“I Can Control Me”: Protective Factors of Resilience in Child Maltreatment Survivors

• In Event: Positive and Strengths-Based Approaches to Understanding Trauma and Mental Health

Abstract

Childhood maltreatment literature predicts that victims of childhood trauma are at greater risk of engaging in deviant or criminal behavior throughout adolescence and adulthood. However, there are childhood maltreatment survivors who refrain from criminal or antisocial behavior and ultimately become resilient, productive members of society. Protective factors such as prosocial behaviors and supports help promote overall health and quality of life in survivors, which in turn prevents the likelihood of criminal or deviant behavior. Our analysis of data collected from interviews with 24 participants identified internal and external protective factors throughout the life course that promoted resilience to antisocial and criminal behavior. Increased prevalence of external protective factors (e.g. social supports, extracurricular involvements, and self-care practices) as well as internal protective factors (e.g. perseverance, will-power, and self-reliance) were associated with respondents self-identifying as resilient. The findings suggest that protective factors established earlier in the life course increased the likelihood that survivors of childhood maltreatment developed positive coping skills and resiliency and refrained from participation in criminal behaviors through adulthood.

Authors

• Samantha Manuel, University of Texas at Dallas

• Lynne Vieraitis, University of Texas at Dallas