Early childhood maltreatment and profiles of resilience among child welfare-involved children

Susan Yoon, Fei Pei, Jessica Logan, Nathan Helsabeck, Sherry Hamby, Natasha Slesnick

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Given the high burden of child maltreatment, there is an urgent need to know more about resilient functioning among those who have experienced maltreatment. The aims of the study were to: 1) identify distinct profiles of resilience across cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social domains in young children involved in the child welfare system; and 2) examine maltreatment characteristics and family protective factors in relation to the identified resilience profiles. A secondary analysis was conducted using data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW-II). Latent profile analysis was performed on a sample of 827 children aged 3-5 years (46% girls, Mean age = 3.96). Three distinct resilience profiles were identified: 1) low cognitive resilience (24%); 2) low emotional and behavioral resilience (20%); and 3) multidomain resilience (56%). Caregiver cognitive stimulation, no out-of-home placement, higher caregiver education level, older child age, and being a girl were associated with the multidomain resilience profile. The findings provide empirical support for the multifaceted nature of resilience and suggest that practitioners need to help children achieve optimal and balanced development by assessing, identifying, and targeting those domains in which children struggle to obtain competence.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)711-723
Number of pages13
JournalDevelopment and Psychopathology
Volume35
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 May 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press.

Keywords

  • child maltreatment
  • early childhood
  • latent profile analysis
  • resilience

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