The First Page: The LIves of Children Who Have Experienced Domestic Abuse

THE FIRST PAGE

The Everyday Lives of Children Who Have Experienced Domestic Abuse

by Brenda Herbert

9 March 2026

The First Page presents the first page of books that are launched as part of the IAS Book Launch Series. On 12 March 2026, Brenda Herbert will launch her new book which broadens the discussion on children who have experienced domestic abuse. Those discussions often focus on trauma and risks, and little on the children’s lives beyond abuse which can lead to pathologising children and reinforcing colonial and patriarchal social norms. Brenda’s book instead offers a radical and holistic perspective on children’s personhood and situates their everyday lives within broader global debates on childhood, decolonisation and social justice.

1
Introduction: Now you see me

‘Look, look!’ shouts seven- year- old Kyro, as he waves a huge stick that he has found in the playground. The stick is three times as big as Kyro, but he waves it deftly around his head, pretending he is a pirate.

‘Brenda! Look!’ calls Kyro with excitement.

‘Yes, I am, but I just need to show Rosa how to use the camera,’ I reply to Kyro, as I look back down to Rosa, his fiveyear- old sister.

‘So how can I see the pictures?’ asks Rosa, turning the small digital camera around and pressing different buttons. ‘I can’t see anything.’

‘You have to press this button, and then this one. See?’ I explain.

‘Yes! Yes! I can see it. Kyro, look, look!’ says Rosa as she turns around and runs across the playground clicking the button and taking photographs.

‘Brenda, you are not really looking at me!’ Kyro calls out in exasperation.
(Field notes, March 2020)

It is the middle of March 2020; it is only a few days before the UK goes into physical restrictions, commonly known as ‘lockdown’, due to COVID- 19 and I am in a playground in London, UK, handing out an art pack to Rosa. The art pack includes paper, stickers, pens, pencils, glue, lolly sticks and a small toy digital camera. I had quickly assembled the art packs as I needed a way to continue my ethnographic study with children who had experienced domestic abuse and social work intervention. I had spent the last week delivering the packs to all the children who had agreed to be part of the project. I was only one month into my ethnographic study when the physical restrictions for COVID- 19 were introduced, so I had to adapt my research methods quickly. This book is about the 18 months I spent getting to know ten children through weekly online or in- person visits. The children’s ages ranged from five years old to ten years old.

All the children in the study had experienced domestic abuse and social work intervention, but this was not only who they were; this book explores the everyday lives of the children. Existing research on domestic abuse and…

The Everyday Lives of Children Who Have Experienced Domestic Abuse: Looking Beyond the Trauma Lens was published by Policy Press/Bristol University in February 2026.

BRENDA HERBERT is a British Academy Post-doctoral Fellow at the UCL Social Research Institute. She was the Sociological Review Fellow 2024/25 and is also a psychodynamic counsellor and has worked for over fifteen years with children who have experienced domestic abuse.

On 12 March 2026 Brenda Herbert will launch her book The Everyday Lives of Children Who Have Experienced Domestic Abuse at the Institute of Advanced Studies. More information.

Lead Image (detail) by Annie Spratt via Unsplash.