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ISSUE BRIEF

February 2014

Protective Factors 

Approaches in Child Welfare

WHAT’S INSIDE

What are risk and 

protective factors?

Why is a protective 

factors approach 

important?

Using protective factors 

in child maltreatment

Mapping connections 

across protective 

factors approaches

Individual protective 

factors

Relational protective 

factors

Societal or community 

protective factors

Putting protective 

factors into practice

Conclusion

Resources

This issue brief provides a succinct overview 

of protective factors approaches to the 

prevention and treatment of child abuse and 

neglect. It is designed to help policymakers, 

administrators, child welfare and related 

professionals, service providers, advocates, 

and other interested individuals understand 

the concepts of risk and protective factors 

in families and communities and learn ways 

in which building protective factors can help 

to lessen risks for child abuse and neglect.

What Are Risk and Protective Factors?

Risk factors refer to the stressful conditions, 

events, or circumstances (e.g., maternal 

depression, substance abuse, family violence, 

persistent poverty) that increase a family’s 

chances for poor outcomes, including child 

abuse and neglect. Protective factors are 

conditions or attributes of individuals, families, 

communities, or the larger society that mitigate 

risk and promote healthy development and wellbeing. Put simply, they are the strengths that 

help to buffer and support families at risk. 
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Why Is a Protective Factors 

Approach Important? 

Traditionally, child maltreatment prevention and 

intervention strategies have focused exclusively on 

risk factors and their elimination. We now know that 

changing the balance between risk and protective 

factors so that protective factors outweigh risk factors 

is a more effective prevention and intervention 

strategy. Helping children and families build resilience 

and develop skills, characteristics, knowledge, and 

relationships that offset risk exposure can contribute 

to both short- and long-term positive outcomes. 

Using a protective factors approach can be a 

positive way to engage families because it focuses 

on families’ strengths and what they are doing right. 

Focusing exclusively on risk factors with families 

can leave families feeling stigmatized or unfairly 

judged. Also, a protective factors approach can 

provide a strong platform for building collaborative 

partnerships with other service providers—like child 

care—that are not as familiar or comfortable with a 

risk paradigm as a basis for engaging families. 

Using Protective Factors in 

Child Maltreatment

The emphasis on protective factors continues to grow, 

and today they are used by practitioners, policymakers, 

and researchers to improve child, family, and community 

well-being. Currently, there are several key protective 

factors approaches in use, including the following:

 Strengthening FamiliesTM and Youth ThriveTM were 

developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy 

(CSSP).

 Essentials for Childhood is an approach developed by 

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

 The Administration on Children, Youth and Families 

(ACYF), Administration for Children and Families, U.S. 

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 

is currently working on an approach that identifies 

protective factors specifically relevant across the 

populations served by ACYF. 

This brief aligns and interconnects the information 

across these protective factors approaches. 

Strengthening Families

Strengthening Families is focused on building 

five protective factors that are associated in the 

research literature with lower rates of child abuse 

and neglect and with optimal child development:

 Parental Resilience

 Social Connections

 Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development 

 Concrete Support in Times of Need

 Social-Emotional Competence of Children 

Strengthening Families is the most well-established 

and broadly used protective factors approach in the 

field of child abuse and neglect prevention. In addition 

to the research literature, the development of the 

Strengthening Families approach was supported by:1

 A national study of exemplary practice

 A 2-year, seven-State pilot study

 Structured learning from a national network of 

implementers

 Learning from four research studies being conducted 

under the ACYF-funded National Quality Improvement 

Center on Early Childhood

More than 40 States have initiated statewide 

Strengthening Families efforts, and a majority of all States 

are using Strengthening Families for child abuse and 

neglect prevention programming. It is also being used in 

multiple other sectors, including early childhood, child 

welfare services, family support, and home visiting, to 

name a few. Because of its longstanding application in 

the field, Strengthening Families is also supported by 

a wide range of implementation tools and materials, as 

well as active learning communities of implementers. 

More information on Strengthening Families can be 

found at http://www.StrengtheningFamilies.net. 

1 More information on this work can be found at the following link: http://

www.cssp.org/reform/strengthening-families/resources/Research-BehindStrengthening-Families-2012.pptx
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Youth Thrive

The Youth Thrive protective factors approach focuses on 

adolescents, with a particular focus on youth receiving 

child welfare services. This approach describes how youth 

can be supported by parents and practitioners in ways 

that advance healthy development and well-being and 

reduce the impact of negative life experiences. There are 

five protective factors in the Youth Thrive framework:

 Youth Resilience

 Social Connections

 Knowledge of Adolescent Development

 Concrete Support in Times of Need

 Cognitive and Social-Emotional Competence

A national study of exemplary practice is underway 

to learn from programs that are building the Youth 

Thrive protective factors into their practice with 

youth facing challenging circumstances. New Jersey 

is piloting the application of Youth Thrive to the 

youth services provided for youth involved with child 

welfare. More Youth Thrive implementation tools 

will be available to the field in coming years.

Essentials for Childhood

The CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention 

and Control has defined three critical qualities of 

relationships and environments that can reduce the 

occurrence and negative effects of child maltreatment 

and other adverse childhood experiences: 

 Safety: The extent to which a child is free from fear and 

secure from physical or psychological harm within his 

or her social and physical environment

 Stability: The degree of predictability and consistency 

in a child’s social, emotional, and physical environment

 Nurturing: The extent to which a parent or caregiver 

is available and able to sensitively and consistently 

respond to and meet the needs of his or her child

CDC’s Essentials for Childhood focuses on four goals 

that are critical for creating the context for safe, 

stable, nurturing relationships and environments:

 Raise awareness and commitment to promote safe, 

stable, nurturing relationships and environments and 

prevent child maltreatment

 Use data to inform actions

 Create the context for healthy children and families 

though norms change and programs

 Create the context for healthy children and families 

through policies

While each individual goal is important, the four goals 

together are more likely to build the comprehensive 

foundation of safe, stable, and nurturing relationships 

and environments for children. CDC has funded five 

State health departments to implement the Essentials for 

Childhood framework. The work of these grantees should 

provide additional implementation tools and resources 

for those interested in comprehensive strategies to 

promote safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and 

environments for all children. More information on 

Essentials for Childhood can be found here: http://www.

cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childmaltreatment/essentials/ 

ACYF Literature Review on 

Protective Factors

The Children’s Bureau, within ACYF, has long supported 

a focus on protective factors. Through its work to 

support programs, research, and monitoring systems 

that prevent child abuse and neglect, the Children’s 

Bureau has integrated key elements of Strengthening 

Families’ protective factors framework into its ongoing 

prevention work through the Office on Child Abuse 

and Neglect. Based on feedback from the field, the 

Children’s Bureau also incorporated a sixth protective 

factor—nurturing and attachment—for prevention 

efforts and has been infusing this protective factor 

in its work.2

 (A child’s early experience of being 

nurtured and developing a bond with a caring adult 

affects all aspects of behavior and development.)

Broadening this approach, in 2012, ACYF commissioned 

a literature review and expert consultation project to 

2 For example, see work from the FRIENDS National Resource Center on the 

Protective Factors Survey at http://friendsnrc.org/protective-factors-survey.
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understand the strength of evidence that exists for 

protective factors for the populations it serves: youth 

in or transitioning out of foster care, children/youth 

exposed to domestic violence, victims of child abuse and 

neglect, pregnant and parenting youth, and runaway and 

homeless youth. One key finding from the 2012 review 

was the lack of available research on protective factors 

for a number of ACYF target populations. Other key 

findings showed that the needs of extremely vulnerable 

children are not so very different from those of other 

at-risk children, suggesting that the general literature 

on at-risk populations might be a good place to identify 

potential protective factors and interventions for ACYF 

populations. In addition, protective factors need to be 

built into all domains of the social ecology—individual, 

family, and community/society—in order for these 

children, youth, and families to thrive (see below). 

ACYF identified 10 protective factors,3

 with the 

strongest level of evidence, across these domains:

 Self-Regulation

 Relational Skills

 Problem-Solving Skills

 Involvement in Positive Activities

 Parenting Competencies

 Caring Adults

 Positive Peers

 Positive Community

 Positive School Environments

 Economic Opportunities

The full literature review and more detailed information 

about protective factors for each of the specific populations is available at http://www.dsgonline.com/ACYF. 

3 These 10 factors apply to all the populations served by ACYF. The full 

literature review includes a separate list of relevant factors that are specific 

to each ACYF population (i.e., youth in or transitioning out of foster care, 

children/youth exposed to domestic violence, victims of child abuse and 

neglect, pregnant and parenting youth, and runaway and homeless youth).

Mapping Connections Across 

Protective Factors Approaches

Each of the described approaches synthesizes a broad 

range of existing literature in order to identify a discrete 

set of protective factors. In the process, they align and 

group research findings that are linked to the definition 

of the protective factor. Often, definitions overlap so 

that a certain study, for example, might be cited in one 

approach to support the importance of social-emotional 

competence in children and in another approach to 

support the importance of self-regulation in children. 

This section of the brief compares the definitional 

language used by each approach in order to better 

understand the overlap and alignment. The social 

ecological framework is used to organize this comparison. 

Each approach’s protective factors are placed in 

individual, relational, and social/community domains.

What Is Social Ecological Theory?

Social ecological theory examines how the 

experiences of individuals are shaped and interact 

with the structures and systems around them. 

Most social ecological theory uses concentric 

rings to illustrate how individuals are shaped 

by the environments closest to them.
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Individual Protective Factors

The ACYF review, Youth Thrive, and Strengthening Families each address individual protective factors. Overall, there 

is good agreement among these approaches that children and youth’s internal skills provide a strong platform for 

their overall well-being and positive outcomes. The internal skills associated with positive outcomes include:

 Regulation of emotion and action

 Ability to connect and interact effectively with others

 Ability to proactively respond to challenging circumstances and plan for life in ways that head off adversity

The chart below digs deeper into how the protective factors under each approach connect.

Table 1: Individual Protective Factors

ACYF Strengthening Families Youth Thrive

Self-Regulation: a youth’s ability 

to manage or control emotions and 

behaviors

Relational Skills: (1) a youth’s ability to 

form positive bonds and connections 

and (2) interpersonal skills such as 

communication, conflict resolution, and 

self-efficacy in conflict situations

Social-Emotional Competence in Young 

Children: the ability of the children to 

recognize their own and others’ emotions, 

take the perspective of others, and use 

their emerging cognitive skills to think 

about appropriate and inappropriate 

ways of acting

Social, Emotional, and Cognitive 

Competence of Youth: the interrelated 

components of cognitive and socialemotional competence, including selfregulation, future orientation, planning, 

positive self-concept, self-esteem, 

self-efficacy, self-compassion, personal 

responsibility, character strengths, and 

positive emotions

Problem-Solving Skills: a youth’s 

adaptive functioning skills and ability 

to solve problems, including general 

problem-solving skills, self-efficacy in 

conflict situations, higher daily living 

scores, decision-making skills, planning 

skills, adaptive functioning skills, and taskoriented coping skills

Youth Resilience: the ability of youth to 

call forth their inner strength to positively 

meet challenges, manage adversities, 

heal the effects of trauma, and thrive, 

given their unique characteristics, goals, 

and circumstances

Involvement in Positive Activities:

engagement in and/or achievement 

in school, extracurricular activities, 

employment, training, apprenticeships, or 

the military

Social Connections: the need for youth 

to be constructively engaged in social 

institutions—like schools, religious 

communities and recreational facilities—

that are safe, stable, and equitable

Concrete Supports in Times of Need:

helping youth to identify, find, and receive 

concrete supports to help ensure they 

receive the basic necessities everyone 

deserves in order to grow and thrive

Knowledge of Youth Development: the 

benefit that young people themselves 

can gain from increasing their knowledge 

and understanding about adolescent 

development
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Relational Protective Factors

All four of the protective factors approaches address relational protective factors. Essentials for Childhood, developed 

by the CDC, puts the development of safe, stable, and nurturing relationships with the caregiving and broader 

environment at the heart of its protective factors. Strengthening Families focuses largely on the importance of the 

parental relationship and the building of parental protective factors as a pathway to optimal development and lower 

rates of child abuse and neglect for young children. Youth Thrive looks at the importance of social connections as 

an important protective factor for youth. The results of ACYF’s literature review point to the importance of nurturing 

by parents and other adults as well as positive peer relationships. Overall, the following conclusions can be drawn:

 Relationships matter.

 It is the quality of these relationships that matter.

 The parental relationship is particularly important, and investments that build parents’ skills, capacity, and ability to 

nurture are an important pathway to positive child outcomes.

Table 2: Relational Protective Factors

ACYF CDC Strengthening Families Youth Thrive

Parenting Competencies:

parenting skills (e.g., 

parental monitoring and 

discipline, prenatal care, and 

setting clear standards and 

developmentally appropriate 

limits

Create the context for 

healthy children and 

families through norms 

change and programs:

implement evidence-based 

programs for parents that 

support development of 

skills to provide safe, stable, 

and nurturing relationships 

for their children; promote 

positive community norms 

about parenting programs 

and acceptable parenting 

behaviors; make it easy for 

parents and caregivers to 

participate in parenting 

programs

Knowledge of Parenting 

and Child Development:

parent’s willingness to seek 

and ability to apply knowledge 

of parenting and child 

development

Knowledge of Youth 

Development: parents 

and other adults work to 

increase their knowledge 

and understanding about 

adolescent development

Parenting Competencies: 

positive parent-child 

interactions (e.g., close 

relationship between parent 

and child, sensitive parenting, 

support, caring)

Social Emotional 

Competence of Children:

a parent’s ability to nurture 

children’s social emotional 

skills

Parental Resilience: the 

capacity of parents to maintain 

stability, be calm, and provide 

nurturing support, despite 

difficult or challenging 

circumstances
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Table 2: Relational Protective Factors

ACYF CDC Strengthening Families Youth Thrive

Caring Adults: refers to caring 

adults beyond the nuclear 

family, such as mentors, home 

visitors (especially for pregnant 

and parenting teens), older 

extended family members, or 

individuals in the community

Promote the community 

norm that we all share 

responsibility for the wellbeing of children

Youth Resilience: this is aided 

by a trusting relationship with 

a caring, encouraging, and 

competent adult who provides 

positive guidance and 

promotes high expectations

Social Connections: 

the need that youth have for 

people inside and outside 

of their family who care 

about them; who can be 

nonjudgmental listeners; to 

whom they can turn for wellinformed guidance and advice; 

who encourage them and 

promote high expectations; 

and who set developmentally 

appropriate limits, rules, and 

monitoring

Positive Peers: friendships 

with peers, support from 

friends, or positive peer norms

Social Connections: youth’s 

peer relationships that 

provide social, emotional, and 

instrumental support 

Concrete Supports in Times 

of Need: access for parents 

to concrete supports and 

services (e.g., housing, food, 

transportation) that address 

needs and help to minimize 

the stress caused by very 

difficult challenges and 

adversity
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Societal or Community Protective Factors

While the ACYF approach is the only one that looks specifically at community-level protective factors, the other 

three explicitly address questions about the type of systemic, societal, and community-level changes that are 

needed in order to support their protective factors approaches. In general, all three approaches agree that,

 To more broadly ensure that all children and families have opportunities to build protective factors not only requires 

changes in services, but also broader societal shifts that will impact both communities and institutions.

Table 3: Societal or Community Protective Factors

ACYF CDC Strengthening Families Youth Thrive

Positive Community:

neighborhood advantage 

or quality, religious service 

attendance, living in a safe and 

higher quality environment, 

a caring community, social 

cohesion, and positive 

community norms 

Raise awareness and 

commitment to support 

safe, stable, nurturing 

relationships and 

environments: adopt the 

vision of ensuring this for 

every child, raise awareness in 

support of the vision, partner 

with others to unite behind the 

vision

Create the context for 

healthy children and families 

through norms change 

and programs: promote the 

community norm that we all 

share the responsibility for 

the well-being of children; 

promote positive community 

norms about parenting 

programs and acceptable 

parenting behaviors

Create the context for 

healthy children and families 

through policies: Identify and 

assess which organizational 

and regulatory policies, laws, 

and ordinances may positively 

impact the lives of children 

and families; provide decision 

makers and community 

leaders with information on 

the benefits of evidencebased strategies and rigorous 

evaluation

Parents’ constructive 

and supportive social 

connections—that is, 

relationships with family 

members, friends, neighbors, 

co-workers, community 

members and service 

providers.

Social Connections: the need 

for youth to be constructively 

engaged in social 

institutions—like schools, 

religious communities, and 

recreational facilities—that are 

safe, stable and equitable

Positive School 

Environments: the existence 

of supportive programming in 

schools
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Table 3: Societal or Community Protective Factors

ACYF CDC Strengthening Families Youth Thrive

Economic Opportunities:

household income and 

socioeconomic status; 

a youth’s self-perceived 

resources; employment, 

apprenticeship, coursework, 

and/or military involvement; 

and placement in a foster care 

setting (from a poor setting)

Putting Protective Factors 

Into Practice

A number of jurisdictions are already applying protective 

factors approaches. The following are some examples:

 Since 2009, the Idaho Children’s Trust Fund has 

required all child abuse and neglect prevention 

grantees to demonstrate how they are building 

protective factors into their work. Grantees are also 

asked to use the Protective Factors Survey developed 

by the FRIENDS National Resource Center to evaluate 

their programs to establish consistent measurement 

of outcomes related to protective factors. The 

Idaho Children’s Trust provides ongoing training 

and technical assistance to all grantees, including a 

Strengthening Families Training Institute that brings 

in best practices from around the country. http://

idahochildrenstrustfund.idaho.gov/neglect.asp

 In Kansas, Sedgwick and Marion Counties have used a 

protective factors framework to organize local planning 

and to guide collaboration. The protective factors 

have allowed local partnerships to expand to include 

representation from law enforcement, hospitals, faithbased organizations, and the business community. The 

process has led to development of strategic plans, a 

focus on data-driven decision-making, implementation 

of new programming—such as the Period of PURPLE 

Crying—and increased public awareness, including 

community positive parenting calendars. http://www.

cssp.org/reform/strengthening-families/nationalnetwork/2012-state-profiles/Kansas-2012.pdf

In 2012, New Jersey created the Task Force on Helping 

Youth Thrive in Placement (HYTIP). The task force 

has been charged with completing a comprehensive 

and critical analysis of current practice and policies 

surrounding adolescents and youth in out-of-home 

care settings using the protective and promotive 

factors outlined in the Youth Thrive Framework. 

This analysis will be used to inform specific changes 

in policies and practices. http://www.state.nj.us/

dcf/providers/notices/nonprofit/youth.html

In Philadelphia, the adoption of a protective factors 

approach is one part of Improving Outcomes for 

Children (IOC), a comprehensive restructuring of the 

approach to serving children and families when abuse 

and neglect has occurred. The IOC is building new 

partnerships between the Department of Human 

Services (DHS), which will continue to maintain 

oversight and investigative responsibilities, and 

community umbrella agencies (CUAs) that will be 

responsible for the day-to-day casework with families. 

A protective factors approach will provide a common 

framework for practice for both CUA and DHS staff. 

○ Training: All staff in direct contact with children 

and families will receive training on Strengthening 

Families. In addition, Charting the Course, the 

10-module foundation training for all individuals 

who will be holding a child welfare caseload is being 

adapted so workers can clearly see how to build 
Protective Factors Approaches in Child Welfare https://www.childwelfare.gov

Suggested citation:

Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2014). Protective 

factors approaches in child welfare. Washington, DC: 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

protective factors through their existing practice 

with families.

○ Practice Guidelines: Practice guidelines for 

the CUAs have the protective factors approach 

integrated into them. 

○ Staffing: Each CUA will have two dedicated staff 

positions that will be responsible for helping 

to connect families to resources, activities, and 

supports that will enhance their protective factors. 

In addition, supervisory materials and tools are 

being developed to help supervisors coach workers 

on how to work with families using a protective 

factors approach. 

○ Resources for Parents: Capacity is being built 

within each CUA to host parent cafés—parent-toparent conversations around protective factors. 

http://dynamicsights.com/dhs/ioc/

Conclusion

The growing recognition of protective factors as a critical 

aspect of all work for and with children and families is long 

overdue. The strong consistency and overlap between 

this established, ongoing, and new work also underscores 

the salience of this strength-based approach across 

many disciplines. There is a powerful synergy between 

what research demonstrates children need in order 

to thrive and avoid bad outcomes and what the family 

support and child maltreatment prevention practice 

community has been working toward for many years. 

More work still needs to be done, including the following:

 Continue to expand the research base on protective 

factors and ensure that new research continues to 

inform the approaches being used in the field.

 Develop more valid and reliable tools and instruments 

to measure protective factor capacities in individuals, 

families, and communities.

 Continue to develop the body of implementation 

resources that support the ability of those that work 

with children and families to take these ideas and 

incorporate them into everyday practice.

 Promote the widespread adoption, implementation, 

and sustainability of protective factors approaches into 

the systems and services that support children and 

families.

Resources

 Strengthening Families information is available on 

the CSSP website: http://www.cssp.org/reform/

strengthening-families 

(State-specific information can be found at http://

www.cssp.org/reform/strengthening-families/

around-the-nation/states.) 

 Youth Thrive information is available on the CSSP 

website: http://www.cssp.org/reform/child-welfare/

youth-thrive

 Essentials for Childhood information is available on the 

CDC website: http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/

childmaltreatment/essentials/index.html

 Information on the ACYF protective factors, as it 

becomes available, can be found on the Child Welfare 

Information Gateway web section on Preventing Child 

Abuse and Neglect: https://www.childwelfare.gov/

preventing/

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Administration for Children and Families

Administration on Children, Youth and Families

Children’s Bureau