Rethinking Risk and Resilience in Childhood and Child Maltreatment

A rethink of the concepts of ‘risk’ and ‘resilience’ in childhood and child maltreatment is required in the light of theoretical discussions in the literature and findings from empirical research. The authors offer a reformulation of resilience, where creative human agency forms the locus of research interest and the site for intervention and prevention. They moreover propose a model intended to improve our understanding of the interplay between risk and resilience in childhood, and designed to stimulate theoretical development and empirical investigation. A critical and selective overview of current knowledge is put forward, along with an outlining of pointers emerging from what is known to date in the research and evidence base and the more notable gaps in the literature. It is concluded that more nuanced understandings situated within lifecourse perspectives are required, where the mutually determining nature of risk and resilience informed and shaped by creative human agency, within a wider systems perspective, is duly recognised. Some of the more significant implications are spelled out for policy, practice and research.