Parental Resilience
Parental resilience is the ability to cope and bounce back and bounce forward from all types of challenges. Parents are continually managing different amounts of stress in their daily lives. The challenges caregivers face can be daunting. In the Strengthening Families™ framework, we think about two different components of resilience – the ability to cope with stress in general and the ability to parent well in times of stress.
When asked, parents have described this protective factor as:
- I will continue to have courage during stress or after a crisis.
- Resilience = Courage
- Resilience means being strong AND flexible.
Social Connections
Friends, family members, neighbors and other members of a community who provide emotional support and concrete assistance are invaluable to parents. Since social isolation is strongly connected to child maltreatment, this protective factor ensures that parents are connected to people who support their parenting. Being new to a community, recently divorced or a first-time parent makes a support network even more important; it may require extra effort from programs to help families build the new relationships they need.
When asked, parents have described this protective factor as:
- I have people who know me (friends) and at least one person who supports my parenting.
- Social Connections = Community
- Parents need friends.
Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development
Parents need accurate information about rearing young children and the appropriate expectations for their behavior. This protective factor helps to define what parenting looks like when families have good information and skills to help their children at every stage of development. It is especially important when parents are committed to change the parenting patterns they experienced as children and want alternatives for their own children.
When asked, parents have described this protective factor as:
- I stay curious and am responsive to what my child needs.
- Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development = Health
- Being a great parent is part natural and part learned.
Concrete Supports in Times of Need
Every family – at some point – needs support. “Times of need” do not only occur in families in poverty, and they may not always be related to material needs. All families have times when organizational or institutional supports are helpful, whether it’s the birth of a new child, raising a child with special needs, finding academic supports or dealing with mental illness, substance abuse or domestic violence. Not knowing where to turn in a crisis or how to find help can be extraordinarily stressful for families and cause significant trauma for children. When parents build ths protective factor, they know how to access services and be an advocate for their family.
When asked, parents have described this protective factor as:
- My family can access basic needs when they need it.
- Concrete Supports in Time of Need = Freedom
- We all need help sometimes.
Social and Emotional Competence of Children
Social and emotional competence is the foundation of every child’s development. It comes through the ongoing interactions between children and the adults in their lives, beginning with parents and other family members. The parent’s capability to foster the child’s ability to talk, regulate their behavior and interact positively with others is key to the child’s development. Nurturing and attachment in the earliest days and months of a baby’s life is the beginning point for social and emotional competence that develops over time.
When asked, parents have described this protective factor as:
- My child feels loved, has a sense of belonging and can get along with others.
- Social and Emotional Competence in Children = Compassion
- Social and emotional competence in children means helping your children communicate and give them the love and respect they need.
For more information on these Protective Factors and the research behind them, visit the research section on the Center for the Study of Social Policy website.
Strengthening Families™ Implementation: Five Core Functions
The Strengthening Families™ approach, developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, is implemented in a wide variety of programs, agencies, systems, communities and states. Across all of these settings, implementation includes five core functions that are critical to effective implementation:
- Building an infrastructure to advance and sustain the work
- Building parent partnerships
- Deepening knowledge and understanding of a protective factors approach
- Shifting practice, policies and systems toward a protective factors approach
- Ensuring accountability
Everyday actions are the small but significant changes in our approach to working with parents and caregivers that create an environment where families can build protective factors.
The Research behind the Strengthening Families™ Approach
The Strengthening Families™ Protective Factors framework was introduced in 2003 by the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. As a research-informed approach, Strengthening Families is the product of both foundational and ongoing research and knowledge development.
In partnership with CSSP, the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance works to engage its network of state children’s trust and prevention funds to implement and promote the protective factors framework.