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Attentive Surveillance: A Preliminary Study of Prioritizing Mothering Standards in the Face of Intimate Partner Violence

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Abstract

A retrospective qualitative constant comparative analysis of the stories of English speaking women (N==22) who mothered children age 6 or under, while experiencing abuse at the hands of a male partner, was conducted. The emergent theory of Attentive Surveillance (AS), a vital, proactive, complex process of monitoring and prioritizing, was identified. Two non-linear and interrelated stages emerged. One, Understanding Circumstances (UC) is a gradual increase of awareness that the family environment and a woman’s ability to achieve her mothering standards are affected by her partner’s behavior. The second stage, Prioritizing Standards (PS), is a deliberate or a subconscious balancing act of assessing needs, adapting, and ranking mothering standards while still mothering as close to the original standards as possible. Recommendations for professionals, based on AS, in supporting mothers existing capacities to foster mother-child relationships and healthy child outcomes in the context of intimate partner violence are provided.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Health Education , University of Maine at Farmington, 186 High Street, Education Center Office 115, Farmington, ME, 04938, USA

    Kelly M. Bentley

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  1. Kelly M. Bentley
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Correspondence to Kelly M. Bentley.

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Kelly M.Bentley (formerly K. White).

This research was completed while Kelly M. Bentley was a graduate student at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. I thank Judith Wuest for her guidance in the early years of my studies, Edward Biden and Linda Eyre for seeing me to the completion of my work and Loretta Secco in supporting the publication of my research.

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Bentley, K.M. Attentive Surveillance: A Preliminary Study of Prioritizing Mothering Standards in the Face of Intimate Partner Violence. J Fam Viol 32, 39–46 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-016-9871-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-016-9871-6

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