“Adverse childhood experiences are the single greatest unaddressed public health threat facing our nation today,” according to Dr. Robert Block, Former President of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
To educate parents and caregivers about the dangers of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and buffer the effects of toxic stress, First 5 California worked with Rescue Agency to develop a first-of-its-kind campaign called “Stronger Starts.” This initiative is designed to help all children in California thrive by providing parents and caregivers with tools and strategies to create safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments. In a recent Rescue webinar, experts shared the research and strategy behind this campaign, along with best practices for helping parents and caregivers buffer the effects of toxic stress.
Audience Research Insights:
Research informed the campaign approach at each major stage of development. Rescue’s in-house research team implemented a baseline statewide survey and red flag testing to better understand parents' and caregivers’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about ACEs and toxic stress.
The research showed that many survey participants didn’t believe that their children were impacted by ACEs or toxic stress, often making statements like "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.” With this insight, we knew we needed to clearly show parents and caregivers why they should focus on buffering the effects of toxic stress.
How To Help Parents Buffer the Effects of Toxic Stress:
To help parents buffer the effects of toxic stress, the Stronger Starts campaign focused on educating parents about ACEs and toxic, based on research insights that many parents weren’t familiar with these terms. Then, it provided parents with tips and strategies to help them create safe, stable, nurturing environments and relationships to prevent the build-up of toxic stress in children. To ensure that parents and caregivers received the message and were motivated to take action, the campaign messaging focused on the following core principles.
Reframe Adversity: Presenting the message from the child's perspective was key to engaging with parents about this issue. Instead of blaming parents or focusing on what they’re doing wrong, the campaign highlighted the children's experiences in their home environments. With this approach, parents were more open to receiving information about how to better protect their children from the long-term effects of toxic stress.
Motivate prevention: Importantly, messaging needed to instill hope in parents that there was something they could do to give their children a stronger start in life. We aimed to prevent the notion that a child's fate is determined by their current or past experiences. Learning about how toxic stress works in both children and adults became a key to motivating parents to prevent it for their kids.
Build Curriculum: Toxic stress is a complicated issue that cannot be fixed by a singular message or action. We provided an online bank of content to help parents support their children. The Parent Tip Finder on the Stronger Starts website includes a variety of information and activities that can be done at home to help children work through their emotions. We promoted the curriculum and engaged with parents online through conversations on social media and in person at live events.
Behavior Change Evaluation:
Post-campaign evaluations measured key behavior change factors including knowledge and awareness of toxic stress, engaging in help-seeking behaviors, taking action, and changing beliefs after campaign exposure. Stronger Starts generated significant behavior change, including:
If you'd like to learn more about working with Rescue Agency on your childhood development campaign, please don't hesitate to contact us.