This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Violence in the home can range from intimidation to physical abuse. When it occurs there, we refer to it as domestic violence.
Every year, more than 1 million people in the Netherlands age 16 and older experience domestic violence. This type of violence is often perpetrated by a current or former partner, in which case it is referred to as intimate partner violence. Sometimes, the violence becomes so severe that a person's own home is no longer safe.
In such cases, they may seek refuge in a domestic violence shelter. Although these are traditionally known in the Netherlands as women's shelters, they do not exclusively accommodate women. Men and children can stay there, too.
Around 6,000 people seek refuge in these shelters each year. They include almost 3,000 women, nearly as many children and around 140 men (2023 figures). This means that many children stay in these shelters with their mothers.
For her doctoral research, Willemien van den Dorpel, of the Institute of Education and Child Studies, and her colleagues followed 52 women and their young children, up to age 6, who were staying in domestic violence shelters. They followed the families for 13 weeks. Van den Dorpel defends her dissertation on Sept. 29, 2026.
What did they want to find out? "We wanted to know what type of treatment works for parents who end up in a domestic violence shelter with their children after experiencing intimate partner violence. This is because there are still very few interventions with proven effectiveness for this specific group." And yet these parents and their children need all the support they can get.
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