’s students in social work, conducts research, whilst also leading the research group ‘Mental Health and Substance Abuse’. Her research interests lie primarily in assessment and decision-making in Child Protection and Child Welfare services, but also Parental High-conflicts and the context of inter-professional working. Her work is practice-based research, which aims to bring closer together the worlds of research and practice, by translating knowledge for practice and policy contexts.

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