This document discusses children and youth exposed to domestic violence and building a responsive system grounded in resilience. It covers the impact of exposure to domestic violence, an introduction to resilience, research on neuroplasticity and resilience, and building a responsive system through a resilience lens. The key points are that exposure to domestic violence can negatively impact children's health, behavior, and development, but resilience and responsive systems that focus on strengths, relationships, and skill-building can help mitigate risks and promote positive outcomes for children.

1. Children and youth
exposed to domestic violence
A responsive system
grounded in resilience
Linda Chamberlain
Jordan Sizelove
Devorah Levine
Kristin Bodiford

2. Introductions
Please share
one word
that describes resilience to you

3. Purpose
Impact of exposure to domestic violence
Introduction to resilience
Research on neuroplasticity and resilience
Building a responsive system with the lens
of resilience

4. Children’s Exposure
Visual - as “eyewitness”
Audio - hearing the violence
Tool of Perpetrator - used in event
Aftermath - the impact of violence
“Seeing my mom get beat is worse than being beat myself.” (Teen)

5. Impact
Adverse health outcomes
School health and performance
Greater rates of antisocial behavior,
substance abuse, suicide attempt, mental
illness
Linked to other forms of community
violence

6. Voices of Youth
“Violence effects kids’ behavior because
they think it’s ok to pick on women and
those smaller than them.” (Teen)
“Most of the times kids know domestic
violence is wrong, but they are
traumatized by seeing their mom get beat
up. I hit my younger bothers and stole
cars because I was so angry.” (Teen)

7. Shifting Our View
Increase capacity
Build partnerships
Small tests for change
Strengths based framework
No problem can be solved from the same level of
consciousness that created it. We must learn to
see the world anew.” Einstein

10. We get to choose

11. Strengths-based view….
Does not ignore problems/difficulties or
the critical need to ameliorate/prevent the
harm caused.
Key assumptions are:
◦ individuals, families, and communities are
defined not by their difficulty, but rather by
their multiple strengths,
◦ the amelioration of current difficulties or the
prevention of future difficulties begins with the
identification and marshaling of these
strengths.
Kenneth Maton

12. Resilience … positive adaptation
in the context of significant adversity

13. Human Development Process >>
Environmental Resilience in Action
Inputs
Individual Inputs
DEVELOPMENTAL
Individual
SUPPORTS &
THAT MEET Outputs
OPPORTUNITIES Societal Impacts
DEVELOPMENTAL
(Protective Factors) NEEDS PROMOTING
Caring Relationships POSITIVE THUS
Love
Positive Expectations DEVELOPMENTAL PRODUCING
Meaningful Participation Belonging
OUTCOMES
In Respect POSITIVE
Power Social PREVENTION
Families
Schools &
Organizations
Challenge Emotional SUCCESSFUL
Communities Mastery LIFE
Peers Cognitive
Meaning OUTCOMES
Safety Moral-Spiritual
BELIEF
in
Resilience
Voice
Voice
Benard, 1991

14. Voice
Who gets to decide?
Who has a say?
Whose voice is included?
Whose voice is left out?

15. Choppin’ it Up – Talking about
relationships and resilience
www.choppinitup.org

16. This is a story of
one community’s
Choppin’ it Up commitment to
create change.
DPC
Engaging the
strengths of
their youth.
Emerging Leaders

17. Youth and Community Dialogue
What impact does abuse in relationships
have on you?
What does healthy mean to you? What
does a healthy relationship look like?
How do you navigate to health?
What do you need to support you?
Key questions from a
resilience perspective

18. Listening to stories of resilience
Multiplicity of identities, voices and stories
Creative resources and strengths
Sometimes powerful hidden resilience
ity
x
mple
Co
(www.choppinitup.org to hear stories of strength and resilience.)

19. Our own experiences with resilience

20. Beliefs >>
Influence Language
The beliefs we hold influence language
Language we use
Stories we tell
How often we tell them
Voices that are included
Voices that are left out

21. Language and Images
Generate Action
Language and images lead to action
Positive images of our self and others
Images of the future from action and
strengths in the present
We get to choose which images propel us
to resilience and thriving.
Cooperrider, D., Sorensen, P., Whitney, D., & Yaeger, T. (2001).

22. Statistics
Let’s talk about statistics. Apparently I’m supposed to be
pregnant, a drop out, disrespectful and have no morals.
I’m actually in school. I have a 3.5 grade point average.
I have goals and morals.
I plan on going to school and
majoring in pre law and criminal
justice.

23. The Amazing Brain:
Risk and Resiliency
Neuroplasticity=
the ability of the
human brain to
adapt and change in
response to
experience and
environment.

24. What is Trauma?
“Overwhelming demands placed
on the physiological system that
result in a profound felt sense of
vulnerability and/or loss of
control.” (Robert Macy)
Bassuk, Konnath & Volk, 2006

25. TRAUMA Brain always
prioritizes survival
BRAIN
HPA Axis
Stress hormones
Cascade of physical, mental,
cognitive and behavioral effects

26. Sequential Development of a Child ’s Brain
Abstract Thought
Problem solving
Affiliation
NEUROPLASTICITY
Attachment
Emotional Reactivity
Motor Regulation
Sleep
Digestion
Blood Pressure
Heart Rate
Respiration
Body Temperature
Peter Camburn

27. Sequential Vulnerability
Poor social skills
Reading decrement
Speech problems
Attention problems
Separation anxiety
Aggressive
behaviors
Hypervigilance
Failure to thrive
Stomach problems
Sleep problems
Low stress
tolerance
Peter Camburn
What other effects does violence have on children?

28. Understanding Developmental
Experiences  Tasks
Healing
And
Recovery
Coping
Environmental
Strategies
Buffers
Adapted from diagram on promoting social & emotional well-being
To facilitate healing/recovery by Commissioner Bryan Samuels, ACYF

29. What Children Exposed to DV Need
RESILIENCY NEUROPLASTICITY
Feel physically and
emotionally safe Survival first!
Strong bond to non- Social connections build
battering parent brain connections
Express feelings & frustrations Skill-building for impulse
in non-destructive ways control & self-soothing
Have their strengths Promote self-esteem and
praised and called upon competency to explore &
experience the world
Bancroft, 2004

30. What We Can Do
•Developmentally appropriate
experiences to heal the brain
•Babies learn best through social
interactions
•Increase child-adult time
•Reduce exposure to media
violence and “media parenting”
•Active, experiential learning,
enrichment programs
•Head Start
•Home visitation Magic Trees of the Mind”
by Dr. Marian Diamond

31. Shelter, INC Foster Youth
Nurtured Heart Parent Support Health Collaborative
Approach
SEL in Schools Choppin’ it Up
Head Start
WIC Teen Dating Abuse

32. Discussion

33. www.familiesthrive.org
info@familiesthrive.org

34. NEUROPLASTICITY AND THE
IMPACT OF VIOLENCE ON CHILDREN:
RISK AND RESILIENCY
Linda Chamberlain PhD MPH
Alaska Family Violence Prevention Project

35. Best Practices to Promote
Resiliency and Neuroplasticity
Healing relationships
◦ Work with nonbattering parent &
children
Social emotional learning & skills
◦ Empathy
Social
support
Trauma-informed parenting skills

36. Resource www.instituteforsafefamilies.org

37. Resource: Strategies to Strengthen
Non-battering Parent-Child Bond
Reassurance
Be willing to talk about the violence
Ask how the violence made them feel
Encourage healthy coping strategies
Baker L, Cunningham A. Helping Children Thrive: Supporting Women
Abuse Survivors as Mothers. 2004. www.lfac.on.ca

38. Resource: A Kid is So Special (KISS)
Series of booklets developed by the
Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic
Violence
These interactive booklets are designed to
strengthen mother-child bonds
◦“Growing Together” discusses child development
◦ “Playing Together” includes information on what a
parent can do when there is hurting at home
Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV) at 800-537-2238

39. Best Practices: Child-Parent Psychotherapy
(CPP)
 Tailored to age & development stage of child
 Considers child in context of parental relationship
- supporting mother as primary intervention
 Flexible intervention model includes:
 Crisis stabilization and advocacy
 Facilitatechild’s expression through play, verbalization,
acting out fears, and anger
 Help mother to understand child’s behaviors and find
protective ways to respond
 Modeling appropriate protective behaviors
www.ncts.org; Lieberman et al, 1997; 2006

40. Child Parent Psychotherapy
At end of one-year treatment period (RCT
Lieberman et al,2005):
◦ Children had fewer behavioral problems, decreased
trauma symptoms, and less likely to be diagnosed
with PTSD
◦ Mothers have fewer postttraumatic stress avoidance
symptoms
◦ Six months after intervention ended, children had
fewer behavior problems and mothers had fewer
psychiatric symptoms (RCT, Lieberman et al, 2006)

41. IQ and Exposure to DV
Dose response relationship between level
of severity of children’s cumulative
exposure to DV and IQ scores (Koenen et
al, 2003)
Trauma-specific treatment (CPP) improves
IQ {performance, verbal, and full scale}
scores (Lieberman et al, 2005)

42. Transformation
This is not about changing youth. It is
about unearthing what already exists,
transforming narratives about youth to
highlight their strengths, their hopes, and
their dreams.
(Whitney & Trosten-Bloom, 2010)

43. Beliefs >>
Support Resilience
Resilience begins with beliefs
Resiliencebegins with a change in
consciousness,
beginning with an act of belief,
often in the face of accumulated evidence
to the contrary.
Gervase Bushe 2002 (Adapted)

44. Resilience >> Relational
We coordinate with the resources and people
around us,
•generating alternative ways,
•for “going on together” or living our lives,
•to survive and thrive in the face of challenge.
Resilience is our ability
to ‘go on together’.

45. Resilience >> Community
We develop capacity to support each other
through building relationships of:
• trust,
• reciprocity, and
• caring.
Resilience grows from our ability to
support each other in community.

46. Resilience >> Systems
Negotiations between individuals and their
environments:
for the resources
to define themselves as healthy
amidst conditions collectively viewed as adverse.
Systems that are responsive, build resilience.
Resilience is contextual,
supported by responsive systems.
Michael Ungar

47. Resilience>>
Responsive Systems

48. Community and Systems
Disintegration
Breakdown of community
Threat to those
life most vulnerable:
Loss of social capital •children
•youth
Loss of linkages that •young families
create sense of identity •elders
and belonging
Increased disconnection
The forces of community disintegration have gained steadily and will prevail
unless we nurture community and reweave the social fabric. John Gardner

49. Resilience >>
Building Community
Quality of caring for each other
Strong neighborhood, organizational
and community networks
Positive social dynamics in community
High collective efficacy
High levels of trust and reciprocity
The social fabric is at the core for resilience along the lifespan.
While research shows us the absence of strong positive community contexts can be
devastating, the presence of strong positive community contexts can be transformational.

50. Resilience>>
Collaboration
Effective community and multisystem
collaboration depends on:

51. Responsive Systems>>
Prototyping
Caring – Reflexive and responsive to
individuals, families and communities
Capacity & Competency – Increasing our
knowledge and skills. Changing policies and
practices.
Communication & Connection – Regular and
ongoing communication. Creating shared
language. Developing relationships.
Coordination & Collaboration – Developing
partnerships.

52. Environmental Factors
Change environmental policies and
practices
Address issues of social injustice
Reflect on beliefs, voice and language we
use, stories we tell in systems.
Shift relational norms