Mind the gap: understanding how the dynamics of time and place shape violence affecting children and young people Kirrily Pells (UCL IoE), Catherine Maternowska (UNICEF OoR), Alina Potts (UNICEF OoR) and Ginny Morrow (Young Lives Oxford) Adolescence, Youth and Gender conference Oxford, 8-9 September 2016

1. Mind the gap: understanding how the dynamics
of time and place shape violence affecting
children and young people
Kirrily Pells (UCL IoE), Catherine Maternowska (UNICEF
OoR), Alina Potts (UNICEF OoR) and Ginny Morrow (Young
Lives Oxford)
Adolescence, Youth and Gender conference
Oxford, 8-9 September 2016

2. GAPS, LIMITATIONS AND CHALLENGES
Predominate focus of research on violence affecting children:
• the exceptional rather than the everyday
• categories and types of violence rather than a
multidimensional approach
What can a socio-ecological approach offer?
• intersections between structural and interpersonal
violence
• importance of context and power
Challenges and limitations of a socio-ecological approach:
• simplification and misapplication
• overemphasis on the decontextualized individual
• static: how to capture change over time and place?

3. DYNAMICS OF TIME
Changes in the ways in which children construct, experience
and respond to violence across the early life course
• understandings of and attitudes towards violence, e.g.
corporal punishment or domestic violence
• diverse impacts on children’s lives over time
• changes in children’s strategies for navigating violence
Role of intergenerational relationships
• shape how children and adults construct both childhood
and violence
• relations of power, but also of support

4. DYNAMICS OF PLACE
Violence affecting children is embedded in and shaped
by changing political, economic and socio-cultural
landscapes
• rapid economic growth
• changing social norms and understandings and practices
of childhood
• historical context
Intersections between multiple types and spaces of
violence
• structural violence embedded in institutional settings
and mediated through interpersonal relationships
• normalization of violence and reinforcement of norms

5. DISCUSSION
Theory: linking socio-ecological and life course perspectives
• developing a more dynamic understanding of time,
place and violence
• beyond a focus on the individual child at risk
• intersections of the structural and interpersonal
Methods
• value of longitudinal and mixed methods research
• challenges of measurement and researching sensitive
topics

6. SO WHAT?
New theoretical insights with new empirical evidence
• moving beyond the cross sectional moment and the
victim/perpetrator dyad
• developing a revised version of the socio-ecological
framework addressing drivers and risk factors
• acknowledging the messy interconnections between time,
place and circumstances
New model of collaboration
• YL (children’s experiences) + UN (gov’t) both concerned with
the ‘drivers’ of violence
• benefitting from nat’l infrastructure and nat’l lens
• case studies—Peru and Viet Nam

7. SO WHAT?
New theoretical insights with new empirical evidence
• moving beyond the cross sectional moment and the
victim/perpetrator dyad
• developing a revised version of the socio-ecological
framework addressing drivers and risk factors
• acknowledging the messy interconnections between time,
place and circumstances
New model of collaboration
• YL (children’s experiences) + UN (gov’t) both concerned with
the ‘drivers’ of violence
• benefitting from nat’l infrastructure and nat’l lens
• case studies—Peru and Viet Nam