Impact of a Second-Stage Domestic Violence Shelter on Children's Resilience, from Staff Perspectives.

Purpose

Understanding how protective processes support resilience following domestic violence is important for developing effective interventions. While existing research has examined children's risks and resilience after domestic violence exposure, less is known about how second-stage shelters support resilience. Drawing on staff perspectives within a biopsychosocial framework, this study explored how the second-stage shelter context was perceived to shape children's resilience.

Methods

This study followed a directed qualitative content analysis methodology. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with fifteen staff members at a second-stage shelter in Canada, incorporating open-ended questions and a reflective art-based activity to enhance depth of insight.

Results

Findings demonstrated that children's resilience was understood as emerging through interconnected physical, psychological, and social-environmental processes, with psychological and social-environmental processes featuring most prominently in participants' accounts. Professional support emerged as a cross-domain protective factor connecting multiple areas of children's wellbeing, alongside maternal mental health, parenting capacity, children's self-regulation, and safety. Key opportunities included shelter safety, accessible services, and sustained duration of support. Children's adjustment within the second-stage shelter context was perceived as involving transitions over time, with resilience developing through the ongoing interaction of protective processes and evolving experiences.

Conclusion

This study extends understanding of children's resilience following domestic violence exposure by illustrating how staff perceived resilience to develop within a second-stage shelter setting. Findings highlight resilience as a relational and context-dependent process emerging through interconnected protective processes, with implications for trauma-informed and developmentally responsive practice.