Cultural translation of a domestic violence intervention for small children: Key policy and practice directions

Background: This qualitative study responds to recent calls for innovation in domestic violence research in a review, which concluded that the field is dominated by studies that are quantitative and do not take a strong client and social work perspective. It examines Australian child and family support practitioners' perceptions of cultural translation of an activity-based play intervention for small children exposed to domestic and family violence.

Methods: The participants consisted of 335 practitioners, 178 of whom worked with culturally diverse and/or indigenous client groups. Analysis of response sheets involved elements of configurational case-based analysis, computational textual analysis, and critical discourse analysis.

Results: Language associated with cultural or indigenous concepts occurred with 3% and 5% frequencies, respectively, in 8494 instances of 39 concepts found in practitioner responses.

Conclusions: The "order of discourse" in this practitioner language offers theoretical understandings of in-practice challenges of cultural translation of interventions. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for research methods, theory, and practice in domestic and family violence intervention.