"Through their eyes": Narratives of resilience among adolescents exposed to intimate partner violence in early childhood.

Background

Childhood exposure to intimate partner violence (CEIPV) is a serious form of developmental trauma with lasting effects on emotional regulation, relational functioning, and identity formation. While much research emphasizes risk and pathology, less is known about how adolescents interpret these early experiences and construct resilience.

Objective

To explore how adolescents exposed to IPV in early childhood make sense of their experiences and articulate resilience through personal narratives.

Participants

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Setting

Twenty-one adolescents (aged 13-18) residing in the Abha region of Saudi Arabia participated. All had documented or self-reported exposure to IPV before age 10 and were engaged in community-based psychosocial or youth programs.

Methods

A descriptive phenomenological design guided in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Colaizzi's seven-step method was used for thematic analysis. Interviews were conducted in Arabic, transcribed, translated, and validated through member checking and peer debriefing.

Results

Four major themes emerged: (1) Remembering Through Fragments, trauma stored somatically rather than narratively; (2) Becoming My Own Safe Space, emotional self-reliance and boundary setting; (3) Telling My Story, Taking My Power, voice as healing and advocacy; and (4) Resilience Rooted in Connection, relationships, culture, and faith as protective factors. Storytelling facilitated both individual transformation and a desire for peer support and change-making.

Conclusions

Adolescents are not passive witnesses to IPV but meaning-makers and emerging advocates. Trauma-informed, culturally grounded interventions should center youth voice and foster relational, narrative, and spiritual pathways to healing. Anchored in ecological systems theory, trauma-informed principles, and narrative approaches to resilience, this study positions adolescents' own accounts as primary evidence for understanding how young people exposed to intimate partner violence construct meaning, agency, and recovery in a culturally specific context.