Ways to Promote Children’s Resilience to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Adversities like the COVID-19 pandemic can cause stress for children. Rates of poverty, unemployment, parental mental health problems and substance abuse, child abuse and neglect, and intimate partner violence tend to rise during disasters. Children may not receive critical supports they need when community services are limited and fewer adults have direct contact with children. Research on resilience shows that protective factors can buffer children from harm and increase the chances they adapt positively to adversities. Families and communities can work together to promote these protective factors. This resource includes protective factors such as sensitive, responsive caregiving, meeting basic needs, emotional support, support for the caregiver’s wellbeing, social connectedness as well as specific tips for parents/caregivers and communities, states, tribes and territories.