It’s Not All Bad: Positive Coping Among Family Members of Violent Children with Mental Illness

• In Event: The Aftermath of Victimization: Coping and Forgiveness

Abstract

This paper draws on ethnographic interviews to examine how family caregivers (n=42) cope with victimization and mental illness. Specifically, we focus on positive coping among parents and siblings of violent persons with mental illness and how they come to interpret their own victimization. Research on spousal and child abuse has yielded an extensive amount of literature, yet research on parent and sibling abuse is not nearly as comprehensive. Further, victimization research rarely addresses positive outcomes reported by victims. This paper will begin to fill that research gap.

Authors

• Lisa Speropolous, University of New Hampshire

• Karyn Sporer, University of Maine