Promoting Protective Factors

By Sara Kennedy, H&V Headquarters

The family is new in the neighborhood, and struggling to make ends meet. The costs of the move were more than expected. Both parents work outside the home, and had difficulty finding childcare they could afford. They took slots open near one of their jobs and worry about safety and turnover there. Working both day and evening shifts, one parent is home for long hours with a baby, an older preschooler and a second-grader. The preschooler has newly identified hearing loss related to middle ear infections. Prior to that identification, the school was worried about behavior and attention problems.  During the time of COVID, this family has additional stressors. School may be in and out of session, employment may be tenuous, and health concerns exist alongside the very human need to connect with others. There are clear risk factors for maltreatment in this situation, but there are also protective factors that act as a buffer against adverse childhood experiences, or ACES.

If we look at this hypothetical family through the lens of Protective Factors, we find there are specific areas where we could provide meaningful parent-to-parent support, and others where we might refer to community agencies. The Six Protective Factors come from the body of work called Strengthening Families from the Center for the Study of Social Policy. (Originally there were five factors, but many states and agencies have added Nurturing and Attachment, relating to mental health since the first research was published in 2002-2004.)

What are the Six Protective Factors? 

1. Nurturing and Attachment: Building a close bond with their children helps parents and caregivers better understand and interact with their children. The parent-child relationship is the basis for all future relationships and bonding supports both the child and the parent. Parents who enjoy being with their child, who respond to cries with care and laugh at the silliness (and commiserate with the inevitable spills and upsets) show a higher level of nurturing ability and attachment than parents who are less responsible and supportive.
2. Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development: Have you ever noticed how some adults don’t seem to have a good sense of what a child is capable of (age and level of development)? Understanding child development helps parents and caregivers with realistic expectations, like understanding when a two-year-old is just being “two.” Assessing a child’s behavior (think – colic, poor appetite, tantrums, struggling with toilet-training, let alone any true health or developmental concerns) in a very negative light when it is a fairly typical for the age and stage may be a sign of lack of knowledge, and that is definitely an area where an experienced parent can share their own learning about language and communication development and point out useful resources.
3. Parental Resilience: The ability to “bounce back” from daily stressors, and to recognize any triggers that might come from their own growing up experiences in childhood. Parents (or any adult) are less likely to vent their frustrations on a child if they have developed resilience through self-knowledge. Parents who are strong and flexible are better able to deal with the many stresses of everyday life. These adults have developed the capacity to comfort themselves and empathize with others. They find meaning in the world around them, from their parenting and work to their ability to improve their life. Having a resilient parent can lead to resilience for a child.  Parents can learn de-stressing techniques; sometimes just connecting with another parent who has been through something similar is powerful.
4. Concrete Support in Times of Need: Every family should know how to meet their own basic needs for food, clothing, housing and transportation, and have access to healthcare, childcare and mental health services, but many do not know how to navigate finding support when needed. Without basic needs being met, a family’s focus will be on that stressor. What can we do to share concrete information with families about services in their community that will reduce familial stress? What barriers to access can communities remove? Think of parents who do not use English, have disabilities, are from a different culture, etc. Children who live below the poverty line are at higher risk of abuse or neglect; with the theory being that low-resourced families are highly stressed and can lack the information and networks to help them cope.  
5. 5. Social Connections: Adults need positive relationships with people who tell us the truth about ourselves. We all need good friends. Relationships that are healthy are characterized by trust, reciprocity, and mutual assistance.  A Guide By Your Side program can launch a family into new connections specific to hearing differences; sometimes people stay friends for life with that specific tie, even if living far apart.
6. Social and Emotional Competence of Children: Children who have strong social development and coping skills have an additional buffer against the effects of child maltreatment. Families can teach children how to better communicate their feelings, solve problems and interact with other children and adults in a positive manner, taking care to tell a trusted adult if there are any concerns about behavior or safety. Parent Guides have both the experience of their own children and the opportunity to learn from a wide network of other families raising children who are deaf/hard of hearing and can help promote positive family experiences, fostering joy, and seeing their child as a whole person with unique skills and talents to be nurtured.

Parent-to-parent support organizations can learn from the structure of Protective Factors to help families rise above the weight of risk factors through offering assistance in these six areas, and perhaps especially in the realm of knowledge of child development and social connections within a network of families. COVID-19 will continue to be a challenge for the foreseeable future. We know that one supportive adult can make a difference in a child’s life even under very difficult circumstances. By paying attention to protective factors, and referring for assistance when needed, parent support organizations like ours can affect the next generation.   ~

H&V – Winter 2021