We harness governmental-linked data to expose protective factors and explore the resilience of children through adolescence and young adulthood.
Dr. Talia M. Schwartz-Tayri, Ph.D.
Head and founder, the AI for SW lab
Spitzer Department of Social Work at Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Dr. Michael Fire, Ph.D.
Founder of the Data Science for Social Good Lab
Software and Information Systems Engineering Department at Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Guy Navon, B.Sc.
Software and Information Systems Engineering Department at Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Adverse childhood experiences can have lasting adverse effects on the developmental trajectory of children and youth. Fortunately, protective mechanisms in the environment may foster resilience by buffering the negative effect of adversity on the child's mental health and functioning. In this project, we harness governmental-linked-data to expose personal, familial, and societal protective factors and explore the mechanisms through which they interact in fostering resilience of children through adolescence and young adulthood.
The findings of this project will help us define what can help children who have faced adverse circumstances thrive and succeed in life and inform evidence-based treatment tailored to the unique characteristics of children and their families.
The Israeli welfare system recognizes 58 specific types of adversity that fit the following acceptable categorization: interpersonal loss or separation (e.g., abandoned child, orphaned child), caregiver maladjustment (e.g., partner violence), maltreatment (e.g., physical abuse), or social-structural adversity (e.g., food insecurity). In the past decade, the number of children under the surveillance of the Israeli welfare system (defined as children who are affected by at least one type of adversity) has risen by 12%, and national data indicate that almost 14% of all the children in Israel are known to the welfare system (398,085). Among these, 85% (338,372) were identified as children who were affected by at least one CA, of which 66% (222,650 children) experienced family stress, and 16.2% (54,935) experienced parental dysfunction. In 2019, 56,388 new reports were made to child protection services in Israel, and 5,889 children were referred to child protection shelters. Of these cases, 4,606 children were sexually abused, and 1,062 children were physically abused. The knowledge on the potential factors in these children's environments, which can protect them from the psychological impact of the abovementioned adversities, is scarce. Our project aims to address this gap by exposing multi-level protective factors. By doing so, we will provide social workers, psychologists, teachers, and policymakers with evidence-based knowledge on how to foster resilience among Israeli children.
