As one of the first studies in Singapore to examine resilience among children and adolescents from low-income families, this research offers important insights into the risk factors and environmental stressors that they face, and identifies locally relevant protective factors that promote resilience. This section presents three key insights that emerged from both phases of the study.

Insight 1: Children’s exposure to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in their everyday environments point to a need for community-based solutions

Findings from both phases of the study revealed that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are prevalent among children and adolescents from low-income families in Singapore. In our Phase 1 sample, 85.2% of children (almost 9 out of 10 children) were exposed to at least one ACE. This percentage was higher than the lifetime prevalence of ACEs (63.9%) found from the Singapore Mental Health study, which was a population-level study that asked adults of different ages to report on ACEs they experienced in their childhood (Subramaniam et al., 2020). This suggests that children from low-income families may more likely be exposed to ACEs than the general population.

Many children had also experienced more than one ACE. On average, children in our sample were exposed to 3.55 ACEs. Furthermore, 46.2% of these children had four or more ACEs—this has been demonstrated in past literature to be associated with poorer emotional and behavioural outcomes (Burke et al., 2011; Elmore & Crouch, 2020). Our findings similarly showed that exposure to a higher number of ACEs was associated with poorer child social and emotional competencies, including self-management, self-awareness, relationship management, and responsible decision-making.

The types of ACEs most commonly experienced by children in our study included (i) witnessing or hearing about community violence in the neighbourhood (44.8%), (ii) being bullied (42.2%), (iii) parental separation (38.1%), (iv) physical abuse (37.8%), and (v) having a household member in prison (32.6%). As community violence was the most prevalent ACE, we further explored this in Phase 2 through qualitative interviews on the types of neighbourhood violence that families encountered. Families described witnessing, hearing, or experiencing various forms of violence, such as physical fights at the void deck and physical aggression (e.g., threatening gestures such as someone swinging a stick at them). Families residing in public rental flats appear to be exposed to more severe forms of community violence, such as stabbing and rioting, suggesting that neighbourhood environments play an important role in shaping children’s daily exposure to stress.

These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions or efforts to reduce children’s exposure to ACEs in their everyday environments, such as by creating safer neighbourhood spaces for play and interaction. At the same time, the findings also point to the importance of external resources and supportive relationships, such as caring adults and peers. Having access to external resources and knowing that adults and peers in their wider community are looking out for them—for example, by checking in on their wellbeing, helping them when caregivers are unavailable, and providing practical support when needed—can make a meaningful difference in how children and adolescents cope with adversity and develop resilience.

Insight 2: With support from parents, other trusted adults and peers, children are better able to overcome the negative impacts of ACEs

Across both phases of the study, supportive relationships consistently emerged as an important protective factor for children and adolescents facing adversity. While many children and adolescents in the study were exposed to ACEs and income-related stressors, those who had access to reliable and caring sources of support were better able to cope with these challenges.

In Phase 1, children who had access to more individuals providing at least one of the three types of support described below showed fewer emotional, behavioural, and attention difficulties, even when they faced multiple ACEs or income-related stressors. These types of support included (i) reliable assistance (i.e., having people to count on for help in times of need or emergency), (ii) emotional support (i.e., having people to count on to help them feel better when upset), and (iii) guidance support (i.e., having people to talk to about problems and turn to for guidance).

Children sought these three types of support from a wide range of people. The most common sources were (i) peers, (ii) parents, (iii) siblings, (iv) teachers, and (v) extended family, although some children also identified community members, such as neighbours and volunteers, as sources of support. This highlights that everyone—parents, peers, educators, and community members—can play a part in providing these forms of social support and helping to buffer the negative impact of ACEs.

We found in Phase 1 that when parents were more involved (i.e., being loving, responsive, and supportive to their children, as defined by Steinberg et al., 1994), it protected children from the negative impact of ACEs on children’s development of social and emotional competencies. The qualitative interviews provided further insight into how parents were involved in their children’s lives, and how children felt supported by their parents in coping with challenges. Parents described being involved as (i) intentionally communicating with their children, (ii) being a continuous source of support for their children, and (iii) actively guiding their children. For example, parents engaged in intentional communication by initiating conversations, asking questions, and actively listening to better understand their children’s needs and feelings. When parents listened openly, without imposing their own assumptions, they created a safe space for children to reach out to them. As one adolescent shared,

"Because whenever I got problems or like I just want to talk to her right, then like I can just like go up to her and like talk confidently, like I don’t need to like, feel scared or feel uncomfortable. … Some friendship problems." (Adolescent 8, female, 14 years old)

Parents also served as a continuous source of support by being emotionally available and providing reassurance and encouragement when their children faced difficulties. One adolescent described his mother as "the only person that always supports me, she [is] here for me on all the things and she don’t give up on me." (Adolescent 10, male, 13 years old). Additionally, he shared that she helped him manage his anger when his friends made fun of him in school.

Beyond emotional support and encouragement, parents also provided active guidance by offering timely advice. One adolescent shared the significance of her mother’s advice in helping her to consider the consequences of her actions carefully when her mother noticed her school absenteeism.

"I feel that without my mother I am nothing. Like whenever since young right, [when] we don’t know what to do, our mother will want to guide us till now. I think if my mother was not here, I would have gone to the wrong path. Because when I enter[ed] secondary school, I had a lot of bad influence. Like for the first few months, I was actually like, I started to skip class and all that then my mother sit down and tell me this is wrong. You need to go to Sec[ondary] 2 if not you will have to repeat in Sec[ondary] 1. Then I slowly listen to my mother and I don’t skip class this and that, yeah. So, I feel that because of my mother now I am ok with my studies." (Adolescent 3, female, 14 years old)

These forms of parental involvement and guidance supported children in developing their social and emotional competencies (e.g., decision-making skills) in coping with challenges. However, maintaining this level of involvement often requires conscious effort while balancing multiple stressors. Based on the Phase 1 survey with caregivers, some of these stressors include running out of money before their next salary, lack of food or worrying if they would have enough money to buy food, depression and anxiety (Toh et al., 2024). These findings highlight the importance of supporting parents to sustain meaningful involvement in their children’s lives. When parents are adequately supported, they are better able to remain present, responsive, and engaged, and build stronger relationships with their children.

While parents play an important protective role, other sources of support may be especially important for children whose adverse experiences stem from parents or their family. In our study, children most commonly sought support from their peers, suggesting that peers are often among the first to hear about the difficulties that children face. This highlights the need to equip children and adolescents with the skills and confidence to respond appropriately when friends disclose these difficulties, including seeking help from trusted adults when additional support is needed. These findings reaffirm the continued importance of efforts by schools, social service agencies, and community organisations in fostering supportive peer relationships and encouraging appropriate help-seeking behaviours among children and adolescents.

Taken together, these findings highlight the powerful role that trusted adults and peers play in promoting resilience. We invite practitioners, educators, families, and community members to foster supportive relationships and networks where every child feels cared for and connected, so that they can be better supported to thrive in the face of adversity. One helpful way of doing so is by drawing on the principles of the Developmental Relationships framework (Search Institute, 2026), which emphasises expressing care, providing support, sharing power, challenging growth, and expanding possibilities.

Insight 3: Safe environments are foundational to children’s resilience, supporting them to play, connect, and thrive

While supportive relationships play a critical role in helping children cope with adversity, the physical environments in which children grow up in also matter. Our study found that children’s sense of safety in their homes and neighbourhoods shaped their daily routines and their opportunities for play and interaction with others.

In Phase 1, exposure to community violence emerged as one of the most common ACEs among children from low-income households. This exposure can influence how children move through their communities and shape their sense of safety. In Phase 2, the qualitative interviews deepened our understanding of how families responded to prolonged community violence and other neighbourhood dangers. Parents and children described how they often coped by staying indoors and limiting their time spent outside when they perceived their neighbourhood as unsafe. They also tuned out of dangerous situations in the neighbourhood to protect themselves emotionally, either through distraction or desensitisation. This often took the form of managing situations independently and avoiding the involvement of neighbours when problems or neighbourhood dangers arose. As one parent explained, they would simply “do [their] own business” and not “interfere [in] people[‘s] life”. Others refrained from reporting incidents to the police or approaching neighbours whom they suspected were responsible, partly because they did not want to inconvenience others or create additional problems. For instance, one parent whose daughter’s scooter was stolen from outside their home decided to “just let it be” rather than pursue the matter. While these coping strategies may have relieved immediate emotional distress in the short-term, they also limited children’s opportunities for connection with their larger neighbourhood community. This reduced their access to other community-based support such as neighbours, volunteers, and shopkeepers at the void deck, which is an important protective factor that supports resilience, as highlighted in Insight 2.

These findings highlight how children’s wellbeing is shaped not only by individual relationships, but also by the safety of their surrounding environments. Safe environments are foundational to children’s resilience, and co-creating safe neighbourhood spaces that encourage community interaction and bonding can complement the protective role of families, peers, and other caring adults, enabling children to play, connect, and thrive. Social service agencies can support this by collaborating with residents and neighbourhood partners, such as grassroots leaders, Town Councils, and community organisations, to transform and activate existing community spaces (e.g., void decks and Residents’ Committee rooms) into safe and welcoming spaces. Beyond creating these spaces, social service agencies can facilitate positive neighbourly interactions among residents through shared activities and work with residents to foster mutual support within the community.