Research
The transformative power of love.
Camila Batmanghelidjh was among the first people to draw together innovative ideas from the fields of social work, psychotherapy, and neuroscience, to create a new, holistic approach to child protection.
In her 2013 TED talk at the University of Oxford, Camila explained how “unrelenting love” can help the most vulnerable children.
Her model of intervention, which she developed with the clinical staff and key workers at Kids Company, offered children and young people “the kind of quality care that comes from a parental function.”
By stepping-up to “reparent violated children,” it was possible to help to them recover the “neurodevelopmental trajectory that they have been denied.”
The importance of clinical research.
Camila believed in the importance of clinical research. Kids Company funded a PhD studentship at UCL, which enabled researchers at the university’s world-leading Division of Psychology and Language Sciences to undertake several studies on the mental health impact of childhood abuse and neglect.
The five resulting papers, published between 2014 and 2018, validated the theories behind Kids Company’s therepeutic and clinical interventions, and made significant contributions to the field. This research has been cited in over 500 subsequent papers.
Papers published through Camila’s collaboration with UCL.
Cecil, C. A. M., McCrory, E. J., Barker, E. D., Guiney, J., & Viding, E. (2018). Characterising youth with callous–unemotional traits and concurrent anxiety: Evidence for a high-risk clinical group. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27(7), 885–898. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-017-1086-8
Cecil, C. A. M., Viding, E., Fearon, P., Glaser, D., & McCrory, E. J. (2017). Disentangling the mental health impact of childhood abuse and neglect. Child Abuse & Neglect, 63, 106–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2016.11.024
Cecil, C. A. M., McCrory, E. J., Viding, E., Holden, G. W., & Barker, E. D. (2016). Initial Validation of a Brief Pictorial Measure of Caregiver Aggression: The Family Aggression Screening Tool. Assessment, 23(3), 307–320. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191115587552
Cecil, C. A. M., Viding, E., McCrory, E. J., & Gregory, A. M. (2015). Distinct Mechanisms Underlie Associations Between Forms of Childhood Maltreatment and Disruptive Nocturnal Behaviors. Developmental Neuropsychology, 40(3), 181–199. https://doi.org/10.1080/87565641.2014.983636
Cecil, C. A. M., Viding, E., Barker, E. D., Guiney, J., & McCrory, E. J. (2014). Double disadvantage: The influence of childhood maltreatment and community violence exposure on adolescent mental health. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 55(7), 839–848. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12213