The impact of coercive control on children and young people

This briefing shares children and young people’s experiences of coercive control between parents and carers. This is drawn from what adults told the NSPCC Helpline and children told Childline in 2022/23.

Coercive control is a form of domestic abuse that can often be overlooked. We look at the themes around coercive control that people talked about including:

• controlling and isolating behaviours
• using threats and coercion
• emotional abuse
• economic or financial abuse
• services missing opportunities to support victims and survivors.

We also look at the impacts on children and young people experiencing coercive control including:

• parents and carers describing children as quiet, stressed and depressed
• behaviour changes including children emotionally and physically abusing parents and siblings
• children expressing worries and fears about their parent’s and carer’s coercive and controlling behaviours
• some children engaging in self-harm
• disruption to children’s social and support networks.