Protective factors that help to prevent exploitation
of children through prostitution

Familial issues

  • Positive family communication
  • Parental supervision
  • Strong parenting skills
  • Family boundaries
  • Models of mutually committed and enduring intimate relationships

Social issues

  • Being respected by teachers and other students
  • Strong connections between family and school
  • Positive peer influences
  • Cooperative relationships
  • Relationships that are reliable and lasting
  • Youth programs in the neighbourhood
  • Caring neighbourhood
  • Natural surveillance in neighbourhood
  • High neighbourhood attachment
  • Establishment of at least one relationship and secure attachment with a trusted adult.

Personal issues

  • Positive sense of identity
  • Social competence
  • Problem-solving skills
  • Communication skills
  • Active coping style
  • Sense of accomplishment
  • Resistance skills
  • Strong perception of their ability to control the outcome of their future.
  • In the face of stress, do not withdraw and socially isolate themselves.
  • Capacity for empathy and perspective-taking
  • Child feels safe at home, school, in the neighbourhood

 

Source: Kids in the Know: Risk and Protective Factors Checklist, Child Find Manitoba, 2006