Dr. Jennifer Foster publishes two book chapters on child abuse

Dec. 6, 2018

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Dr. Jennifer. M. Foster, associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development at Western Michigan University, has published a two book chapters on child abuse. The first is a chapter titled “Resiliency, positive coping, and posttraumatic growth in survivors of child abuse and neglect” in Character Strength Development: Perspectives from Positive Psychology. Individuals across the globe experience adverse childhood experiences at staggering rates. This chapter explored the lived experiences of resilient survivors of trauma who have demonstrated posttraumatic growth and positive coping. It also highlighted the efficacy of counseling for individuals with trauma histories and emphasized healing is possible.

The second chapter titled “Child sexual abuse: Evaluating the school based prevention programs in India” was co-authored with Aneesh Kumar and K.C. Bhagyalakshmi and was published in the Handbook of Research on Social, Psychological, and Forensic Perspectives on Sexual Abuse. Implementing child sexual abuse prevention efforts for children is a challenging task. This chapter provided specific strategies for Indian schools and calls for more evidence-based approaches that are culturally appropriate.

These chapters add to Foster’s line of research in area of child abuse and prevention, totaling 14 publications and 33 local, national and international presentations on the topic.