Cultural traditions, practices, and values promote family well-being and improve child welfare outcomes. Culture is an important element of each of the protective factors.
Strong ties with cultural identities can build resilience and act as a buffer against the effects of trauma. Maintaining connections to culture enhances the families' sense of belonging, identity, and reinforces social support networks. The passing down of traditional practices can strengthen parenting knowledge and confidence and improve healthy parent-child attachment.
Child welfare professionals should work to understand the cultural backgrounds of families and the past experiences families and their cultural communities have had with child welfare while promoting cultural connectedness among those they serve. Kinship care helps maintain and strengthen connections to family and culture and should be prioritized.
Protective factors may present differently in each culture or family. Child welfare professionals should seek to understand and honor the family’s culture when engaging with parents, building on parental strengths, identifying community-based cultural-specific resources, and supporting families in creating a healthy environment for the whole family and their children.
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