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.
Childhood Exposure to Domestic Violence and Health
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
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
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.)
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
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
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
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.
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
Hinweis der Redaktion
Resilience offers a useful framework to shift our thinking from a deficit view of children and youth to a strengths-based view. The theory of resilience is a lens that we can bring to our work that helps us to see how people navigate their way to what they define as healthy amidst even the most adverse conditions. In learning from how people marshal their strengths, resources and relationships in the midst of significant adversity, we can build responsive systems to help support, strengthen, and build upon these resources.
A positive view of the strengths of "at-risk" individuals, families, and communities does not ignore their problems or difficulties or the critical need to ameliorate or prevent the harm caused by these difficulties. The key assumptions of this strengths-based approach is that individuals, families, and communities are defined not by their difficulty, but rather by their multiple strengths, and that the amelioration of current difficulties or the prevention of future difficulties begins with the identification and marshaling of these strengths.
This representation takes into account that our expriences of helath and well being are socially constructed, complex and contextual. How we understand resilience is negotiated discursively and infuenced by the culture and context in which it is experienced/found. This means that all of this is local – up for definitng and contstruction locally. Broadly we will talk about Resilience nested in a social ecological model. Important point is how we coordinate together within these various relationships in ways that are meaningful and salient to us depending upon our experiences, our culture etc. Resilience is impacted by a child’s interaction and relationships with the various levels that influence their lives. Individual – positive adaptation in the context of significant adversity Relational –how we coordinate with the important relationships in our lives. For young children this is primarily our important caregivers and varies depending upon our culture etc. As we grow older the relationships we begin coordinating with start to include people outside of our families, teachers, coaches, faith community, peers. These relationships are embedded within our communities – the communities that we participate in – neighborhoods, schools, youth programs. All of this is influenced by the contextual view and impact that systems have on our lives – and might include cultural, historical influences, services, politics/policies, media. We are not only just talking about the ordinary magic of resilience but also the very gritty reality of families, communities, our programs, government, changing the opportunity structures around children to make positive adaptation more likely – locally and culturally determined.
Framed within a positivist paradigm, proponents of an ecological model must necessarily choose arbitrary distinctions of what are to be accepted as evidences of healthy functioning. Such arbitrariness is more the result of ethnocentricism than cross-cultural study that questions the hegemony of Western middleclass norms. A constructionist interpretation encourages openness to a plurality of different contextually relevant definitions of health, offering a critical deconstruction of the power different health discourses carry. Each localized discourse that defines a group’s concept of resilience is privileged ,more or less depending on the power of those who articulate it. This understanding of resilience, based on discursive power rather than objective measures of health, has implications for the way researchers study resilience and intervene to promote health in at-risk populations. (UNGAR) Brings up the question – who gets to define, whose voice is included in defining what a caring relationship looks like or what safety, power and respect mean? And what positive prevention and successful life outcomes looks like? All of this depends on local definitions– Keeping in mind that all of this depends on local definitions definitions of what youth use – what is meaningful= =local interpretation of what safety and meaning look like – and what positive development – local meaning of what we define as healthy Youth voice – having a say in how things are defined.
Share our story --- of hope, what we are doing. Committed to bulding the community capacity to support their youth
When we share statistics and potential negative outcomes of childhood exposure to domestic violence we often create a dominant narrative or a single story about the impact of childhood exposure to family violence. This dominant narrative can lead to assumptions about each other, influencing the beliefs we hold, the stories that are told, and how often they are told. These assumptions can get in our way and impact our relationships with youth. They block us from developing a deeper understanding of each other, what we experience in our lives, and ways we find to get along in life.
What is possible within the work that you are doing Inspire with ideas of what this looks like in health sector What is the application Connecting it to actual examples of how this shows up
Here we can either present the case study to work from or have people think of one thing they could do to bring one of these elements into their work – beliefs, language stories Including voices Building upon or integrating protective factors Build or strengthen partnerships Changing policies or practices Break out into small groups for discussion Provide protective factor cards for each table Large group reflection – What have we learned, what is one small thing we can change/strengthen now?
Key characteristics of evidence-based interventions and what we understand about neuroplasticity
PETER: please make the following changes to the title at the top of this slide: “ Amazing Brain Series: Educational Resource for Parents” “ The Amazing Brain” is a series of booklets designed to educate parents about early brain development, the impact of trauma on early brain development, and how a child’s brain continues to change during adolescence. The booklets are written at the 5 th grade level in a user-friendly format.
Reassurance You will take care of them as best that you can You love them unconditionally You will help them to make a safety plan Be willing to talk about the violence Respect their feelings Acknowledge that these feelings are okay Help them to find the words to talk about their feelings Be prepared to hear things that may be painful Ask how the violence made them feel Encourage healthy coping strategies Talking with siblings, friends, safe adult Writing and journaling Drawing, music, arts Sports/exercise Counseling
The KISS booklets are provided in PDF format on the DVD provided with this training resource manual. Copies can also be purchased by contacting Jo Sterner at the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV) at 800-537-2238
This is less a story of transforming others. It is more a story of transforming ourselves and developing a deeper understanding of each other.
Reflexive, relatoinally and culturally responsive
Definition that teakes into consideration a cultural and contextual view of how resiliecen is expressed by individuals families and communities relationship between risk and protective factors that is characteristically chaotic, complex, relative, and contextual RELATIONAL PROCESS of understanding how we define health, how we navigate for the resources to define ourselves as healthy, what resources are available to us those with the most power to control social discourse influence our definition of what is health and what is illness. Focus on discursive empowerment of resilience that are plagued by cultural hegemony,
Building comAs we say resilient versus nonresilient we further pathologize. If we view health care of social services as a resource for people to draw upon - to navigate their lives and expressions of resilience - we might focus on how we increase access and cultural relevance as a measure of how responsive a system is. Does this change our view or definition of what a responsive system is? To make it easier and more relevant for people to navigate in ways they find meaningful to their self-definition of 'healthy'.munity capacity -
"Resilience is not something you do alone," he says. "Social cohesion is vital to resilience. People need to feel that they're a part of something larger rather than just atoms in the universe." Economics not indicative - communities that are represented with lower income and other similar demographics but differing levels of collective efficacy had different outcomes. Collective efficacy provides critical protective factors . Carnegie Task Force on Youth Development/Community Programs A community characterized by mutually caring relationships, high expectations, positive beliefs and respect for all citizens (especially those on the margins), with abundant opportunities to participate and contribute. Working in partnership with each other to ensure young people, old people and all in between, receive the critical supports and opportunities necessary for healthy development throughout the lifespan.
Building community capacity -
As we developed prototypes to tbegin to learn about what it would take to build a responsive system here are some of the things we have learned and pthings in development. collaborative, coordinated, and accessible community response to children and youth exposed to domestic violence. The goal of the resilience framework is to strengthen and sustain the protective factors and responsive services in multiple environments within communities to nurture and support the positive life success, health, safety, and well-being of all. Here are some of our benchmarks How are activities coordined