Children and Violence: Nurturing Social‐Emotional Development to Promote Mental Health

Abstract

The absence of violence against children is a fundamental children's right and a major milestone of civilized society. Similarly, reports on incidences of violence by children and youth, including severe cases with devastating consequences, speak to the need that the trauma of exposure to violence in childhood needs to be addressed. While violence and its risk factors are generally understood, what is less clear are the essential protective factors, how we can identify those as early as possible, and how we can use them to prevent and address the trauma of violence exposure in children and youth. In this report, I review pathways of child and youth violence through the lens of social-emotional development as a central protective factor. Negative emotions of frustration and anger can underlie violence and aggression. Kind emotions, such as caring and our ability to connect with others emotionally, can serve as social-emotional protective factors. A brief review of the central social-emotional processes and their development is provided, including the human capacity to feel with others and express empathy, be emotionally aware and care about the effects of one's own actions on others, and be able to regulate the self and their emotions. Given the negative widespread and long-term impact of exposure to violence, I describe research-informed attempts to prevent violence exposure across development. Taking a humanistic, strength-based perspective, the focus is on social-emotional protective factors to address violence and nurture mental health in every child. I conclude with recommendations for practice and policy.

Toward complementarity: Specificity and commonality in social‐emotional development

“…Social-emotional development pertains to how these processes change over the lifespan. It is complex, as it involves understanding one's own and others' internal affective states, desires, and needs, as well as abilities to coordinate diverse perspectives (Malti, 2020;Malti & Song, 2018). These processes change dynamically across childhood and adolescence as capacities and contexts change, requiring the continuous adaptation and re-balancing of self-and otheroriented needs.…”

“…Taking the uniqueness of every child's social-emotional development seriously means to design and implement assessments and developmentally sensitive interventions that respond as caringly and sensitively as possible to every child's needs in a highly individualized manner. While extant social-emotional programs mostly account for age-related differences, the heterogeneity in social-emotional development within age groups and within and between specific populations, both at any point in development and across time, still need to be addressed much more carefully and comprehensively (Gonzales et al, 2016;Malti, 2020;Malti et al, 2016).…”

“…Taxonomies of social-emotional development propose that its components can be organized and understood along two core dimensions: self-versus other-orientation and over-versus under-regulation. Self-versus otherorientation refers to whether the social-emotional component is predominantly focused on the self (e.g., self-conscious emotions, such as feelings of guilt following one's own wrongdoing), others (e.g., other-oriented emotions, such as empathy/sympathy for those in need), or both the self and others (e.g., social understanding requiring the integration of one's own and others' perspectives) in a way that is adequate for one's age or developmental level (Malti, 2016(Malti, , 2020; see Eisenberg, 2000;Hoffman, 2000). Considering over-versus underregulation helps one understand how a social-emotional component is likely expressed given the individual's ability to regulate and balance their emotional arousal (Thompson, 1994;see Eisenberg et al, 2010).…”

Refugee Children’s Social–Emotional Capacities: Links to Mental Health upon Resettlement and Buffering Effects on Pre-Migratory Adversity

“…The current study builds upon this work by exploring the potential protective roles of social-emotional capacities. Social-emotional capacities have been shown to promote mental health [28], but they have rarely been explored as protective for children in the refugee context.…”

Family Violence and its Impact on Children’s Mental Health During COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Family violence varies in types and it could include intense hatred, beating, insulting, offending or threatening. Family violence is usually the result of low understanding -or complete ignorance-of parenting methods [13] In the United States, offices from the nation over are likewise detailing an expansion in abusive behavior at home. Notwithstanding danger of physical mischief, casualties are likewise at incredible danger of enthusiastic damage and misuse.…”