Society's empathic response to a rape victim plays a crucial role in her physical and psychological recovery. However, these responses are often hindered by biases shaped by sociocultural norms and gender stereotypes. Such biases may arise from judgements about a woman's clothing, appearance, place of residence or occupation. This study examines a subtle yet impactful form of discriminatory bias formed from facial images of presumed rape victims. The visual characteristics of the female faces were systematically manipulated to represent (a) cultural or traditional prototypical signature ("Bindi" or dot on the forehead and hair tied back) versus atypical features (no dot on the forehead and hair cut short and left loose), (b) varying skin tones (light to dark) and (c) place of residence. In this first-of-its-kind functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging experiment, data from 20 male participants were collected and analysed. The results indicate that faces with traditional or prototypical features and darker skin tones elicited greater activation in neural regions associated with empathy compared to atypical faces, whereas place of residence showed no significant effect. Furthermore, scores on the Rape Myth Acceptance (RMA) Questionnaire indicated an overall rejection of rape myths, as expected given the participants' educational background, although two subscales revealed a tendency to extend the benefit of doubt to the perpetrator and to attribute greater blame to the victim. Although neural activations within empathy-related networks and self-report measures of RMA, target empathy, and trait empathy did not reach statistical significance, the observed trends mirror real-world societal responses to rape victims. Despite being preliminary, these findings provide important evidence for the influence of implicit, normalised biases in shaping empathic responses.
To date, the existing research on risk factors for mental and physical health symptoms among stalking survivors has predominantly focused on characteristics of the stalking incident(s). To contribute to the literature, the present study examined both stalking characteristics and post-trauma cognitions in relation to mental and physical health symptoms, after controlling for exposure to potentially traumatic life events. One hundred eighty-one cisgender women who had experienced stalking completed an online survey about the stalking incident(s), post-trauma cognitions, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, depression symptoms, physical health difficulties, and exposure to potentially traumatic events. The results demonstrated that post-trauma cognitions were significantly associated with PTSD, depression, and physical health symptoms above and beyond the influence of potentially traumatic events and stalking characteristics. After including post-trauma cognitions in the analysis, the stalking incident characteristics were no longer related to PTSD, depression, and physical health symptoms. Furthermore, there were significant indirect associations between stalking characteristics and both the mental and physical health symptoms via post-trauma cognitions. Overall, the findings suggested that by focusing on incident characteristics, the existing research has been overlooking potentially informative and relevant mechanisms that help explain stalking survivor outcomes.
Children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) experience significant psychological consequences; however, the current literature is largely grounded in Western, individualist trauma frameworks. These perspectives often overlook how children interpret and negotiate violence in collectivist cultural contexts shaped by loyalty, honor, and silence. In Arab society in Israel, such cultural dynamics may profoundly shape children's lived experiences; however, their subjective perspectives remain insufficiently explored. This study explored the lived experiences of children exposed to IPV in Arab society in Israel, aiming to understand how they interpret and navigate violence in culturally embedded relational systems. Adopting a phenomenological and family systems lens, the study centered children's subjective voices and moral positioning. The study was based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 children aged 8 to 11 (comprising 8 Muslim, 4 Christian, and 3 Druze participants), recruited through social services. Data were analyzed using an interpretive approach to capture children's meanings, experiences, and relational contexts. The findings reveal a multilayered experiential framework organized into four interrelated fields: the relational field, experiential field of ongoing threat, role field, and future-oriented field. Participants experienced violence not as discrete events but as a continuous condition shaping their sense of time, embodiment, and social engagement. Children emerged as active agents navigating complex moral tensions, striving to preserve family cohesion while managing fear and culturally reinforced expectations of silence. A notable finding is therapeutic parentification, whereby children assumed burdened roles to emotionally protect their mothers, de-escalate parental conflicts, and hold the family together. This study conceptualized children as morally situated agents in culturally embedded relational systems and underscores the need for culturally responsive interventions addressing both safety and the moral and emotional burdens these children carry.
Individuals who are racialised as ethnic minorities often report a host of adverse experiences during their educational careers. There has been some research on direct experiences of racism in education, but mostly in English-speaking countries. As racism can be manifested in diverse ways depending on the context, we cannot generalise from one country to another. In this pilot study, we explore lived experiences of students in Finland, a country that has a world-famous education system that is supposed to be equal for all learners. We interviewed nine university students who identified as ethnic minorities. We constructed three overarching themes, utilising an inductive thematic approach. These themes were (a) experiences of racism in the education system, (b) student actions and institutional and staff responses to questioning racism, and (c) consequences and impacts of racism for students. We discuss the results in the context of Finland and give recommendations for future practice.
Youth violence is a significant concern, with exposure often having an enduring effect on victims, perpetrators, and the wider community. Despite recent investment in specialist and targeted youth provision, universal youth provision has been under-funded, with evidence of divestment. We present an exploratory study that uses a hand-constructed spatial database to examine the spatial relationship between universal youth provision and violent crime. Colocation Analysis was utilised from the Spatial Statistics toolbox in ArcGIS Pro to explore three main sources of data in Northern Ireland-Universal (youth) Service Provision, street-level crime data and sports and recreational sports services. This spatial analysis technique quantifies whether two feature types (e.g. youth services and violent crime) co-occur more or less frequently than would be expected under complete spatial randomness. We find that in many areas, there are statistically significant values indicating dispersion patterns that co-occur with the spatial distribution of universal provision. This suggests patterns of separation between prosocial provision and violent crime. Real-world implications of this are that while targeted services may be required, they may not be required in the numbers assumed. Analyses also reveal areas where there is a paucity of prosocial youth resources. Implications of the insights and the utility of using interdisciplinary methods for violence prevention are also discussed.
Climate change is a psychosocial stressor with implications for parenting and child safety. Many parents experience eco-emotions that can tax caregiving resources and self-regulation, yet evidence is scarce on how eco-emotion profiles relate to parental burnout and violent and neglectful parenting. This study aimed to identify eco-emotion profiles and to test whether parental burnout explains associations with psychological aggression, physical assault, and neglect toward children. Participants were 1,203 cisgender heterosexual Italian parents (70.16% mothers; M = 45.60, SD = 9.37) who completed self-report measures through an online survey. Latent profile analysis of eco-anxiety, eco-guilt, eco-grief, solastalgia, and eco-paralysis identified eco-emotion profiles; structural equation modeling tested direct and indirect effects of profile membership on maltreatment outcomes via parental burnout. Three profiles emerged: Eco-disengaged (18.8%), Eco-concerned (60.6%), and Eco-distressed (20.7%). Eco-distressed parents reported higher parental burnout than eco-concerned parents (standardized mean difference [SMD] = 0.324, p < .001). Parental burnout predicted psychological aggression (β = .370), physical assault (β = .288), and neglect (β = .525; all ps < .001). Eco-distressed membership showed positive indirect associations via parental burnout on psychological aggression (SMD = 0.120), physical assault (SMD = 0.093), and neglect (SMD = 0.170), with all 95% bootstrap CIs > 0, as well as a negative direct association with psychological aggression (SMD = -0.193, p = .014). Climate-related distress may function as an emerging caregiver risk factor, emphasizing the need for preventive interventions that strengthen parental resources and address climate-related emotional burden within child protection frameworks.
Using nationally representative data from India's National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, 2019-21), this study examines marital sexual entitlement, operationalized as men's endorsement that a husband is justified in using force to have sex when a wife refuses. Weighted analyses were restricted to currently married/in-union men and excluded "don't know/depends" responses on the outcome to enable interpretable comparisons. The primary exposure was recent non-spousal partnering in the past 12 months, coded as reporting at least one sexual partner other than a spouse during that period. Multivariable logistic regression assessed whether recent non-spousal partnering was associated with endorsement of forced sex within marriage/union, adjusting for violence-supportive norms (wife-beating justification), beliefs about women's sexual refusal autonomy (e.g., whether refusal is justified under specified conditions), and patriarchal attitudes reflecting gendered power and control within intimate relationships. In the base model (N = 55,588), recent non-spousal partnering was associated with higher odds of endorsing forced sex within marriage/union (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.45, 95% CI [1.17, 1.79]). In an extended model including patriarchal attitude measures (N = 53,351), the association remained statistically significant (AOR = 1.32, 95% CI [1.05, 1.65]), alongside strong associations with violence-justifying and patriarchal beliefs. Findings suggest that endorsement of forced sex is embedded within broader coercion-accepting and patriarchal normative systems. Prevention efforts should treat marital sexual entitlement as part of a wider constellation of beliefs that legitimize coercion and violence within unions, integrating consent-centred, gender-transformative approaches within sexual and reproductive health and intimate partner violence services and supporting community norm-change strategies that strengthen recognition of women's sexual refusal autonomy.
Research suggests that the effects of intergenerational transmission of trauma are also manifested among grandchildren of Holocaust survivors (GHS) in Israel, noting that they express deep fears and anxieties and a sense of identity threat. Employing the analytical framework of identity process theory, this study looked at how 17 Jewish-Israeli GHS managed their identity following the Hamas surprise attack on October 7, 2023. The findings suggest that interviewees are aware of how their identity is largely influenced by their forebears' experiences, but also that it is a dynamic one, and that they employ interpersonal coping strategies to manage their threatened identity in the aftermath of 10/7. This holding on to a threatened identity anchored in the family's past and reactive to a current societal trauma is manifested in the lessons learned from both events by GHS, who are nevertheless cognizant of the essential differences between them. The findings can be applied in both individual therapy and intervention programs designed to help young Israeli adults who are GHS understand their identity and strengthen their coping strategies post-October 7.
Adolescence is a period of high incidence of bullying and peer victimization in schools. However, previous research has focused on peer victimization as a risk factor for multiple behavioral problems in adolescents; there is limited understanding of how peer victimization impacts prosocial behavior. Therefore, this study investigated the link between peer victimization and prosocial behavior among Chinese adolescents, including the possible mediating effects of empathy and psychological capital. This cross-sectional study involved 1,512 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 14.59 years, SD = 1.14, female = 758) who completed a self-reported questionnaire. Peer victimization was assessed using the Chinese version of the Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale. Empathy was measured through the Chinese Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Psychological capital was assessed using the Chinese version of the Psychological Capital Questionnaire, and prosocial behavior was evaluated using the Prosocial Behavior Scale for Adolescents. The results indicated that peer victimization was significantly and negatively associated with adolescent prosocial behavior. Empathy and psychological capital mediated the relationship between peer victimization and adolescent prosocial behavior: first, the separate mediating role of empathy and psychological capital; second, the chain mediating role of empathy and psychological capital. These findings underscore the critical role of empathy and psychological capital in the association between peer victimization and prosocial behavior, and provide valuable insights into the promotion of adolescents' prosocial behavior.
Gun violence among adolescents is a public health epidemic in the United States, thus requiring scholarly attention. As gun violence remains prevalent, research has indicated that adolescents may be more likely to carry other types of weapons, especially to school, due to easier accessibility and concealability. Evidence suggests that male adolescents are more likely to carry weapons than their female counterparts, and weapon carrying propensity among male adolescents differs among certain racial/ethnic groups. Using a series of disaggregated models consisting of Black, Latino, and White male adolescents, the current study aims to: (a) examine the direct effect between exposure to neighborhood violence and feeling unsafe, (b) to investigate the association between exposure to neighborhood violence and weapon carrying to school, and (c) to test the indirect effect of feeling unsafe on the relationship between exposure to neighborhood violence and weapon carrying. Data from the 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey were analyzed (n = 534 Black adolescents, n = 693 Latino adolescents, and n = 1,902 White adolescents). A series of logistic regression models were estimated for each racial group, due to the binary nature of both the mediating (i.e., feeling unsafe) and outcome (i.e., weapon carrying to school) variables. The mediating effects were detected through a joint significance test of mediation. Findings suggest a positive and significant relationship between exposure to neighborhood violence and feeling unsafe, as well as between exposure to neighborhood violence and weapon carrying to school among all three racial groups. However, feeling unsafe only mediated the relationship between exposure to neighborhood violence and weapon carrying to school among Black male adolescents. In order to decrease weapon carrying to school due to feeling unsafe, relevant policy implications pertaining to mental health counseling resources and school-based safety measures are discussed.
As awareness of biased (or, identity-based) victimization and its harmful effects on student mental health has grown, it has become widely acknowledged that biased victimization is a serious problem worthy of specialized inquiry. However, past research has seldom examined youth experiences with biased victimization in terms of common intersections of biases, leaving a gap in knowledge with implications for intervention-focused school programming. This study used U.S. survey data from 2017, 2019, and 2022 to describe students' experiences with seven forms of biased victimization. Analyses categorized victimization experiences into a typology according to bias types (e.g. racial bias, sexual orientation bias) and determined the sociodemographic as well as incident-level correlates of the different victimization experiences. In the sample of victims (N = 2,970), latent class analysis revealed three distinct classes, characterized by (a) low rates of all forms of biased victimization (77%); (b) primarily racial and ethnic bias (9%); and (c) multiple forms of non-racial biased victimization (14%). Student and incident characteristics were associated with odds of being in each of these classes. Results have implications for improving school-based prevention and indicate that further investigation into multiple forms of biased victimization is warranted.
Transfeminine individuals are disproportionately impacted by intimate partner violence (IPV), yet the dominant discourse surrounding IPV is often cisheteronormative and does not center their experiences. There remains limited research on transfeminine individuals' experiences of IPV and their specific needs for intervention. Using inductive thematic analysis, this qualitative study explored participant and facilitator experiences in STARS (Supporting Trans Affirmation, Relationships, and Sex), a 4-session, peer-delivered, empowerment-based program tailored for transfeminine adults who have experienced IPV. Our primary aims were to assess the acceptability, relevance, and impact of the intervention's IPV content and to identify participants' ongoing needs related to IPV prevention and support. Seventeen STARS participants and four facilitators completed semi-structured interviews as part of a randomized controlled feasibility trial. Thematic analysis yielded four overarching findings: (1) Peer-led discussions of shared experiences provide a sense of community, mutual understanding, trust, and kinship; (2) Self-empowerment content is instrumental in reducing internalized stigma; (3) IPV psychoeducation content needs to broadly conceptualize IPV and address the unique experiences of abuse in trans4trans (T4T), queer, and consensually non-monogamous (CNM) relationships; and (4) Tailored safety planning techniques, including resource sharing, navigation, and ongoing trauma-sensitive support, are particularly suited to meet a range of IPV-related needs. Findings of high impact and engagement illustrate the promise of a peer-led, empowerment-based approach to IPV reduction among transgender women. Our findings have implications for future trans-tailored IPV research, such as revealing the need to include T4T, queer, and CNM perspectives, prioritize community-engaged intervention development, and adapt future interventions to reflect an expanded and inclusive theory of IPV.Trial registration: The randomized controlled feasibility trial of STARS was pre-registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT06001307).
OBJECTIVE:Community violence continues to be a public health crisis that disproportionately impacts Black men. Adults who have experienced violence have increased risk for substance use. Little is known about factors that influence the substance use-violence relationship. The aim of this study was to describe factors related to substance use and violent injury as perceived and experienced by Black men recovering from a recent violent injury in Baltimore, Maryland. METHODS:Twelve Black men who reported substance use and were hospitalized for an assault injury were recruited from a trauma center in Baltimore, Maryland. Each participant completed one semi-structured individual interview focused on their experiences and perspectives about developmental, psychological, and contextual influences related to substance use and violence. Using inductive content analysis, five themes were identified. RESULTS:Participants described the following: (a) parental substance use, (b) trauma and violence-related motivations to continue substance use (coping and participation in drug markets), (c) inequitable distribution of alcohol outlets and drug markets, (d) lack of community mental health and substance use services, and (e) high burdens of community violence. CONCLUSION:Participants described complex, multilevel factors that influence substance use and violence in their communities. These findings reinforce the need for targeted and community-centered interventions that address trauma, violence prevention, and substance use. Addressing violence exposures may be a pathway to reducing substance use-related harm. Research-based policy must also be directed at eliminating structural factors that lead to racial disparities in violence.
Cyber Dating Abuse (CDA) is an emerging form of violence in young people's romantic relationships, characterized by controlling and aggressive behavior through digital technologies. Beliefs in a Just World, General (G-BJW) and Personal (P-BJW), and attitudes such as Ambivalent Sexism and acceptance of Victim-Blaming Myths, which may be conceptualized as operating in a cognitive-ideological system that sustains CDA. A sample of 1,084 Italian young adults (69.4% female), aged between 18 and 30 (M = 23.89, SD = 3.01), was recruited to complete an online questionnaire. An exploratory multiple mediation model was tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), in which the two dimensions of CDA, Over Aggression and Control, were considered dependent variables; G-BJW and P-BJW as predictor independent variables; and Benevolent and Hostile Sexism and Victim-Blaming Myths as intervening variables. Results showed that G-BJW was positively associated with all the mediators and was negatively associated with Control. Results showed associations among the study variables. P-BJW was negatively associated with all the mediators. Benevolent Sexism was associated with Control, while Hostile Sexism was associated with Overt Aggression. Victim-Blaming Myths was positively associated with both outcomes. G-BJW was indirectly and positively associated with Control through Benevolent Sexism and Victim-Blaming Myths. P-BJW was indirectly and negatively associated with Control only through Benevolent Sexism. Given the cross-sectional nature of the study, these findings should be interpreted with caution and serve primarily to better understand CDA among young adults. These findings identify patterns of association among justice-related beliefs, sexism, victim-blaming myths, and CDA. Any practical implications should be considered hypotheses to inform future longitudinal research and the development of prevention initiatives.
Childhood emotional abuse is a well-established risk factor for delinquent behavior. However, research examining the pathways from emotional abuse to aggression within an integrated theoretical model remains limited. The current study examines the serial mediation of emotional dysregulation and deviant peer affiliation in the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and aggressive behaviors among male juvenile delinquents. A total of 438 male adolescents (mean age = 19.03 years, SD = 2.82) were recruited from a juvenile correctional facility in China. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires, including the five-item emotional abuse subscale of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form, the Peers' Deviant Behaviors Scale, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire. A latent variable structural equation modeling analysis was conducted to test a hypothesized serial mediation model. The results revealed a significant direct effect of emotional abuse on aggressive behavior. The relationship was independently mediated by both emotional dysregulation and deviant peer affiliation, as well as sequentially through emotional dysregulation leading to increased deviant peer affiliation. These findings suggest that emotional dysregulation and affiliation with deviant peers are critical mechanisms through which childhood emotional abuse fosters aggressive behavior. This has important implications for designing targeted interventions for psychological service providers working with this population.
Violence at school, perpetrated by teachers and peers, is associated with poorer academic performance. However, association patterns remain unclear in high-violence, socially tolerant contexts. The role of student mental health in this dynamic also warrants closer examination. We investigated direct and indirect associations between teacher violence and peer victimisation, mental health (problems, quality of life), and educational outcomes (grades, absenteeism from attendance records). We studied 524 students from 16 secondary schools in 4 regions of Tanzania. Data came from self-report questionnaires and school records. We used structural equation modelling. Teacher violence and peer victimisation were directly associated with higher absenteeism (teacher b= .17, p < .05; peer b = .13, p < .05). Teacher violence was also directly associated with lower academic performance (b = -.12, p < .05), whereas peer victimisation was not. Both forms of violence were indirectly associated with lower grades via mental health difficulties (teacher indirect b = -.07, 95% CI [-.12, -.04]; peer indirect b = -.11, 95% CI [-.18, -.06]). Peer victimisation also showed an indirect association with lower grades via reduced quality of life (b =-.04, 95% CI [-.09, -.01]). The findings indicate distinct but overlapping association patterns linking school violence to educational outcomes. Reducing violence and strengthening student mental health supports may improve academic engagement and achievement.
Physically aggressive behavior among children and adolescents is a longstanding concern, as documented in a large body of literature examining trajectories of aggressive behavior. However, aggression has been shown to present differently across the life course and is also likely to present differently across population subgroups, complexity that challenges the understanding and prevention of, and intervention in, problem behaviors. We therefore created covariate-informed trajectories of aggressive behaviors and identified subgroups representing heterogeneity in the development of girls' and boys' physically aggressive behaviors from ages 3 to 15 years. We used data from 3,263 families in the Future of Families and Child Well-being Study (waves 3-6, ages 3-15 years), a longitudinal birth cohort study following children born in large cities between 1998 and 2000 to mostly unmarried mothers. We used moderated non-linear factor analysis to generate factor scores of physically aggressive behaviors over time, separately for boys and girls, and then ran sex-separated latent growth models using the covariate-informed factor scores. Both girls and boys had three-class change trajectories. For adolescent girls, there is just one trajectory toward physically aggressive behavior (with the third classification as Desistors). For adolescent boys, there are two trajectories toward aggressive behavior (including Adolescent Onset). While universal programming that is not gender-responsive can meet the needs of young people who were classified as Persistors or in the Low Aggression group, we observed unique possible points of intervention and sex-specific needs. In response, we advise on interventions for young people, adults in youth-serving organizations, and structural-level considerations.
Bullying is deeply embedded in adolescents' social ecologies and has enduring developmental consequences. Accordingly, the quality of social relationships, together with adolescents' prior bullying experiences, may play a critical role in shaping bystander behaviors. This study examined how peer, parent-child, and teacher-student relationships were associated with adolescents' bystander behaviors (i.e., defending, pro-bullying, passive bystanding), and whether these associations are moderated by prior experiences of bullying perpetration and victimization. Using nationally representative data from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (12th grade, N = 2,224), multilevel modeling was employed to examine the main and interactive effects of social relationships and bullying experiences on bystander behaviors, accounting for the clustering of adolescents within schools. Peer relationship quality was uniquely associated with defending (β = .08, p = .026), whereas all types of higher-quality social relationships were associated with lower pro-bullying (peer: β = -.17, p < .001; parent-child: β = -.29, p < .001; teacher-student: β = -.07, p = .020). In contrast, higher-quality peer relationships were related to greater passive bystanding only among adolescents with bullying perpetration experience (β = .16, p = .006), and stronger parent-child relationships were associated with greater passive bystanding among those without bullying victimization experience (β = .15, p = .003). These findings reveal that the prosocial potential of social relationships is not unconditional: while peer, parent-child, and teacher-student relationships were consistently associated with lower pro-bullying and peer relationships were associated with greater defending, their associations with passive bystanding were contingent upon adolescents' prior bullying histories. Effective prevention therefore requires simultaneous assessment of relationship quality and bullying history, as these two dimensions appear to jointly shape whether relational resources are associated with passive bystanding or pro-bullying reinforcement.
In 2008, the provincial government approved a project for the implementation of a specialized treatment program (PETRAAS) in a prison setting in Quebec, Canada, for individuals convicted of sexual offenses. Dubbed a "prison-hospital," the program was launched 2 years later as a joint initiative by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Public Safety to address the lack of a treatment program in provincial detention facilities for individuals serving short custodial sentences. Since 2010, PETRAAS offers a voluntary-based sex offender treatment program (SOTP) to individuals serving a prison sentence of less than 2 years. Using a cognitive-behavioral approach, PETRAAS offers an intensive short-term program that has never been subjected to an empirical investigation. In total, 406 inmates considered for admission to PETRAAS were included in the study. Using a prospective longitudinal study design, the impact of this program on recidivism rates was analyzed, statistically controlling for whether individuals were admitted to and completed the SOTP. A series of survival analyses were conducted to inspect the impact of the SOTP. The relatively low rates of general and sexual recidivism may explain the absence of evidence for a significant short-term impact of PETRAAS on these outcomes. The political, clinical, and scientific issues associated with these results are offered as possible explanations of the study findings.
Child abuse studies have contributed significantly to the understanding of the multidimensional dynamic between parents and their children in the context of abuse. Recently, the concept of love in this unique context has received growing attention. The current study was designed to examine the perception of love by adults who experienced parental abuse in their childhood and lived in out-of-home placements. The study comprised interviews with 15 adults who were abused by their parents in childhood and removed to out-of-home placements in Israel. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews, and transcribed. Qualitative thematic analysis was carried out on all 15 interviews. Three main themes were identified. The first theme delves into the complex interplay of love and maltreatment from the parent. The subsequent theme illustrates the participants' perceptions of themselves as an "object" subjected to abuse during their early childhood by their mothers and once again when separated from their biological homes by child protection services. The third and final theme sheds light on the participants' encounters with love in out-of-home placements. The current study's findings illustrate how love can exist even where abuse occurs. The study highlights the crucial role of caregivers in out-of-home placements in acknowledging the multidimensional nature of child-parent dynamics. Moreover, the current study demonstrates how a healthy, loving relationship with caregivers in out-of-home placements affects participants' perceptions of love.
