A special issue on child abuse and resilience in sub-Saharan Africa : the role of multisystemic resilience-enablers

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa's children are projected to become the world's largest child population by 2055 (UNICEF, 2019). In addition to its vast size, this population is vulnerable to pronounced health and well-being threats (OECD, 2019), including abuse and neglect (Meinck et al., 2014). Despite concerted efforts, it has proven difficult to prevent such threats and so championing the resilience of sub-Saharan children must be central to their enablement. Resilience is adversity-exposed children's capacity to develop normatively or function adaptively (Masten, 2014).