Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 2) | Page 46

Working with Various Client Groups

Dear Social Service Professionals,
We often hear about working together for the well-being of children and
also about the strengths-based approach in doing this. What might be the
goal in any of such efforts? Is the end goal to support families or to prevent
and reduce child abuse and neglect?

Protective Factors
When we work with families, we work from the perspective of focusing on
protective factors. What are some of these protective factors that we should
invest time in? The Centre for Study of Social Policy in the US 1 summarises
these factors into 5 main ones.
• Parental Resilience: This refers to the ability of parents to form nurturing
relationships and respond to stressful situations in productive ways. Building
parents’ capacity to respond to stressful situations in productive ways is an
important part of helping them parent effectively. Checking in on parents’
mental health - particularly post-partum depression - and encouraging the
use of positive coping strategies can help to ease stress and in extreme
cases, prevent child abuse and neglect.
• Knowledge of parenting and child development: This refers to a parent’s
understanding of how children develop and the role families play in fostering
development. Parents who understand child development have more realistic
expectations of their children based on their developmental stage. Those in
contact with families can play a role in sharing this knowledge with parents
and thereby empowering them to better meet their children’s physical and
developmental needs. This also enables parents to more quickly identify
when their children’s development is off track, so that support can be given
by a helping professional.
• Social Connections: This refers to the many positive relationships that
families need for emotional and concrete support. Parents who are engaged
in positive social relationships receive emotional and practical support that
can help them deal with the daily stresses of parenting, health crises and
responding to their children’s social and health needs. The grassroots and
community partners can provide parenting groups and other opportunities
for parents to form connections with others who are raising children of the
same age.
1

Case for the Study of Social Policy. Core Meanings of the Strengthening Families Protective
Factors. Protective Factors Framework. Retrieved from http://www.cssp.org/reform/
strengtheningfamilies/2015/Core-Meanings-of-the-SF-Protective-Factors-2015.pdf
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