Protective Factor #1

Happy Monday to all!

Today, I would like to introduce each of you to the 6 Protective Factors which are often used in nurturing parenting programs. Here at Family Builders, we encourage families to recognize, initiate, and foster these factors into their home life.

These 6 Protective Factors which were identified by the government, were designed to help prevent child abuse and neglect. Recently, research has shown that when present in families and communities, the 6 Protective Factors have been linked to a lower rate and incidence of child abuse and neglect (nurturingparenting.com).

The 6 Protective Factors are:
1. Nurturing and Attachment
2. Knowledge of Parenting and Child and Youth Development
3. Parental Resilience
4. Social Connections
5. Concrete Support Services for Parents
6. Social and Emotional Competence of Children

For the next 6 weeks, I would like to focus on 1 of the 6 Protective Factors. This week, we will start with #1: Nurturing and Attachment

This factor is the first step in creating and nurturing a healthy family environment. According to Dictionary.com, the word "nurturing" means to feed and protect; to support and encourage; or to bring up, train, and educate.

Parents should be protecting, supporting, encouraging, training, and educating their children in every aspect of life, values, and skills possible. The act of nurturing builds a close bond between parent and child that allows  parents to better understand, respond to, and communicate with their children (fosteringhopeinitiative.org). When this bond of understanding occurs, with it comes a certain attachment between parent and child.

This attachment and bond leads to a greater development of trust between child and parent, and fosters an environment where a child can thrive on the guidance, love, and acceptance that only a parent can give them. A nurturing relationship allows for children to properly develop both mentally and spiritually, while helping parents to recognize early signs of trouble as the child grows.

Remember, nurturing does not just occur at the infant and toddler level of growth, but throughout a child's life. There are different ways of nurturing for different age groups, as well as varying from child to child and parent to parent. The concept of nurturing will vary between homes and lifestyles, but must be consistent in love, respect, encouragement, trust building, and positive parental responses to a child's behavior.

ChildWelfare.gov offers some parental strategies that help to promote nurturing:
-Infant care that promotes bonding, such as breastfeeding, rocking, responding to crying, and stability of caregivers
-recognizing the differences in how your children show and express affection
-learning to cope and manage nurturing a child with emotional or behavioral disabilities
-learning the difference between how a mother nurtures and how a father nurtures
-creating quality time to play and interact with your children
-using positive discipline
-communicating effectively

The websites given credit to in this blog are useful portals for further information on these topics and on Factor #1. Remember, these factors all attribute to positive parenting and may help to avoid family stress and violence in the home. Please, continue to do further research and educate yourselves on these important factors. Build families up and develop strategies to better development a happy and healthy home!