According to the Strengthening Families by the Center for the Study of Social Policy. Building these five protective factors increases the likelihood for healthy child development and for your family to remain strong, avoiding risks like child abuse and neglect.
- Social and emotional competence: the ability to manage and control emotions and behaviors.
- Social connections: the ability to connect and interact with others.
- Concrete support: the ability to provide basic needs like food, clothing, housing, transportation, education and access to health care.
- Knowledge of parenting and child development: the ability and willingness to learn how to parent well and support your child’s development.
- Resilience: the ability to have healthy coping skills for the stresses you may encounter as a parent or in crisis.
These five researched-based protective factors are aimed at increasing each family’s strengths, enhancing healthy childhood development and reducing the likelihood of child abuse and neglect.