The Experience of Mothers Exposed To The

627512
research-article2016
VAWXXX10.1177/1077801215627512Violence Against WomenPeled et al.
Article
Violence Against Women
1–20
The Experience of Mothers © The Author(s) 2016
Reprints and permissions:
Exposed to the Abuse of sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1077801215627512
Their Daughters by an vaw.sagepub.com
Intimate Partner: “There

Is No Definition for It”
Einat Peled1, Keren Gueta2, and

Nili Sander-Almoznino3
Abstract
This qualitative study illuminates the experience of mothers exposed to the intimate
partner violence (IPV) of their daughters. In-depth interviews with 11 exposed
mothers were conducted. The findings reveal four semi-chronological phases in the
participants’ experiences: pre-disclosure of the daughter’s abuse, the first definitive
encounter with the daughter’s abuse, living with continued exposure to the daughter’s
IPV, and the aftermath of the daughter’s IPV. A recurrent theme in the mothers’
experiences was their dual positioning as a forgotten victim of IPV and as a caregiver
of their daughter shaped by prevalent motherhood ideologies. Possible implications
for intervention are discussed.
Keywords
mothering, exposure to domestic violence, mother–daughter relationship, secondary
victimization
Introduction
The research about mothering has largely ignored mothers’ subjective accounts of
their experiences (Bassin, Honey, & Kaplan, 1994) and overlooked the mothering of
1TelAviv University, Israel

2Bar-Ilan
University, Ramat Gan, Israel
3Netanya Center for Domestic Violence Prevention and Intervention, Israel
Corresponding Author:
Einat Peled, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
Email: einatp@post.tau.ac.il
Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

2 Violence Against Women
adult children (Fingerman, 2001). Specifically, the experience of mothers exposed to

the intimate partner violence (IPV) of their adult daughter is missing from the domes-
tic violence (DV) literature. Mothers are acknowledged as being an integral part of the
support system of women in general and abused women in particular (Fanslow &
Robinson, 2010). Yet, mothers’ experience of exposure to their daughters’ IPV is virtu-
ally ignored by both professionals and researchers. The dearth of attention to the expe-
rience of exposed mothers reverberates the marginalization of mothering experiences
in other research areas. This study aimed to start filling this lacuna by learning about
the experience of Jewish Israeli mothers exposed to their daughters’ IPV.
The DV literature mentions mothers of abused women only in regard to their con-
tribution to their daughters’ IPV or as part of their adult daughters’ support system. The
mothers’ own experiences as victims of IPV were found to be a risk factor for their
daughters becoming victims of IPV (Dankoski et al., 2006). Furthermore, abused
women in Buchbinder’s (2004) study suggested that the coldness and emotional dis-
tance of their mother pushed them into a problematic marriage, in a wish to achieve
emotional reparation of their unhappy childhood. Other studies have indicated the role
of these mothers as part of their abused daughters’ social network. Most of these stud-
ies focused on the victims’ perceptions of their social network as either facilitating
(Fanslow & Robinson, 2010) or hindering their help-seeking efforts (Moe, 2007).
Research conducted from the perspective of network members have concentrated on
understanding the factors that improve their ability to effectively support the victim,
mostly ignoring their own challenging experiences (Hoff, 1990; Latta & Goodman,
2011).
The omission of any discussion of the experiences of mothers of abused women is
especially troubling in light of data suggesting that family members of abused women,
including their mothers, serve as a target of the abuser’s physical and verbal violence
(Goodkind, Gillum, Bybee, & Sullivan, 2003). Moreover, research on the effects of
exposure to various forms of abuse indicates that exposed individuals may display
severe symptoms (Hill, 2001; Kitzmann, Gaylord, Holt, & Kenny, 2003; Plummer,
2006; Wolfe, Crooks, Lee, McIntyre-Smith, & Jaffe, 2003). These findings are par-
ticularly alarming in regard to exposed mothers, considering the relationship between
mothers and their adult daughters.
Mothers and Their Adult Daughters

The relationship between mothers and their adult daughters was found to be the most
significant and to be characterized by the greatest closeness of all intergenerational
familial bonds (Rossi & Rossi, 1990; Suitor & Pillemer, 2000). At the center of this
relationship are a shared gender experience and a gendered balancing act, for both
mother and adult daughter, between the desire for intimacy and the need for autonomy
(Chodorow, 1995; Suitor, Pillemer, & Sechrist, 2006).
Recent studies on the parenting of adult children exposed the lifetime developmen-
tal transformations of this relationship and its impact on the well-being of both parent
and child (Fingerman, Pitzer, Lefkowitz, Birditt, & Mroczek, 2008; Rossi & Rossi,

Peled et al. 3
1990). Specifically, parents’—and especially the mothers’—well-being was found to

decrease in response to negative experiences of their adult child (Greenfield & Marks,
2006), particularly if the child’s problems are seen as resulting from the child’s own
behaviors or choices (Pillemer & Suitor, 1991), and even when the other children in
the family incur success in various life domains (Fingerman, Cheng, Birditt, & Zarit,
2012). This decrease in parents’ well-being may be explained by heightening distress
feelings (Bullock, 2006; Knoester, 2003), growing psychological and instrumental
care demands (Greenfield & Marks, 2006), a sense of failure which undermines the
parental identity (Braverman, 1989; Ryff, Schmutte, & Lee, 1996), and the hindering
of mutuality and autonomy in the child’s relationship with the parents (Birditt,
Fingerman, & Zarit, 2010; Milkie, Bierman, & Schieman, 2008). These findings sug-
gest that a mother who is exposed to her daughter’s IPV is likely to experience a
decrease in well-being, particularly if she attributes the IPV to her daughter’s behav-
iors and choices.
The Israeli Context

Motherhood is socially constructed and embedded in specific historical and cultural
contexts (Chodorow, 1978). Jewish Israeli mothers are exposed to the motherhood
myth (Hays, 1996; Thurer, 1994), which emphasizes mothers’ instinctive ability and
desire to care, and even to sacrifice, for their children. This is a dominant ideology,
influenced by both national history and religion (Hacker, 2005). Motherhood is con-
sidered to be a core identity in women’s life, and women’s primary duty is seen as
bearing children and shielding them from harm (Fogiel-Bijaoui, 2005). In the same
vein, Israel is considered to be a family-oriented society characterized by close contact
between adults and their parents (Lavee & Katz, 2003), due to the country’s continu-
ous state of war, the central place of religion, and the geographic density of its popula-
tion (Lowenstein, 2007). Recent Israeli studies have found that these motherhood
discourses play an important part in both women’s own experiences of mothering
(e.g., Gueta & Addad, 2013; Hager, 2011; Peled & Gil, 2011; Peled & Parker, 2013;
Peled & Sacks, 2008) and in the way service providers perceive their mothering (e.g.,
Davidson-Arad, Peled & Leichtentritt, 2008; Peled & Dekel, 2010; Peled & Levin-
Rotberg, 2013).
Summary of the Literature and Research Questions

A critical examination of the available literature reveals that it usually constructs
mothers of abused women as relational objects, making virtually no reference to their
subjective experience. The invisibility of the experiences of these women is particu-
larly troubling given our current understanding of the importance of the mother–adult
daughter relationship and the impact of DV on exposed family members. Yet, to the
best of our knowledge, no research to date has specifically examined the experience of
mothers exposed to a daughter’s IPV. The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study
was to start filling this gap by learning about these mothers’ experiences. Specifically,

we asked the following questions: How do mothers describe their daughters’ abuse
and how do they deal with it? How do mothers exposed to a daughter’s IPV perceive
their mothering and their relationship with their daughters?
Method
For the purpose of this research, we adopted a qualitative naturalistic-feminist
approach. The naturalistic approach emphasizes the holistic understanding of phenom-
ena against the backdrop of the context in which they take place (Lincoln & Guba,
1985). It is particularly suitable for studying experiences that carry “multiple, diverse,
divergent, and often shifting meanings” (Arendell, 2000, p. 1196). It acknowledges the
impact of the perspectives of the researchers themselves, inasmuch as they use their
own subjectivity to understand the research participants, while trying not to compro-
mise their understanding and representation of the participants’ voice during the dif-
ferent stages of analysis and writing (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). This requires researchers
to engage throughout the study in reflective monitoring of the ways in which their own
views, values, and experiences might intervene (Watt, 2007).
Both the naturalistic and the feminist research approaches seek to develop knowl-
edge together with the research participants, based on a mutual dialogue. Feminist
research emphasizes the importance of learning about women’s marginalized experi-
ences. While the naturalistic approach is inductive in essence (Lincoln & Guba, 1985),
in this study the feminist viewpoint impacted on the research goals, the theoretical
interpretations suggested in the discussion, and the wish to create a body of practical
knowledge that will lead to effective social change regarding women’s status (Kelly,
Burton, & Regan, 1994). We were especially mindful of issues related to interpreta-
tion, translation, and representation of women’s and mothers’ experiences as a group
(Harding & Norberg, 2005).
Population and Sample

The research population was composed of Israeli Jewish mothers exposed to a daugh-
ter’s IPV, defined as “mothers who know or have solid grounds to assume that their
daughter was or is physically abused or threatened for her life by her male partner.”
We deemed the focus on physical violence and murder threats fitting to the exploratory
nature of a study on a type of exposure to violence that is difficult to define. The inclu-
sion of assumed abuse enabled the participation of mothers who could be experiencing
the effects of the denial, minimization, and silencing common to DV.
The recruitment of participants posed a significant obstacle due to current lack of
social recognition of the problem of mothers exposed to a daughter’s IPV. Women
were recruited—either directly or with the help of their abused daughters—through
community centers for DV prevention and intervention, shelters for women abused by
their partner, a center for the treatment of drug abuse, and personal connections. Of the
16 mothers who agreed to participate, two canceled the interview due to scheduling
difficulties, one withdrew, another did not complete the interview due to emotional

Peled et al. 5
difficulties with the research topic, and one declined due to her daughter’s opposition
to the study. Thus, eleven interviews were completed. All of the interviewees defined
themselves as mothers of daughters who were abused by an intimate partner.
The 11 participants were Jewish, lived across Israel, and all but one, who lived in a
rural region, lived in cities or towns. Half were approached directly by a service man-
ager or an acquaintance, and half were first approached through their abused daugh-
ters. Their ages ranged from 35-75 (M = 60.6). Four were married, two were separated
or divorced, and five were widows. The number of their children ranged from 2-11
(M = 3.9). The age of the abused daughters ranged from 18-41. Seven participants
were employed full-time, two worked part-time, and four did not work outside the
home. Seven reported that their daughters’ abuse had ceased at the time of the inter-
view, and four reported it was ongoing. Four of the women had been abused them-
selves by a partner. Six participants reported that their daughters’ spouses had directly
threatened them with violence, and two of them had received professional support
regarding their experience of violence.
Data Collection
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants in a location of their
choice—mostly in their homes, and some at a DV center or at their workplace. The
third author, a social worker who specializes in DV intervention, conducted the inter-
views, which lasted between 1 hr and 3½ hr each. Prior to the interview, the interview-
ees signed an informed consent form that set out the study’s objectives and procedures,
the participant’s rights, and the researchers’ contact information.
The interviews were semi-structured and loosely guided by an interview protocol
that includes questions about the respondent’s experience as a mother exposed to a
daughter’s IPV, her view of herself as a mother, and her relationship with her daughter.
The interviews were characterized by both a warm and welcoming atmosphere and a
noticeable tension that eased as the interview progressed. Some of the participants
were highly emotional when talking about their mothering experiences. The inter-
views were recorded and transcribed verbatim in Hebrew.
Data Analysis and Quality Criteria

For conducting the data analysis, we adopted the method suggested by Strauss and
Corbin (1998), which consisted of several stages. Each stage of analysis was initially
conducted by the third author, and then carefully reviewed by the first and second
authors. First, the transcripts were hand coded, by means of open and in vivo coding
techniques, to identify themes and concepts. Then, three interviews that contained
exceptionally thick descriptions and somewhat represented the different characteris-
tics of the 11 interviewees were individually analyzed (Denzin, 1989). The three indi-
vidual analyses together with the initial list of approximately 70 themes were then
reanalyzed and regrouped to a list of 27 central categories into which all the interview
texts were sorted. The content of these central categories was then examined

for similarities and differences between ideas and experiences, and organized into
analytic and thematic categories by means of a process of selective coding aimed at
forming a broader framework of the findings. Throughout the analysis process, the
authors sought to maintain a clear framework that would provide the most faithful
expression possible of the participants’ mothering experiences as evident in their nar-
ratives, while highlighting both their differences and common features. The results
were jointly discussed until the researchers deemed them sufficiently rigorous, in
accordance with the quality criteria applied.
Throughout the study, and particularly during the stages of analysis and writing,
care was taken to maintain the quality standards of naturalistic qualitative research
(Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The study’s credibility was enhanced by creating a pleas-
ant atmosphere during the interview that permitted participants to express them-
selves openly and freely, by ensuring accurate and complete transcription of the
interviews, and by subjecting these to systematic analysis while preserving the
interviewees’ point of view. We offered all the participants a chance to receive and
comment on the findings; all of them expressed their wish to do so. In the end, eight
of the interviews provided comments, all stating that the findings represented their
individual experience. They also remarked on their considerable emotional diffi-
culty in reading the findings. We collaboratively engaged in critical, reflective dis-
cussions regarding our own stance to further ensure the dependability of the
findings. The transferability of the findings is supported by a detailed description
of the methodology and by thick descriptions of the participants’ points of view
within the context of their lives.
Ethical Standards
The study was approved by the institutional review board (IRB) of the Ministry of
Welfare and met accepted ethical benchmarks for qualitative research studies (Peled &
Leichtentritt,, 2002). The interviews revolved around an extremely sensitive topic that
was liable to produce some uneasiness for both the participants and the interviewer.
Therefore, the importance of voluntary consent was emphasized before and during the
interviews, and an effort was made to foster a comfortable and open atmosphere to
enhance the participants’ sense of control over the information they were sharing.
Participants were assured that confidentiality would be fully maintained, that they
could stop the interview at any point they chose, and we gave them the option to con-
tact the interviewer with any concerns or further thoughts about the interview topics,
as well as a chance to receive a copy of the findings and comment on them. They were
guaranteed professional support following the interviews, if needed.
Findings
The analysis depicted four semi-chronological phases in the participants’ experiences
of being mothers exposed to a daughter’s IPV: pre-disclosure of the daughter’s abuse,
the first definitive encounter with the daughter’s abuse, living with continued

Peled et al. 7
exposure to the daughter’s IPV, and the aftermath of the daughter’s IPV. All of the
participants experienced the first three phases, and seven described the situation at the
time of the interview as the aftermath of the abuse.
Phase 1: Pre-Disclosure of the Daughter’s Abuse

Most of the participating women described times when they suspected their daughters
were being abused but were uncertain whether this was true. Others knew about vio-
lent outbursts directed at the daughter by her partner, but these had been denied or
silenced by the daughter, the mother, or both. The fluctuation between knowing and
not knowing about the abuse in the daughter’s life was accompanied by confusion,
ambivalence, and discomfort.
Neta (all the names used here are fictitious), a 44-year-old divorcee, who referred
to her relationship with her daughter as a good one, described her daughter’s initial
denial of the abuse and the difficulty of distinguishing violent acts from accidental
injuries:
She denied it, but I had no, I had no proof because she always said everything was fine.
. . . And why I suspected a little but not really, because all these things [the signs of abuse]
were real, because many times she really broke her tooth on an apple or a cap . . . and if
you only touch her, it leaves a mark. But slowly there were too many signs in a very short
time, and I began to suspect that something was wrong here.
Rica, a 74-year-old widow, shared her opinion that couple violence is a private,
intimate matter between a husband and wife that does not call for outside intervention.
Other women referred to the distance created in their relationship with their daughters
following their choice of partners as interfering with their ability to recognize that she
was abused. Ayala said, “There was a total severing of contact with her because she
didn’t call and I didn’t see a need to; I was very angry with her.”
Most of the mothers reported that at this phase, they experienced emotional distress
and helplessness due to their inability to respond effectively to their daughters’ needs.
For example, Yona, who was herself abused by her deceased husband, said, “[I felt]
simply helpless, because for a very long time she did not share. It’s just been my feel-
ings, and emotions are not always objective.”
Phase 2: The First Definitive Encounter With the Daughter’s Abuse

All the mothers were confronted by their daughters’ abuse by hearing about it, either
from their daughter or from other people. For example, Hadas, a 75-year-old widow,
received an alarming call from her daughter:
She called me and. . . said, but in a hush-hush uh, uh, uh . . . like, uh, uh, she called and
. . . tells me, he is here with his friends . . . and come take the child. The child was a baby.
And what did he tell her? If you go to your mother I will throw the child out of the

window. That’s what he did. He took the baby and wanted to throw him out of the window
and she got scared.
Rica was confronted by the severity of her daughter’s abuse while waiting for her
to join the family for a holiday dinner. When she called her to see why she was late, a
friend answered the phone and told the family that her daughter had been stabbed in
her car by her husband when picking up the children from his house to take them to the
family dinner. Mothers’ age and health condition seemed to have postponed their con-
frontation with their daughters’ condition due to the latters’ protectiveness over their
mothers. For example, 74-year-old Rebecca learned about her daughter’s abuse only
after pushing her daughter to explain why she has kept a distance from her for so long.
Her daughter confessed that she did not want the information about her experience of
IPV to aggrevate Rebecca’s heart condition.
The women stated that facing the abuse as an undeniable aspect of their daugh-
ters’ lives changed their own lives. For several of them, it was experienced as a turn-
ing point, or an epiphany (Denzin, 1989), which had divided their lives into the time
before and the time after they confronted the abuse. The knowledge of the abuse
seemed to have threatened an image they held of their family and of themselves as
normal or normative. Neta described the transformation she went through this way:
“Until the accident I used to be an ordinary mom.” Hadas stated poignantly,
It’s really a disaster that happened in our family. We know that we lost our daughter as if
she left us. You can really say it that way. This is not the daughter we have dreamed to
have. We wanted her to be happy, to have a normal husband.
Despite previous suspicions, the mothers described facing the abuse, and particu-
larly the risk to a daughter’s life, as overwhelming. Yona said,
It did not surprise me . . . because I knew it can happen in any house . . . but I did not
expect him to threaten her with a murder. I expected everything, like raising a hand to her,
more annoying phones calls, or repeating annoying things, but I didn’t think it will come
to threatening with murder.
The women’s immediate emotional response to the realization that their daughters
were severely abused involved feelings such as stress, terror, and helplessness. Hadas
said, “I was in pain, because I knew she was suffering.” Rica described driving to the
hospital after learning that her daughter was stabbed: “I don’t know how we got there
. . . I . . . The . . . road didn’t end.” These initial reactions to the abuse further developed
as life in the shadow of the daughter’s abuse continued. However, two of the mothers,
Daphna and Neta, reported feeling also a measure of hope that once the abuse was
revealed and confronted, their daughter might act to stop it.
Phase 3: Living With the Daughter’s Exposure to IPV

All of the participants described a long-lasting experience of living with the exposure
to a daughter’s IPV. Some of the mothers were exposed to incidents of their daughter’s

Peled et al. 9
abuse by her partner that occurred in their presence; some were directly victimized,
physically and verbally by their daughters’ partners. Three central dimensions of the
mothers’ experience in this phase were positioning vis-à-vis the abused daughter, the
emotional burden of long-lasting exposure, and negotiating maternal identity.
Positioning vis-à-vis the abused daughter. The mothers felt challenged to respond to their
daughters’ abuse. Their reported responses vacillated between active support to pas-
sive witnessing and disengagement. The nature of the response varied among women
and for the same woman over time, in correspondence with the nature of the abuse, the
mother’s experience, and the mother–daughter relationship. However, the analysis
clearly indicated that most of the mothers described ongoing efforts to protect and sup-
port their abused daughters, attempting to stop the abuse and to help them cope with
its consequences.
Mothers’ active protection and support of their abused daughters took many forms,
such as confronting the abusive partner physically or verbally, encouraging the daugh-
ter or the abuser to get professional help, or displaying empathy toward the daughter.
Ayala, for example, confronted her daughter’s partner: “I had to go there and
threaten him and [I] almost went to prison for it. She ran away from him and I just,
like, I was close to killing him.” Some of the mothers who directly confronted the
abuser became a target of his violence. Hadas reported, “That same day, he put a knife
here [pointing to her throat] when I intervened.” Other mothers, like 60-year-old
Simcha, who was herself a victim of IPV, encouraged their daughters to obtain official
assistance: “So I said, let’s go to the police, file a complaint. [She] said, ‘no, I’m afraid
of the police, why the police? Don’t want the police.’ So I took her to a social worker.”
Some mothers supported their daughters by offering instrumental help with grand-
children, divorce procedures, and financial support. Other mothers described how they
provided their daughters with emotional support by naming and acknowledging the
severity of the abuse. For example, Daphna, whose daughter experienced two abusive
relationships, gave her daughter a checklist to help her define her experience as a form
of emotional abuse:
She read and she checked 9-10 out of the 14-15 points. She said: economic violence,
verbal abuse, emotional abuse . . . ah . . . oppression, an attempt to distance her from the
family, all kinds of things. And she herself realized her condition. She didn’t know.
A minority of the participants described their response to their daughters’ abuse as

what can be termed passive witnessing. These women apparently assumed they were
unable to provide effective protection and support for their daughters, or that there was
no need for a special response to such family dynamics. Bina, a mother of 11 children
who had been abused by her husband, remained distant and emotionally uninvolved in
the face of her daughter’s abuse:
Oh, me? What do I care? I am too weak to fight or go [there]. I have no power to deal with
that. I myself have suffered and I didn’t go, not to my mother or to my father, when I was
suffering. So my kids turned out to be like their mother, that’s how it is.

Finally, Ayala, who supported her daughter through much of her marriage, reported
on an incident in which she actively disengaged herself from her abused daughter
immediately after an abusive incident:
[My daughter] asked me: “Take me to your home, are you willing to?” I told her:
“Absolutely not. You are not coming. That’s enough . . . You’ve decided, you acted, and
you did not share your decisions with me. Now you want to return home with your child?
From now on, you can do whatever you want; I don’t care.”
The emotional burden of long-lasting exposure. The mothers’ experience of living with
their daughters’ ongoing abuse was colored by feelings of worry, fear, helplessness,
and burden as a result of intense caregiving, loneliness, and invisibility.
The women feared for their daughters, for other involved family members such as
siblings and grandchildren, and for themselves. Daphna was afraid for her daughter’s
life; she said, “I know how easily men can murder their wives.” Neta was concerned
that her son might be hurt by her daughter’s partner and his family: “I used to escort
my son to the [bus] station. These fears, God forbid, that they would hurt him.” Hadas
feared for her own life: “I was really scared, scared even to be outside the house. I
always turned around to see if he might be after me . . . we had some peace only when
he went to jail.”
The ongoing abuse, together with a growing understanding that they could not do
much to stop it without their daughters’ active cooperation, intensified the mothers’
feelings of helplessness. Neta said, “The general title for this study is helplessness;
helplessness. You are alone, alone and helpless.” Several of the women reported they
had understood at some point that only the daughter could extricate herself from the
abuse, as Daphne attested, “You are in a dreadful pain. You suffer a lot, the pain goes
with you and you tell yourself that until she’s ready to do it, I can’t do it instead of her.”
The sense of helplessness was even stronger for the four mothers who were them-
selves victims of IPV and identified strongly with their daughters’ pain, to the point of
enmeshing the two experiences, as evident in Simcha’s chilling description:
You feel helplessness, just crying. Only a mother can only cry. She knows her daughter is
going to be buried, my daughter goes, I dig her grave and I bury her. But there’s nothing
to do, nothing to do, except cry. It feels like shit, it’s a horrible feeling, this feeling that
you see your enemy taking the knife, and soon he is stabbing you and you can do nothing.
Yes, behind you, yes, here, here he comes, he is coming soon, two more steps and here he
is; he stabs you. You can’t do anything. What can you do? Just cry, plea for mercy.
The women also felt burdened by the intense caregiving demands that their daugh-
ters’ situations presented. Several described how the caregiving work took all of their
time and energy, leaving little for self-care, up to the point of feeling a loss of self.
Neta said,
I too, as a mother and as a human being, am trying to do everything. Where am I myself?

Where am I myself? I have to be connected with my son—I have to be attentive to him,

Peled et al. 11
I have to be attentive at work, listening to everyone. And where am I? What am I? Who

looks after me in sleepless nights, with the fears? [Crying]
Many of the mothers, including married ones, felt alone in their experience of
their daughters’ abuse and some described the experience as transparent, that is, not
acknowledged or validated by anyone around them. As Simcha’s words demon-
strate: “There’s no definition for it, it’s hard to define . . . I can identify with any-
one, but I can’t believe anyone will identify with me and my situation; I feel very
bad.”
Negotiating maternal identity. The experience of having an abused daughter seems to

have affected the participants’ maternal identity. It brought up questions regarding the
quality of their maternal functioning. In most cases, the women referred to themselves
as good mothers who did all they could to help their daughters under difficult and
uncontrollable circumstances. Neta said,
I used to say maybe I was wrong, what did I do wrong? . . . But as a mother I feel I did
the best I could under the circumstances. Life sometimes leads us on paths we do not
foresee.
Some of the mothers blamed themselves for their daughters’ abuse and suffering.
Debbie, who was abused by her first husband, said, “I wasn’t there for her; I gave birth
to her at 17 . . . and left her to my parents. I made her a victim and her husband contin-
ued.” Yona reflected on her unsuccessful efforts to help her daughter:
Maybe deep down I see my own failure as responsible for what happened to [my
daughter], because we saw that [the relationship] was prone to problems, and we
started, we made a scene, maybe too much of a scene, and it pushed her more into the
relationship, to spite us . . . Today, in hindsight, what can I do? . . . I walk around
bearing this cross.
Yona and other women described how the ongoing experience of their daughters’
abuse undermined their self-perception as mothers, voicing feelings of failure and
incompetence with which they also continued to cope after the abuse.
Phase 4: The Aftermath of the Daughter’s IPV

Seven of the 11 participants shared their experiences following the cessation of the
abuse toward their daughters, mostly due to the daughter’s separation from her partner.
Feelings of relief and cautious optimism notwithstanding, many of the women contin-
ued to experience an abuse-related emotional and caregiving burden.
Relief and cautious optimism. Several women experienced relief and cautious optimism
regarding the daughter’s future, following her disengagement from the abusive partner
and, in some cases, a new relationship with a nonabusive partner. Furthermore, they

saw these developments as having the potential to improve their relationship with their
daughters. Yona was hoping that her daughter would find a new, nonabusive partner:
If she finds a good partner, and even though I expect problems with that with [her ex], if
she finds a partner that is good for her and all of a sudden she discovers life can be
different, not like the life she lived or experienced, then I am sure it will be good for me
and easier for me.
Israela, a 70-year-old mother of three, described a positive change in her relation-

ship with her remarried daughter: “I am more in touch with her now . . . because she is
feeling good.” Yet, the abuse was still present in their lives: “To this day, I ask her, how
is it for you? You see, I have this kind of fear; how does he treat you? Is he nice to you?
Does he love you?”
Continued burden of care. Relief was not the only response that the women displayed
following the dramatic reduction in risk and violence in their daughters’ lives. For
some of them, the threat and fear of violence continued, as was well demonstrated in
Rebecca’s words: “I am afraid that when he gets out [of prison], I don’t know how, but
he will take a revenge on her.” Several women—aware of the impact of IPV on
exposed children—worried about their grandchildren. Yona, whose grandchildren
were exposed to the abuse of their mother for 13 years, voiced such concerns: “I worry
that they were harmed. I’m full of anxiety; nowadays I have much more anxiety than
before. It is ruining my life; it is simply ruining my life, even my personal life.”
Some of the women experienced triggers connected to their memories of the abuse
of their daughter by her partner. Rica described the impact of media coverage of vio-
lent incidents on her: “Whenever I hear these things, I re-experience the scene with my
daughter.” Ayala, who was trying to avoid such triggers, referred to the reasons behind
her change of a workplace:
It was hard for me because there are things I see at work that concern intimate relationships,
you cannot ignore it, you have to compare . . . I said, it’s not for me anymore, I cannot
take it. It aggravates me, it disturbs my soul and I am sick of it.
In many cases, the continued emotional burden was accompanied by providing

ongoing instrumental and financial help to the daughters. Yona, for example, decided
to financially support her daughter despite her own financial strain, in an effort to
minimize negative consequences of the abuse for her exposed grandchildren: “I give
[money] because I want to at least save the kids from economic distress. At least I can
spare them this. . . . If I had another solution I would gladly accept it.” Most of the
women who experienced the aftermath of the abuse described their maternal commit-
ment as obligating them to disregard their own needs and desires and only hesitantly
admitted the burden they felt in their prolonged caregiver role. Yona added, “It’s not a
burden to me . . . I mean, it is a burden, but I don’t complain about it. [But] I want some
for myself as well.” At this phase of their exposure to their daughters’ IPV, as in the

Peled et al. 13
previous ones, the women struggled to balance their own needs with those of their
daughters and other family members, often not succeeding. The balancing acts were
especially challenging for the older women who experienced a growing need for sup-
port due to a deterioration in their health and expected some of these needs to be ful-
filled by their children. This was demonstrated in the words of 75-year-old Hadas:
I am not a happy mother, not at all . . . Some mothers never did what I did and their
children help them. They come to visit and they care about their mom. And me, I do more
than anyone else and no one helps me. On the contrary, I need to help, and it’s hard—very
hard.
Discussion
Previous studies noted the role played by mothers as part of the support system of vic-
tims of IPV (Dankoski et al., 2006; Moe, 2007) but ignored the exposure of mothers to a
daughter’s IPV. However, the experiences of exposed mothers (as those of other exposed
family members) are an important aspect of a comprehensive understanding of the phe-
nomenon of DV (Riger, Raja, & Camacho, 2002). The aim of this study was to shed light
on mothers’ exposure to their daughters’ abuse by an intimate partner. The participants’
descriptions of their exposure experiences indicated four phases in which they managed
multiple positions as secondary victims of their respective daughters’ abusers and as
caregivers to their abused daughters and other affected family members.
The Mothers as Secondary Victims

Mothers who are exposed to a daughter’s IPV, as depicted in this study, are “hidden”
or “forgotten” victims of DV; thus, they warrant attention and support in their own
right. For some, this exposure was combined with a history of being abused by their
own partner. A few of the mothers also described instances of violence directed at
them by their daughter’s abusive partner (see also Goodkind et al., 2003; Riger et al.,
2002). The findings outline two major dimensions of their experience as secondary
victims—the psychological and sometimes physical impact of the abuse on them, and
a sense of isolation.
The exposure to a daughter’s IPV seemed to have had a wide-ranging and lasting
effect on the mothers’ sense of self and well-being. The reported responses of shock,
confusion, terror, denial, self-blame, and helplessness are similar to those experienced
by victims of trauma, in general, and by women who are abused by their partners, in
particular (Jones, Hughes, & Unterstaller, 2001). Furthermore, some of described
symptoms, such as flashbacks and avoidance reactions, are consistent with findings on
secondary traumatization of family members of sexual abuse victims and of children
exposed to IPV (Figley & Kleber, 1995; Hill, 2001; Plummer, 2006; Wolfe et al.,
2003). As noted by Remer and Ferguson (1995), “victimization has a ripple effect,
spreading the damage in waves out from victims to all those with whom they have
intimate contact” (p. 407).

The social invisibility of the mothers’ experiences of exposure to a daughter’s IPV

was accompanied by feelings of isolation and resulting distress. To date, both the pub-
lic and the professional community have overlooked the powerful and difficult experi-
ences of participants in this study and women like them. Mary Gergen (2004) noted
that in the absence of a cultural narrative to draw upon to impose meaning on their life
experience, the well-being of individuals suffers and they lack crucial components of
resilience with which to face adversity, as “when narratives are missing, so are poten-
tials for living” (p. 280). Accordingly, in the absence of a public narrative and termi-
nology to describe and validate their experience and a formal support system targeted
at their particular plight, these mothers are left to struggle alone with the consequences
of their exposure to their daughters’ plight.
The Mothers as Caregivers

An additional dimension of the mothers’ experience was that of caregivers to their
abused daughters. Like other (Jewish Israeli) mothers, the participants in this study
measured themselves against the “motherhood myth,” which charges mothers with the
primary responsibility for the physical and psychological well-being of their children
(Fogiel-Bijaoui, 2005; Hacker, 2005; Hays, 1996; Palgi-Hecker, 2005). Indeed, most
of the interviewed mothers referred to their support of their daughters as a given and
as a natural response in the face of the abuse. Even the mother whose behavior as a
passive witness to her daughter’s IPV seemed to contradict the motherhood ideology
explained and justified this response, thus reinforcing the centrality of this ideology.
The mothers’ responses seem to differ from the struggle of other network members to
define their roles with respect to the abuse of a friend or a family member (Latta &
Goodman, 2011). This difference may reflect the powerful impact of socio-cultural
expectations of mothers as caregivers and protectors of their children, even at the
expense of their own well-being (Bassin et al., 1994; Fogiel-Bijaoui, 2005). Such a
response may also be explained by what McGuffey (2005) called “gender re-affirm-
ing” behavior of parents of abused children, who excessively adhere to traditional
gender roles in an effort to restore the “known” order in the face of the chaos caused
by child abuse.
Unlike previous dichotomous conceptualizations of network members as support-
ive or unsupportive (Fanslow & Robinson, 2010; Moe, 2007), the findings of this
study portray the mothers’ caregiving role as complex and dynamic (Latta & Goodman,
2011), involving negotiation of their maternal identity. While the participants took
their obligation to support their daughters for granted, they debated the extent to which
they could function as caregivers to their adult daughters and the appropriate ways to
do so. The answers to these questions seemed to be influenced by the mothers’ cultural
contexts and attitudes, the mother–daughter relationship, and the mother’s own life
experiences. For example, mothers’ attitudes toward supporting their daughters
appeared to be influenced by social norms related to motherhood and also those norms
that construct couple violence as a private intimate matter between a husband and wife
(Fernandez, 1997; Hoff, 1990). The issue of mother–daughter individuation (Goodkind

Peled et al. 15
et al., 2003) was raised in relation to a daughter’s decision to return to her abusive
partner in opposition to her mother’s wish. In reaction to this choice, the mother dis-
engaged herself from her abused daughter. Finally, the findings suggest that a mother’s
own experience as a victim of DV may affect her involvement in her daughter’s life,
either by avoiding or by taking action to stop the abuse.
The mothers in this study were challenged to support their abused daughters while
maintaining privacy or secrecy in a society that idealizes mothers as omnipotent, ever
present, and protective of their children (Fogiel-Bijaoui, 2005; Lavee & Katz, 2003).
Their efforts to succeed in this enormous task, together with ongoing reflection on the
quality of their mothering and, at times, their sense of having failed to meet the social
and personal expectations of a “good mother,” seemed to distress them, scar their
maternal identity, lower their self-esteem, and, in general, intensify their burden of
care (Braverman, 1989; Ryff et al., 1996). These “unhappy” mothering stories are
subversive in challenging the motherhood myth regarding the satisfying and fulfilling
aspects of maternal caregiving (Hays, 1996), thus contributing to a growing body of
literature that reconstructs motherhood as a social concept by incorporating it into the
experiences of marginalized mothers (Gavriel-Fried, Peled & Ajzenstadt, 2015; Gueta,
2013; Hager, 2011; Maushart, 1997; Peled & Parker 2013).
The discrepancy between the intensity of the mothers’ caregiving efforts and com-
mon expectations regarding the mothering of an adult daughter may have further
increased their sense of burden. Understandably, the research participants seemed to
expect that the work of mothering and the dependency of their daughter would lessen as
she matured. They wished for mutual care and even, as they got older, for their daughters
to take care of them (Suitor et al., 2006). Yet, their burden of care continued and even
intensified. A recent study by Levitzki (2009) on a general sample of Israeli parents
found a related dialectical tension in parents’ perception of their role as parents to grown
children. The parents were oscillating between their tendencies to view their grown chil-
dren as extensions of themselves to perceiving the child as an independent entity, as well
as between supporting the children and the parents’ wish that their grown children will
reach independence. This tension was explained partly due the Israeli cultural context
that is influenced by both Western individual culture and Middle Eastern collectivist and
familial heritage. The burden of care has been increasingly emphasized over the past
decades with regard to parents of adults suffering from various emotional, physical, and
behavioral disorders (Greenberg, Seltzer, & Greenley, 1993; Maskill, Crowe, Luty, &
Joyce, 2010), but such discussion is missing from the DV literature.
Conclusion and Implications

This study both demonstrates and challenges the invisibility of the experiences of
mothers whose daughters are abused by an intimate partner. It highlights the dual
experience of mothers as both a subject and a social object within a complex individ-
ual, family, and social-cultural setting (Palgi-Hecker, 2005). It calls for awareness of
the challenges these mothers face and the provision of appropriate formal and informal
support to meet their needs. Now that the radiating effects of violence on the wider

society and the damage incurred by exposure to IPV have been acknowledged (Riger
et al., 2002), we need to make sure not to neglect any of its secondary victims, includ-
ing but not limited to the immediate family of the direct victim. We call upon research-
ers, policy makers, social service providers, and activists in the anti-domestic-violence
movement to acknowledge mothers’ exposure to a daughter’s IPV as a social problem.
Such a move is likely to validate their experiences and bring about a more adequate
social response to their predicament.
This pioneering study is limited in scope, set in a particular methodological and
social context, and cannot be generalized, but only tentatively transferred to other set-
tings (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Nevertheless, it charts several avenues for future
research. First, there is a need for comprehensive documentation of various aspects of
the exposure of mothers to a daughter’s IPV, in various social and cultural groups,
especially in light of the cultural-religious homogeneity of the current sample. Such
studies, qualitative and quantitative, may aim at understanding similarities and differ-
ences in mothers’ responses, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, burden
of care, coping and reliance, and the role of factors such as the duration and the nature
of the abuse, personal history of violence, the availability of social and material
resources, and the nature of the mother–daughter relationship. Second, the experience
of other family and close network members of abused women should be studied. These
include fathers, siblings, friends, co-workers, and neighbors who may be affected by
the abuse due to their relationship with the abused woman.
An in-depth and wide-ranging understanding of mothers’ exposure to DV is neces-
sary for the development of effective policies and interventions in this domain. Among
other efforts, given the recognized importance of social support for abuse victims
(Fanslow & Robinson, 2010), service providers should focus attention on the complex
and prolonged impact of exposure to DV on mothers of victims and other close network
members. Specifically, it is advised to create safe treatment milieus that allow mothers
to share their experiences and allow professionals to assess their needs, taking into
account the current lack of formal narrative and terminology in this specific domain.
Second, and for the same reasons, it is likely that active outreach efforts are required to
make such therapeutic milieus accessible to exposed mothers. For example, providing
mothers and other family members with educational workshops on the dynamics of DV
may both provide them with helpful information and serve as a means for accessing
adequate support services. Last, special attention and support may be required for
mothers who have been both abused themselves and exposed to their daughters’ abuse.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.

Peled et al. 17
References
Arendell, T. (2000). Conceiving and investigating motherhood: The decade’s scholarship.
Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 1192-1207.
Bassin, D., Honey, M., & Kaplan, M. M. (1994). Introduction. In D. Bassin, M. Honey, &
M. M. Kaplan (Eds.), Representations of motherhood (pp. 1-25). New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press.
Birditt, K. S., Fingerman, K. L., & Zarit, S. H. (2010). Adult children’s problems and suc-
cesses: Implications for intergenerational ambivalence. Journals of Gerontology, Series B:
Psychological Sciences & Social Sciences, 65, 145-153.
Braverman, L. (1989). Beyond the myth of motherhood. In M. McGoldrick, C. Anderson, & F.
Walsh (Eds.), Women in families: A framework for family therapy (pp. 227-243). London,
England: Norton.
Buchbinder, E. (2004). Motherhood of battered women: The struggle for repairing the past.
Clinical Social Work Journal, 32, 307-326.
Bullock, K. (2006). Get thee behind me: African American grandparents raising grandchil-
dren exposed to domestic violence. In R. L. Hampton & T. Gullotta (Eds.), Interpersonal
violence in the African American community: Evidence based prevention and treatment
practices (pp. 149-163). New York: Springer.
Chodorow, N. (1978). The reproduction of mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Chodorow, N. (1995). Family structure and feminine personality. In L. Umansky & M. Plott
(Eds.), Making sense of women’s lives: An introduction to women’s studies (pp. 95-117).
New York: Random House.
Dankoski, M. E., Keiley, M. K., Thomas, V., Choice, P., Lloyd, S. A., & Seery, B. L. (2006).
Affect regulation and the cycle of violence against women: New directions for understand-
ing the process. Journal of Family Violence, 21, 327-339.
Davidson-Arad, B., Peled, E., & Leichtentritt, R. (2008). Representations of fathers and moth-
ers in court petitions for dependent minor status for children at risk. Children and Youth
Services Review, 30, 893-902.
Denzin, N. K. (1989). Interpretive interactionism. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
Fanslow, J. L., & Robinson, E. M. (2010). Help-seeking behaviors and reasons for help seeking
reported by a representative sample of women victims of intimate partner violence in New
Zealand. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25, 929-951.
Fernandez, M. (1997). Domestic violence by extended family members in India: Interplay of
gender and generation. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 12, 433-455.
Figley, C. R., & Kleber, R. J. (1995). Beyond the “victim”: Secondary traumatic stress. In R.
Kleber, C. Figley, & B. Gersons (Eds.), Beyond trauma: Cultural and societal dynamics
(pp. 75-98). New York: Plenum Press.
Fingerman, K. L. (2001). Aging mothers and their adult daughters: A study in mixed emotions.
New York: Springer.
Fingerman, K. L., Cheng, Y. P., Birditt, K., & Zarit, S. (2012). Only as happy as the least happy
child: Multiple grown children’s problems and successes and middle-aged parents’ well-
being. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences & Social Sciences, 67,
184-193.
Fingerman, K. L., Pitzer, L., Lefkowitz, E. S., Birditt, K. S., & Mroczek, D. (2008). Ambivalent
relationship qualities between adults and their parents: Implications for the well-being of
both parties. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences & Social Sciences,
63, P362-P371.

Fogiel-Bijaoui, S. (2005). Families in Israel: Post modernity, feminism and the state. In J. L.
Roopnarine & U. P. Gielen (Eds.), Families in global perspective (pp. 184-204). Boston,
MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Gavriel-Fried, B., Peled, E., & Ajzenstadt, M. (2015). Normative identity construction among
women diagnosed with a gambling disorder. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 85(2),
159-169.
Gergen, M. (2004). Once upon a time: A narratologist’s tale. In C. Daiute & C. Lightfoot (Eds.),
Narrative analysis: Studying the development of individuals in society (pp. 267-285).
Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Goodkind, J. R., Gillum, T. L., Bybee, D. I., & Sullivan, C. M. (2003). The impact of family
and friends’ reactions on the well-being of women with abusive partners. Violence Against
Women, 9, 347-373.
Greenberg, J. S., Seltzer, M. M., & Greenley, J. R. (1993). Aging parents of adults with dis-
abilities: The gratifications and frustrations of later-life caregiving. The Gerontologist, 33,
542-550.
Greenfield, E. A., & Marks, N. F. (2006). Linked lives: Adult children’s problems and their
parents’ psychological and relational well-being. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68,
442-454.
Gueta, K. (2013). Self-forgiveness in the recovery of Israeli drug-addicted mothers: A qualita-
tive exploration. Journal of Drug Issues, 43, 450-467.
Gueta, K., & Addad, M. (2013). Moulding an emancipatory discourse: How mothers recovering
from addiction build their own discourse. Addiction Research & Theory, 21, 33-42.
Hacker, D. (2005). Motherhood, fatherhood and law: Child custody and visitation in Israel.
Social & Legal Studies, 14, 409-431.
Hager, T. (2011). Making sense of an untold story: A personal deconstruction of the myth of
motherhood. Qualitative Inquiry, 17, 35-44.
Harding, S., & Norberg, K. (2005). New feminist approaches to social science methodologies:
An introduction. Signs, 30, 2009-2015.
Hays, S. (1996). The cultural contradictions of motherhood. London, England: Yale University
Press.
Hill, A. (2001). “No-one else could understand”: Women’s experiences of a support group run
by and for mothers of sexually abused children. British Journal of Social Work, 31, 385-397.
Hoff, L. A. (1990). Battered women as survivors. London, England: Routledge.
Jones, L., Hughes, M., & Unterstaller, U. (2001). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in vic-
tims of domestic violence: A review of the research. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 2, 99-119.
Kelly, L., Burton, S., & Regan, L. (1994). Researching women’s lives or studying women’s
oppression? Reflections on what constitutes feminist research. In M. Maynard & J. Purvis
(Eds.), Researching women’s lives from a feminist perspective (pp. 27-48). London,
England: Taylor & Francis.
Kitzmann, K. M., Gaylord, N. K., Holt, A. R., & Kenny, E. D. (2003). Child witnesses to domes-
tic violence: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71,
339-352.
Knoester, C. (2003). Transitions in young adulthood and the relationship between parent and
offspring well-being. Social Forces, 81, 1431-1458.
Latta, R. E., & Goodman, L. A. (2011). Intervening in partner violence against women: A
grounded theory exploration of informal network members’ experiences. Counseling
Psychologist, 39, 973-1023.

Peled et al. 19
Lavee, Y., & Katz, R. (2003). The family in Israel: Between tradition and modernity. Marriage
& Family Review, 35, 193-217.
Levitzki, N. (2009). Parenting of adult children in an Israeli sample: Parents are always parents.
Journal of Family Psychology, 23, 226-235.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
Lowenstein, A. (2007). Solidarity–conflict and ambivalence: Testing two conceptual frame-
works and their impact on quality of life for older family members. Journals of Gerontology,
Series B: Psychological Sciences & Social Sciences, 62, S100-S107.
Maskill, V., Crowe, M., Luty, S., & Joyce, P. (2010). Two sides of the same coin: Caring for
a person with bipolar disorder. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 17,
535-542.
Maushart, S. (1997). The mask of motherhood: How mothering changes everything and why we
pretend it doesn’t. Sydney, Australia: Random House.
McGuffey, C. S. (2005). Engendering trauma: Race, class, and gender reaffirmation after child
sexual abuse. Gender & Society, 19, 621-643.
Milkie, M. A., Bierman, A., & Schieman, S. (2008). How adult children influence older parents’
mental health: Integrating stress-process and life-course perspectives. Social Psychology
Quarterly, 71, 86-105.
Moe, A. M. (2007). Silenced voices and structured survival battered women’s help seeking.
Violence Against Women, 13, 676-699.
Palgi-Hecker, A. (2005). Mother in psychoanalysis: A feminist view. Tel Aviv, Israel: Am Oved.
(In Hebrew)
Peled, E., & Dekel, R. (2010). Excusable deficiency: Staff perceptions of mothering at shelters
for abused women. Violence Against Women, 16, 1224-1241.
Peled, E., & Gil, I. B. (2011). The mothering perceptions of women abused by their partner.
Violence Against Women, 17, 457-479.
Peled, E., & Leichtentritt, R. (2002). The ethics of qualitative social work research. Qualitative
Social Work, 1, 145-169.
Peled, E., & Levin-Rotberg, T. (2013). The perceptions of child protection officers toward
mothering in prostitution. Social Service Review, 87, 40-69.
Peled, E., & Parker, A. (2013). The mothering experiences of sex-trafficked women: Between
here and there. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 83(4), 576-587.
Peled, E., & Sacks, I. (2008). The self-perception of women who live with an alcoholic partner:
Dialoging with deviance, strength, and self-fulfillment. Family Relations, 57, 390-403.
Pillemer, K., & Suitor, J. J. (1991). “Will I ever escape my child’s problems?” Effects of adult
children’s problems on elderly parents. Journal of Marriage and Family, 53, 585-594.
Plummer, C. A. (2006). The discovery process: What mothers see and do in gaining awareness
of the sexual abuse of their children. Child Abuse & Neglect, 30, 1227-1237.
Remer, R., & Ferguson, R. A. (1995). Becoming a secondary survivor of sexual assault. Journal
of Counseling & Development, 73, 407-413.
Riger, S., Raja, S., & Camacho, J. (2002). The radiating impact of intimate partner violence.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 17, 184-205.
Rossi, A. S., & Rossi, P. H. (1990). Of human bonding: Parent-child relations across the life
course. New York: Aldine.
Ryff, C. D., Schmutte, P. S., & Lee, Y. H. (1996). How children turn out: Implications for
parental self-evaluation. In C. D. Ryff & M. M. Seltzer (Eds.), The parental experience in
midlife (pp. 383-422). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures
and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
Suitor, J. J., & Pillemer, K. (2000). Did mom really love you best? Exploring the role of within-
family differences on parental favoritism. Motivation and Emotion, 24, 104-119.
Suitor, J. J., Pillemer, K., & Sechrist, J. (2006). Within-family differences in mothers’ sup-
port to adult children. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences & Social
Sciences, 61, S10-S17.
Thurer, S. L. (1994). The myth of motherhood: How culture reinvents the good mother. Boston,
MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Watt, D. (2007). On becoming a qualitative researcher: The value of reflexivity. Qualitative
Report, 12, 82-101. Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR12-1/watt.pdf
Wolfe, D. A., Crooks, C. V., Lee, V., McIntyre-Smith, A., & Jaffe, P. G. (2003). The effects of
children’s exposure to domestic violence: A meta-analysis and critique. Clinical Child and
Family Psychology Review, 6, 171-187.
Author Biographies
Einat Peled is an associate professor in the Bob Shapell School of Social Work at Tel Aviv
University. Her latest studies focus on domestic violence, violence against women and prostitu-
tion with a particular emphasis on societal and professional responses to these social problems
and on the experiences of mothering and fathering under these circumstances.
Keren Gueta, PhD, is a lecturer in the Department of Criminology at Bar-Ilan University. Her
major areas of research are drug addiction among women, the experience of mothering on social
margins and gender differences in crime.
Nili Sander-Almoznino, MA, is a social worker who specializes in domestic abuse interven-
tion. She is working in the Netanya Center for Domestic Violence Prevention and Intervention.

The Experience of Mothers Exposed To The

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Experience of Mothers Exposed To The

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

627512

Intimate Partner: “There

Einat Peled1, Keren Gueta2, and

1TelAviv University, Israel

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

adult children (Fingerman, 2001). Specifically, the experience of mothers exposed to

Mothers and Their Adult Daughters

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

1990). Specifically, parents’—and especially the mothers’—well-being was found to

The Israeli Context

Summary of the Literature and Research Questions

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

Population and Sample

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

Data Analysis and Quality Criteria

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

Phase 1: Pre-Disclosure of the Daughter’s Abuse

Phase 2: The First Definitive Encounter With the Daughter’s Abuse

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

Phase 3: Living With the Daughter’s Exposure to IPV

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

A minority of the participants described their response to their daughters’ abuse as

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

I too, as a mother and as a human being, am trying to do everything. Where am I myself?

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

I have to be attentive at work, listening to everyone. And where am I? What am I? Who

Negotiating maternal identity. The experience of having an abused daughter seems to

Phase 4: The Aftermath of the Daughter’s IPV

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

Israela, a 70-year-old mother of three, described a positive change in her relation-

In many cases, the continued emotional burden was accompanied by providing

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

The Mothers as Secondary Victims

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

The social invisibility of the mothers’ experiences of exposure to a daughter’s IPV

The Mothers as Caregivers

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

Conclusion and Implications

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

Downloaded from vaw.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on January 30, 2016

You might also like