Promoting Resilience in Children Exposed to War and Political Violence by Strengthening Parenting

Abstract

A key factor associated with children’s resilience in the face of adversity is access to an effective parent or caregiver. Decades of research have shown that parenting practices are malleable and that improvements in parenting predict improvements in children’s development. However, the application of parenting interventions to the population of children and families affected by war and political violence is relatively new. This chapter briefly reviews the theoretical and conceptual rationale for parenting interventions in the context of political violence and war and provides data from passive and intervention studies to demonstrate the potential for parenting interventions to strengthen children’s resilience following political adversity. The chapter reviews observational parenting studies, parenting interventions for war and political violence that are based on the parenting interventions known as Generation PMTO (the Parent Management Training–Oregon model), as well as data from feasibility and randomized controlled trials.