PVSchools Community Education

At its heart, the Strengthening FamiliesTM Protective Factors Framework is all about supporting families

to build key protective factors that enable children to thrive. Protective factors are characteristics or strengths that promote positive well-being and healthy development. Most often, we see them as attributes that help families successfully navigate difficult situations. The Protective Factors Framework is a research-based approach to working with families that focuses on their strengths, and encourages the growth of five protective factors:

1. Parental resilience: Managing stress and functioning well when faced with challenges, adversity and trauma
2. Social connections: Positive relationships that provide emotional, informational, instrumental and spiritual support
3. Knowledge of parenting and child development: Understanding child development and parenting strategies that support physical, cognitive, language, social and emotional development
4. Concrete support in times of need: Access to concrete support and services that address a family’s needs and help minimize stress caused by challenges
5. Social and emotional competence of children: Family and child interactions that help children develop the ability to communicate clearly, recognize and regulate their emotions and establish and maintain relationships