resources and education
We invite you to explore the publicly available resources below, available for both family members and professionals. We aim to make AFCCA-informed resources available as easily as possible, and share information from our provincial and regional Consortium partners as well.
New information is being added on an ongoing basis, so please continue to check back.
Youth from across Canada who have exhibited AFCCA, and siblings impacted by AFCCA, participated in a recent study to share their perspectives on the social, emotional, and mental health needs of young people impacted by AFCCA. This is their advice for parents, caregivers, siblings, and the professionals supporting their families.
AFCCA Youth Insights
English Resources
Exhibitor Informed Guide for Caregivers >
Exhibitor Informed Guide for Professionals >
Exhibitor Informed Peer Support Guide for Exhibitors >
Sibling Informed Guide for Caregivers >
Sibling Informed Guide for Professionals >
Sibling Informed Peer Support Guide for Exhibitors >
Sibling Informed Peer Support Guide for Siblings >
French Resources
APFEA frères et soeurs aux autres frères et soeurs >
APFEA frères et soeurs aux personnes qui s_occupent d_eux >
APFEA frères et sœurs aux professionnel(le)s >
APFEA fvrères et sœurs aux frères et sœurs manifestant >
APFEA personnes qui s_occupent d_eux >
Les jeunes APFEA - pour les autre jeunes qui manifeste l_APFEA >
Les jeunes APFEA - pour les professionnel(le)s >
Young Persons’ Reflections on their Rights as Children in the Context of AFCCA
This summary research poster highlights the findings of the study “Young Persons’ Reflections on their Rights as Children in the Context of AFCCA”, by DeCarlo-Slobodnik, D., and Gervais, C. University of Ottawa, September 2022.
AFCCA Guide For Youth
Do You Sometimes Feel Like A Volcano? is shared from Inspire Community Outreach. This simple guide explains AFCCA in child/youth friendly terms and language.
AFCCA Guide For Service Providers
Shared from Inspire Community Outreach, this guide explains important AFCCA insights for service providers supporting families experiencing AFCCA.
AFCCA Guide For Parents & Caregivers
Shared from Inspire Community Outreach, this guide offers practical tips and strategies for parents and caregivers experiencing AFCCA in their families.
Graduate student receives national award for research innovation
National Consortium member and Queen’s researcher, Maude Champagne, recognized for creating support programs for families of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities.
Building Multi-Sector Capacity: AFCCA Family Supports Program
This poster will provide an overview of findings by the National Consortium on AFCCA, a group of professionals / service providers, researchers, policy makers and families with lived experience, as well as highlights of Ontario’s new AFCCA Family Supports Program, an Ontario government funded demonstration project run by Adopt4Life. Presenters will demonstrate in the poster how this ground-breaking program, believed to be the first in Canada, is collaborating with sectors including justice, mental and child welfare to build safety, security and permanency among Ontario families experiencing this complex type of aggression.
Towards Understanding Aggression & Violence
This blog is shared by National Consortium partner Kim Barthel.
When we hear the words “aggression” and “violence”, we can feel the negativity in our body. The words create images that elicit memories from experiences that directly relate to pain and suffering. This COVID era with its unrelenting stress, uncertainty, isolation and division seems to have unveiled this aspect of humanity in both expected and unexpected places and people. Given that we are all capable of aggression and violence, aiming to understand its dynamic might be helpful.
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and Aggression During Childhood and Adolescence: A Scoping Review
Aggression exhibited by children and youth with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) toward family members is a major cause of stress and anxiety for caregivers, but relatively little attention has been directed toward designing interventions specific to this phenomenon. In light of the serious negative impact of this issue for families, a scoping review was undertaken to summarize the evidence available on psychosocial interventions that may mitigate the frequency and severity of aggression exhibited by children and youth with FASD toward family members.
A Tornado in the Family
Filial Trauma
The Experience of Adoptive Parents of Children with Complex Behavioral and Relational Problems
The aim of this study was to understand adoptive parents’ experience of living daily with a child displaying challenging behaviors and significant relational issues that are developmental trauma symptoms. The research coins the term ‘filial trauma’ as a way to understand this issue.
Impacts of AFCCA on Siblings
Sibling Relationships in Adoptive Families That Disrupted or Were in Crisis
There is an increasing understanding of the impacts of AFCCA on siblings. This study (not specific to AFCCA), investigated whether sibling relationships influenced the outcomes of a sample of adoptive placements in England and Wales that had broken down postorder or were in crisis.
Violence in the Home
Violence in the Home is Not Just a Spousal Issue
This study set out to explore an increased incidence of challenging behaviours during the Covid-19 pandemic including aggression towards other family members in families that include those with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD); as well as to better understand families’ social support needs with children with NDD and how to adapt established support services to these emerging needs.
Department of Justice Review: Child to Parent Violence
Child to Parent Violence and Aggression: Reviewing the Research
Child to parent violence and aggression (or CPVA) is one of many terms that are sometimes used to describe what we know as AFCCA. This 2023 research review by Canada’s Dept of Justice, incorporating Statistics Canada data considers trends of AFCCA in Canada (under the term ‘CPVA’).
Literature Review for the National Consortium on AFCCA
This brief literature review was completed by the Voice of Academics subcommittee of the National Consortium on AFCCA, as part of developing the Consortium’s report: AFCCA Building Understanding to Improve Outcomes for Families.
Young Persons’ Reflections
Young Persons’ Reflections on their Rights as Children in the Context of AFCCA
Informed by the National Consortium on AFCCA and Adopt4Life, and in consultation with young people and invested parties, this study centres youth voices and sheds light on their experiences of AFCCA, both as demonstrators and siblings of demonstrators who had rights as children to expression and protection. DeCarlo-Slobodnik, D., and Gervais, C. University of Ottawa, September 2022.
Parental Perspectives
Parental Perspectives on Upholding Children’s Rights in the Context of Aggression toward Family/Caregivers in Childhood & Adolescence (AFCCA) in Canada
Aggression toward family/caregivers in childhood and adolescence (AFCCA) is a serious societal concern, yet it remains an under-researched area in Canada. Since existing studies elsewhere have focused primarily on its prevalence, risk factors and impacts, the child rights and family systems implications are less understood. This qualitative pilot study explored Canadian adoptive, kinship and customary caregivers’ considerations of their child’s rights to support and to be heard as they navigated the challenging context of their child’s aggressive behaviour towards them and other family members.
Policing Childhood Challenging Violent or Aggressive Behaviour
In this report from Al Coates, MBE and Dr. Wendy Thorley, they share: “We measure what matters and this is an issue that matters for many families, for every police call out there are multiple incidents that don't reach the extreme of a 999 call hidden in a veil of silence. There are many untold stories of families struggling under fear of social care intervention, fear of violence, isolation, shame and mental ill health. This report is not the end of the issue but it is another light shining into a dark room of many families lives.”
Let’s Talk About Child to Parent Violence
This report reviews the initial findings of an exploratory exercise carried out at the end of 2016, to open up more extensively discussions around Child – Parent Violence (CPV). The response was unexpected and opened up a diverse and complex discourse exploring both the issues and the family impact of CPV for families within the UK.
Adolescent-to-Parent Violence in Adoptive Families
This 2015 study from leading UK researcher Julie Selwyn explores trends in AFCCA (under the name ‘APV’), particularly the barriers to parents/caregivers seeking help, particularly for adoptive families.
‘No one believed us: no one came to help’: caregivers' experiences of violence and abuse involving children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Different terms are used in various countries to describe the issue of AFCCA. In this study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, researchers use the term ‘child and adolescent-to-parent violence and abuse’ (CAPVA) to describe violent behaviour by children towards their parents or primary caregivers. This can include a full range of physical, emotional, verbal, financial, and material actions over prolonged periods of time, from childhood to young adulthood. Parents and caregivers of children with neurodevelopmental conditions are vulnerable to CAPVA, with this study focusing on the experiences of caregivers of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
New Zealand’s Invisible Family Violence
This comprehensive report from New Zealand recognizes AFCCA as a safeguarding issue affecting all members of the family: “Currently there is no guidance on recognising who is at risk depending on which professional lens is used to view behaviour. The risk to adults and siblings and the child/adult displaying the violence is ignored. This form of family violence needs to be urgently addressed through policy, research, and support.”
Researcher and practitioner Helen Bonnick hosts this site, exploring the issue of AFCCA from a variety of perspectives. Visit her site to view relevant research, articles, and resources for families and professionals.
Holes in the Wall
Newbold Hope
Stay curious. Be kind. Supporting parents and professionals to reduce violent, difficult and dangerous behaviour in children and young people with a disability and/or an additional need.
Al Coates Adoption Blog
This collection of resources, podcasts, blogs, and research is from UK expert and social worker, Al Coates, exploring the complex issue of AFCCA (under various names and terms, including CPVA, APVA, APV, and others).
Center for NVR Therapy & Practice (CNTP)
NVR supports the therapeutic application of non-violent resistance principles to crises of caregiving. Relative to AFCCA, participants are typically caregivers or professionals, rather than the youth themselves. The National Consortium recognizes that strategies and interventions must be appropriate to each family’s individual needs. We do not recommend NVR as the only solution for every family experiencing AFCCA – however we recognize that many families experiencing aggression in their homes find NVR an effective part of their circles of support.
videos and webinars
Clinician Dr. Maude Champagne walks through some of the strategies used to introduce healthy guilt and how to deal with situations where children and youth express shame in different ways.
Clinician Dr. Maude Champagne walks through some of the strategies used to introduce healthy guilt and how to deal with situations where children and youth express shame in different ways.
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