Children undergoing adverse experiences: The psychological, familial and social protective factors

Abstract

Protective factors are utilized by individuals who are facing unfavorable experiences, such as adverse childhood experiences, in order to alter the outcome of these experiences. Three broad protective factor groups have been identified and analyzed: child-level, family-level and community level. These three factors have been further divided into subgroups and examined based on how they impact the outcome for children who face maladaptive experiences. The protective factors discussed have been shown to reduce the poor outcomes for children who were exposed to maltreatment, abuse and neglect. Resilience is another term used to describe protective factors and has been used to examine a child’s ability to overcome and adverse childhood experiences.