ABSTRACT

Research has identified an association between poverty and the likelihood of children suffering from abuse. What is less clear is how the experience of living in poverty links to this abuse. This qualitative study investigated individual stories of child abuse and the role of poverty in their lives. Through interpretative phenomenological analysis explanations why children had been abused were elicited from parents and professionals. Poverty as an abstract concept was articulated by parents describing their lived experience, breaking it down into its constituent parts. Social health and environmental contexts and the personal consequences of this emerged from the data. Professionals missed poverty at a macro level by focussing on the micro processes, leading to explanations of the abuse as personal inadequacy rather than systemic issues.

摘要

研究发现贫困与儿童遭受虐待的可能性之间存在关联。不太清楚的是，生活在贫困中的经历与这种虐待有何联系。这项定性研究调查了虐待儿童的个人故事以及贫困在他们生活中的作用。通过解释性现象学分析，从父母和专业人士那里得出了儿童遭受虐待的原因的解释。贫困作为一个抽象概念，是由父母通过描述他们的生活经历并将其分解为几个组成部分来阐明的。数据显示了社会健康和环境背景以及由此产生的个人后果。专业人士通过关注微观过程而忽略了宏观层面的贫困，导致将虐待行为解释为个人能力不足，而不是系统性问题。