Bancroft and Silverman have outlined 6 factors that contribute to a child's initial recovery from violence:
(1) A sense of physical and emotional safety in their current surroundings.Similarly, Pinheiro has listed four Key Skills that children need to develop to optimize long-term recovery:
(2) Structure, limits and predictability.
(3) A strong bond to the non-battering parent.
(4) Not to feel responsible to take care of adults.
(5) A strong bond to their siblings.
(6) Contact with the battering parent [only] with strong protection for children's physical and emotional safety. (Bancroft and Silverman 2002: 4-5)
(1) skills to identify, process and regulate emotion;Finally, engaging the social practices that allow family violence can provide continuing support for adult victims of childhood violence and help protect them from committing violence against their own children. (n2)
(2) anxiety management skills;
(3) skills to identify and alter inaccurate perceptions; and
(4) problem-solving skills. (n1)
***Notes1) “Trauma-specific cognitive behavioural interventions appear to be particularly effective in reducing victims’ anxiety, depression, sexual concerns and symptoms of PTSD.” (Pinheiro 2006: 84-85) Further, these four Key Skills are very similar to the four skills developed in Dialectial Behavior Therapy (respectively, Emotion Regulation, Distress Tolerance, Mindfulness, and Interpersonal Effectiveness). See Dimeff and Koerner (2007).2) “Efforts to eliminate harmful traditional practices have illustrated the importance of intervening at multiple levels – parents and families will find it hard to change their behaviour if the norms and behaviour in the wider community do not change.” (Pinheiro 2006: 88)
