“Do it for Your Kid”: Resilience and Mothering in the Context of Intimate Partner Violence in Rural Ontario

Gender-based violence (GBV), defined as any type of abuse, assault, or harassment that can be linked to dominant societal gender norms, is a complex and pervasive human rights concern (Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women [OCTEVAW], 2022). Intimate partner violence (IPV) is one highly prevalent form of violence situated under the umbrella of GBV and includes the multiple forms of harm inflicted on an intimate partner (Government of Canada, 2022). Understood as a pattern of physical, sexual, or emotional violence perpetrated by an intimate partner in the context of coercive control (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000), it is estimated that IPV is experienced by up to 44% of women in Canada and globally (Flury et al., 2010; Government of Canada, 2022; World Health Organization, 2013). The adverse effects resulting from IPV are far-reaching and often interconnected, impacting mental and physical health, social relationships, economic well-being, and parenting (Adams et al., 2012; Campbell, 2002; Campbell et al., 2013; Crowne et al., 2011; Eckhardt et al., 2013; Wuest et al., 2003). Intimate partner violence can result in femicide – the murder of a woman – with more than 35% of all murders of women globally committed by an intimate partner (Stöckl et al., 2013). The ubiquitous societal and health effects of IPV position this form of GBV as a significant public health concern.

While IPV occurs across all social, cultural, and economic strata, certain populations are more likely to experience IPV (Davies et al., 2009; Edwards, 2015; Logan et al., 2005; Logan et al., 2007; McFarlane et al., 1999). For example, geographic location – particularly living within rural settings – can lead to an increased risk of experiencing IPV, exacerbate the severity of IPV, and amplify the consequences of IPV. Women who experience IPV often seek support from various services, and in many cases, these services protect women from abuse and the effects of such abuse (Sabina & Tindale, 2008). Furthermore, the literature suggests that while important, service use by women experiencing IPV is complex and shaped by many factors. However, it is clear that in Canada and other countries (e.g., the U.S. and Australia), more severe forms of abuse are associated with higher service use (Ford-Gilboe et al., 2015). Unfortunately, support and service use are often restricted for women living rurally, and the factors implicated are structural in nature. According to a recent critical review of the literature including 63 studies, in rural settings IPV perpetrators tended to enact more chronic and severe forms of IPV compared to urban counterparts (Edwards, 2015). Unsurprisingly, rural women experiencing IPV may suffer poorer psychosocial and physical health consequences than urban women (Averill et al., 2007; Grama, 2000; Pruitt, 2008; Sandberg, 2013). Rural communities often lack the same availability, quality, and accessibility to the IPV resources found in urban settings (Fitzsimons et al., 2011; Sandberg, 2013). Factors common to rurality (i.e., isolation, patriarchal family structures, religiosity, privacy norms, lack of anonymity, substance use, and lack of resources) may result in higher rates of IPV, poorer outcomes, and impaired community responsiveness (Edwards, 2015). For example, research conducted in Canada by Mantler et al. (2021) reported examples of structural barriers to support in rural communities, including limited transportation, shortage of service providers, and scarcity of primary healthcare providers. These findings underscore the importance of geographical location in the context of IPV.

While much of the IPV literature focuses on adverse outcomes, a small body of literature explores resilience or the factors related to resilience among women who experience IPV (Howell et al., 2018). Stemming from the research of women who previously experienced IPV but did not have longstanding emotional/psychological challenges (Anderson et al., 2012), understanding the factors contributing to resilience may illuminate the complex, interrelated factors that allow women to recover and thrive in the face of IPV. From a social-ecological perspective, resilience is conceptualised as the capacity an individual has to sustain their well-being through navigating resources in the face of adversity (Ungar, 2013). Resilience can thus be demonstrated in a multitude of ways, including ‘bouncing back’ and recovering from a stressful event (Smith et al., 2008) to achieving growth after experiencing trauma (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004). As such, resilience may play an important role in how women overcome or avoid the detrimental effects of IPV and emerge strengthened despite potentially traumatic experiences. While there is little research on the factors that strengthen resilience among women who experience IPV, there is even less known about how resilience relates to mothers' experience of IPV. One study identified that women experiencing IPV who had children were more likely to demonstrate resilience when they were motivated to end the cycle of violence for the sake of their offspring (Brosi et al., 2020). A U.S. qualitative study by Rollero and Speranza (2020) explored the factors that may strengthen resilience among abused mothers and pregnant women in assisted living. This work highlighted that women's relationships with their children were important with respect to fostering resilience. For example, key narratives discussed how hope for the future and dreaming of a peaceful family life for themselves and their children was crucial for strengthening resilience.

While several theories of resilience exist, and some continuing debate about its definition and uses (VanBreda, 2018), when critically applied, it can have usefulness in understanding the human experience. Family resilience theory is particularly relevant to rural mothers' experience of IVP. Defined as “characteristics, dimensions, and properties of families to be resistant to disruption in the face of change and adaptive in the face of crisis situations” (McCubbin & McCubbin, 1988, p. 247), family resilience theory helps to understand how the context of rurality intersects with and plays a role in how mothers survive and thrive despite their abusive relationships. For example, a 2003 meta-analysis (Walsh, 2003) described how family resilience involves the interplay of nine dynamic processes that help families strengthen ties and bolster and utilise competencies and resources. Among these nine processes, which include socio-cultural, community, family, individual, and biological factors, organisational processes of connectedness, and social and community resources are critical (Walsh, 2003). For example, the mobilisation of economic and social resources, such as seeking financial, social, and other sources of support from the community, are seen as important elements of resilience in the face of adversity. Given the unique challenges of experiencing IPV rurally, such as isolation, lack of community resources, and lack of anonymity (Lanier & Maume, 2009; Annan, 2008), this theory provides impetus for the importance of evaluating the nuance of rural living among mothers who experience IPV. While there is evidence that women who experience IPV demonstrate resilience (Anderson et al., 2012; Humphreys, 2003; Shillington et al., 2022), extant literature derives from women in urban settings. Given the uniqueness of rurality (Crann & Barata, 2016), there is a need to understand how women who have experienced IPV cultivate resilience – the ability to survive, grow and thrive—despite exposure to adversity (Prime et al., 2020; Howell et al., 2018; Munoz et al., 2017). This study addresses this knowledge gap by exploring the role of resilience in the context of mothers who have experienced IPV while living in a rural setting.

This cross-sectional, qualitative study was a secondary analysis of a larger study – RISE: Understanding Rural Canadian Women who have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence and the Factors that Shape their Resilience – which explored the factors that contribute to resilience and to rural women's ability to survive, grow and thrive in the context of IPV. This secondary analysis was important to explore the specific and unique experiences of rural mothers who have experienced IPV (please see Mantler et al. (2022) for a full overview of study methods). Using Thorne's (2016) interpretive description approach, which is both constructivist and naturalistic, this pragmatic methodology was appropriate to generate knowledge relevant to both health and social science disciplines.

Both purposive and snowball sampling were used for participant recruitment. Over 200 study advertisements were posted on Kijiji (a Canadian online platform for exchanging goods and services) targeting rural Ontario communities, and approximately 50 rural women's shelters were provided with recruitment materials. Rural women who had experienced IPV at any time in their lives and service providers were both invited to participate. Interested individuals were asked to contact the research team by email. Individual interviews were conducted with eligible, consenting participants between November 2020 and February 2021. Eligible women needed to live in a rural area of Ontario, have experienced IPV, and have access to a safe computer or telephone, while eligible service providers needed to have worked at an Ontario rural women's shelter for a minimum of six months. One-to-one interviews were initially conducted with 14 women (n = 14) and 12 service providers (n = 12). Approximately four months later, a second follow-up interview was conducted with six women (n = 6) and five (n = 5) service providers for the purposes of member checking to ensure accuracy and resonance with participant's experiences. To reduce barriers to participation and to enhance recruitment, women and service providers received a $25 gift card in recognition of their time for the first interview and a $10 gift card for completing a follow-up interview. Among the 14 initial interviews, six women identified as mothers. These data, along with data obtained from all service providers, were analysed for the purposes of the study reported herein.

Ethical approval was obtained from the host institution's Non-Medical Research Ethics Board. One-to-one interviews were conducted with women and service providers, lasting approximately 60 minutes, both initially and at follow-up. For member checking and refining analysis, follow-up interviews were conducted with participants interested in having a second interview. The second follow-up interview was conducted with six women and five service providers, all of whom participated in the initial interviews. Semi-structured questions used for both the initial and follow-up interviews are outlined in Table 1.

Data collection and analyses were guided by Guba and Lincoln (1989) and Thorne and colleagues' (1997) principles of auditability, fit, dependence, and transferability. Interviews were conducted via Zoom or by telephone (per the participant's preference), with participants having the option to be on or off-screen. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, and each transcript was anonymised prior to analysis. Field notes were recorded by the researchers conducting the interviews.

No participant declined to answer or skip any interview questions apart from demographic questions. Analysis occurred at two intervals, first after initial interviews were completed with both women and service providers and second after all follow-up interviews were completed. Transcribed data were organised using Quirkos qualitative analysis software (Quirkos, 2021). Using Thorne's interpretive description approach to analysis (Thorne, 2016), all 26 transcripts were independently coded by the researchers involved in the interviews and the principal investigator. From this, the research team co-created a preliminary coding structure. Dyads of two researchers were randomly assigned, and each dyad conducted analyses using open and line-by-line coding (Blundell et al., 2020). Dyads then met as a team to refine the coding structure and coding definitions as needed. The researchers utilised memoing to identify theoretical outliers, theorise the relationship and structure of the data, and extract meaning from the data set (Thorne, 2016). This process was repeated until the research team was confident that the coding structure sufficiently covered the data. Once all transcripts were analysed, Quirkos files from each coder were merged, and queries/reports were run on each code and associated data. The team then met to discuss the meaning behind the data and to achieve consensus on findings.

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of resilience in the context of mothers who have experienced intimate partner violence in rural settings. Findings from this study demonstrated that for many participants, being a mother played an instrumental role in her resilience, with children being a source of or reason for finding inner strength. Further, both the perspectives of women and service providers echoed that women would make key decisions, however difficult, based upon what meant meeting their children's needs and/or providing the best life they could for their children.

Experiencing family violence is one of the strongest and most consistent predictors of children becoming abused or abusive in their own adult relationships (Cui et al., 2013; McKinney et al., 2009). For example, witnessing family violence as a child can place girls at a four to sixfold increase in risk for experiencing IPV as an adult (Bensley et al., 2003). Fortunately, supportive and responsive parenting by the nonviolent parent has been shown to promote resilience and thriving among children despite their exposure to IPV (Finkelstein et al., 2005; Graham-Bermann, et al., 2009). The findings from this study align with other literature, which underscores women's desire to promote healthy relationships in their children. For example, a qualitative study aimed at understanding the role mothers play in breaking the cycle of IPV found that women had a desire to help their children avoid violent relationships in their future and felt that this was facilitated through having close and open relationships with their children (Insetta et al., 2014). In addition, our findings align with other IPV literature concluding that mothers who experience IPV are generally nurturing and caring of their children and, in fact, may compensate for IPV exposure by being more sensitive and attentive to the needs of their children (Ford-Gilboe et al., 2005; Letourneau et al., 2007). While the findings from this study and others suggest that women who experience IPV desire to break the cycle of family violence, further research is required to explore this phenomenon more fully.

Numerous modifiable and non-modifiable factors play a role in how women respond to IPV. In contrast to many of these factors, the presence of children is highly complex (Meyer, 2011). Decisions on whether to stay silent, reach out for support, or stay or leave an abusive relationship are situationally dependent and less predictable in the presence of children (Meyer, 2011). Understandably, findings from other studies are inconsistent; where in some cases, having children leads to help-seeking as a means of protecting children (Ellsberg et al., 2001), whereas in others, having children leads to silence for fear of harming or losing children after disclosing abuse (Douglas & Walsh, 2010). The findings from the current study support that maternal decision-making in the context of IPV was highly complex and underscored by the motivation to do what they felt was best for the child(ren). Consistent with other literature, women in this study were faced with the complex decision of staying or leaving an abusive partner. The current study identified that for many women, staying in an abusive relationship where children were involved meant maintaining a traditional family and maintaining the children's home and belongings. This is consistent with extant literature outlining external inhibitory factors which make it difficult for women to leave, such as limited financial resources, threats that the partner will harm the children following a separation, and issues relating to cultural norms and stigmas which pressure women to ‘work things out’ (Cravens et al., 2015). In this study, it is also possible that the issue of rurality further problematised the complexity of decision-making. For example, it is well understood that they have fewer formal supports and have less access to the broad range of support that exists for urban counterparts (Ford-Gilboe et al., 2015; Mantler et al., 2021). Further, in many rural contexts, attitudes toward IPV often undermine health and help-seeking among women experiencing IPV (Mantler et al., 2018). The decision to leave is rarely an isolated event, rather, it is a process that often is triggered by a breaking point in the relationship (Barnett, 2001; Short et al., 2000). Despite the often overwhelming inhibitory factors to leaving reported by women and service providers in this study, most women left the abusive relationship when they feared for the safety or well-being of their child(ren).

Intimate partner violence is a pervasive problem, and being a rural mother in the face of IPV may serve to make decision-making even more complex and challenging. However, having children may also serve as a means to motivate, strengthen, and bolster resilience and, in some cases, may be responsible for ultimately leaving the abusive partner. While this research is an important small step in our understanding of this population's experience of IPV and its interplay with motherhood, further research is required to enable health and service providers to better respond to the needs of these women.