NCJ Number
242102
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 37 Issue: 2-3 Dated: February/March 2013 Pages: 110-115
Date Published
March 2013
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the role that social services play in the development of resilience among children who have been victims of maltreatment.
Abstract
While numerous studies have found that four types of factors play important roles in the development of resilience in maltreated children, only three types of factors have received extensive research. Most of the studies on resilience have focused on individual, family, and school factors associated with resilience, with few studies examining the effect that formal support services have on reducing the impact of maltreatment on children's development. The assumption has been made by researchers that service providers who are able to adapt environments around maltreated children will have more success at helping those children function more effectively; however, little research has been done to test this assumption. The author notes that interventions by service providers have been found to follow certain patterns: population-wide interventions may be most effective only with children who are most at-risk, while interventions focused only on at-risk children will be effective only to the extent that they provide maltreated children with the resources they need for successful coping. The author suggests that more research is needed on which interventions are more effective with abused and neglected children that have experienced different levels of maltreatment. References