Children's Needs – Parenting Capacity - Digital Education Resource ...

Which children are most at risk of significant harm? 93withdrawal used for coping with domestic violence or parental substance misuse canresult in later relationship difficulties.Research has highlighted a variety of mechanisms that may explain why somechildren who have experienced childhood maltreatment reported no mental healthproblems in adult life. Collishaw and colleagues (2007, p.213) report ‘resilientfunctioning appears to arise from the interaction between heritable factors, individualcharacteristics and experiential factors over time’. The study identified that goodqualityrelationships in childhood, adolescence and adulthood were especiallyimportant for adult psychological well-being for those who had experiencedchildhood abuse.Resilience is related to children having:a sense of self-esteem and self-confidencea belief in one’s self-efficacy and ability to deal with change and adaptationa repertoire of social problem solving approaches.Rutter (1985; 2007)Protective factors which are likely to foster such a cognitive set include a secure,stable, affectionate relationship and experiences of success and achievement (Rutter1985). See Collishaw et al. (2007) for a detailed discussion of resilience to adultpsychopathology.It is important that professionals do not pathologise all children who live in familieswhere a parent suffers from mental illness or a learning disability, has problemswith alcohol and drugs or is in a violent relationship. As we have already noted,although these issues serve to qualify children as ‘in need’ (HM Government 2006)a significant proportion show no long-term behavioural or emotional disturbance.Nonetheless, the health and development of a considerable number of children livingin these circumstances are adversely affected and would benefit from services.To sum upFactors which increase vulnerability The potential for genetic transmission of mental illness, learning disability,substance misuse and alcohol problems. Children most at risk of suffering significant harm are those living in familiesexposed to a multiplicity of problems, such as a combination of one ormore of the following: parental learning disability, mental illness, problemdrinking or drug misuse and domestic violence. The risk of long-term harm, such as poor mental health when adult, increaseswhen children are exposed to a multiplicity of adverse experiences.