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A child’s relationships with her parents, caregivers and other significant adults form the basis of how she experiences the world. Experience and research underscore the critical importance of attachment bonds as the foundation for all future relationships. When a child experiences a warm and nurturing relationship; a safe environment; unconditional love; and appropriate guidance and discipline with the adults in her life, she will develop self confidence, the capacity to control her own emotions, and empathy for others – all skills critical for later success.

This relationship between children and their parents is perhaps the most intuitive of all protective factors for children, but also extremely difficult to measure. 

Following are resources related to how nurturing caregivers, healthy relationships between parents and children, parental reslience, and social connections can protect children from maltreatment. 

YoungStar: YoungStar is a new five-star quality rating and improvement system for child care in Wisconsin. Administered by the Department of Children and Families, YoungStar will be used to rate child care providers based on education, learning environment, business practices and the health and well being of children.

Wisconsin Early Childhood Collaborating Partners: Collaborating Partners works to ensure that Wisconsin communities, agencies, associations, and state government will work together as a system of high quality comprehensive early childhood services for every child and family who wants to access them.

The Forward Wisconsin Initiative: a Shared Vision for Preventing Interpersonal Violence: The Forward Wisconsin Initiative is a project that brings together lead agencies in Wisconsin in the broad field of interpersonal violence – child maltreatment, domestic violence, elder abuse, and sexual violence – to maximize efforts to change social norms and community tolerance for violence.

The American Academy of Pediatrics: Provides information for the attainment of "optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being" for infants and children. 

Healthy Children.org: A new website targeted specifically for parenting. Also provided by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the website is backed by 60,000 pediatricians and also provides information from the nation's leading child health experts and that is informed by rigorous scientific research.