Understanding the Context

Crisis and emergency settings denote abrupt or recurring circumstances where children’s sense of security, stability, and wellbeing is threatened. The two types of families include families who have experienced family and domestic violence (FDV) and families who have experienced climate disaster and displacement. Family and domestic violence continue to be important crisis setting, as approximately 10% of the Australian children are living in FDV-affected homes (AIHW, 2025b) while in 2024-25, FDV accounted for the majority of cases of 44% of children aged 0-14 seeking assistance from Specialist Homelessness Services (AIHW, 2025c). Climate disaster is a growing context in Australia, as UNICEF Australia’s report estimates that over 1.4 million children experience climate disasters and extreme weather conditions in a typical year – one child out of six. Remote, socio-economically disadvantaged and Indigenous children suffer most.

Ecological systems theory by Bronfenbrenner highlights how crisis creates disturbance in all levels of the environment of the child; an incidence of a crisis or violence creates disturbance in the microsystem (family environment) and also creates disturbance at the level of exosystem and macrosystem (community support system and emergency services). This depicts that experience of crises is determined by the wider social and policy environments rather than single isolated events. Family constitutes the basic context of the development of children (McMahon & Grace, 2022); during crisis, the family acts as the source of psychological security.

The commonality of "fragile contexts" is a helpful way of looking at FDV and disasters since both situations place children in contexts of reduced security, certainty and stability, either from the result of interpersonal conflict or natural hazard and disaster, irrespective of the cause — a helpful perspective given that while causes are very different, the mechanisms for harm are similar. Climate disasters, according to Chavez Marinkovic et al. (2022), are becoming more common and severe, impacting on education systems and community support structures; furthermore, disadvantaged groups, including poor families and rural or remote communities, are especially impacted and lack capacity to recover. Wong et al. (2017) highlight the need to understand the experience of each family within its particular crisis context.

Impact on Children and Families

 

Children who have been exposed to FDV are likely to be emotionally and behaviourally affected; children whose mothers were victims of intimate partner violence are likely to have increased chances of emotional and behavioural problems as young as the age of four (Gartland et al., 2019, as cited in AIHW, 2025b). According to Herrera-Escobar et al. (2021), trauma exposure is linked to effects on functioning and quality of life, and it is also reiterated that crisis exposure for children during their early years of development is not a limited and brief experience. Children facing disasters might suffer from the loss of their homes or community, witness terrible experiences, and display changes in behaviour such as withdrawal or poor sleep; however, their reactions will vary immensely and they require stable relationships in order to remain resilient. Crisis affects families with regard to the stress it places on them, their housing and services, and the parents' trauma and grief which limits their emotional availability.

Social Policy and Australian Responses

Wellbeing, Security, Resilience in the EYLF V2.0 focuses on providing supportive reactions in times of crises. Safe environment and family relations are promoted by the NQF. Evacuation and continuity policies are included in the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework as well as the Emergency Management Plans for each state/territory. The National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children is the main FDV policy framework that includes children's protections. Evaluation: although good visibility of policy in place, the rate of child protection notifications regarding family violence increased from 49 to 53 per 1,000 in 2019-2020 compared to 2023-2024 (AIHW, 2025a), meaning that the investment in policy did not lower its prevalence yet increased the responsiveness of the system; Chavez Marinkovic et al. (2022).

Strategies for Practice

 

  1. Ensure predictable and safe environments – predictability and familiar environments will help children feel safe after experiencing crisis.
  2. Use trauma informed practices – the use of the Emerging Minds Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) toolkit to identify and respond appropriately to trauma (Emerging Minds, n.d.).
  3. 3. Help children express their emotions through play – drawing, storytelling, and music allow children to cope with experience without having to disclose what happened.
  4. Support sensitive family communication – being respectful of privacy and allowing families to direct the sharing of information (Wong et al., 2017). It is particularly important to ensure confidentiality and safety plan for families affected by FDV.
  5. Develop and follow emergency plans – clear procedures for evacuation and continuity which educators know and are able to explain to children.

Community and Professional Partnerships

 

1800RESPECT, national FDV counselling and referral; State Emergency Services (SES), providing emergency response and preparedness education; Australian Red Cross, supporting disaster recovery and community resilience; local councils/community recovery services, providing housing and financial recovery support; and social workers and psychologists, supporting children's emotional wellbeing and family recovery.

Resources for Educators and Children

 

Projects/Programs: Emerging Minds’ ACEs Toolkit (emergingminds.com.au); 1800RESPECT; Australian Red Cross emergency preparedness information; Raising Children Network advice on helping children cope in emergencies.

Story books (birth-5): A Terrible Thing Happened (Holmes), covering witness to terrifying incidents; After the Fall (Santat), focusing on recovery and resilience; The Goodbye Book (Santat), dealing with grief and change; When the Storm Comes (Cummins), addressing fear and uncertainty.

Videos: Sesame Street resources on trauma; Play School segments on emotions and safety; Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, role modelling ways of coping; Red Cross RediPlan resources for children about disaster preparedness.

Resources develop comprehension by giving children appropriate language for frightening experiences, empathy through modeling supportive reactions from other children and adults in response to distress, and resilience by reinforcing that safety and calm can be achieved after a crisis. There are relatively few climate disaster-specific resources for this age group in comparison to interpersonal crisis resources, which means educators have to adapt more general safety and feelings resources to the particular context of disaster recovery.