“No Story, No Response”: Narratives from Girls Subjected to Youth Intimate Partner Violence and Placed at Special Residential Homes in Sweden

Abstract

Several studies have suggested a high prevalence of violence in young people’s romantic relationships. A significant gap in knowledge persists, however, regarding how young people in special residential homes for youth (SRHY) in Sweden characterize and communicate about the violence they experience in their relationships, as well as how they describe societal responses to such violence within their networks, including from professionals. Sixteen in-depth interviews were conducted with girls from three different SRHYs using Hydén’s “teller-focused” approach. Responses varied based on the girls’ personal networks and professional connections. A common denominator, however, is that the girls had disclosed the violence, described as exceptionally severe, to any external person to only a limited extent. Many of them shared their experiences of victimization for the first time during the interview, prompting a reconsideration and clarification of the relational aspects of the interview procedure and resulting in the conceptualization of a new interview procedure: the relational interview approach. This approach has implications for the practicalities of engaging in a conversation with a young person who has experienced violence.