A Equally Vulnerable, Equally Forgotten: A Literature Review of Child Protection and Elderly Welfare through the Person-in- Environment Framework

A Literature Review of Child Protection and Elderly Welfare through the Person-in- Environment Framework

Abstract

Children and the elderly are both vulnerable to abuse, neglect, and
unequal access to services; however, studies on these two groups often run in
isolation from one another. This literature review integrates nine scientific articles
on the themes of Person-in-Environment, Human Behavior in the Social
Environment, child protection, and elderly welfare into a single social work
analytical framework. Using a literature study method with content analysis and
paragraph synthesis techniques based on the Point-Evidence-Example-Link (PEEL)
model, the review reveals that violence, poverty, social isolation, health issues, and
institutional weaknesses consistently emerge across both age groups, despite
differing forms and triggers. Both frameworks prove capable of bridging the issues
of children and the elderly, as they both position the individual as part of a multilayered
environmental system, ranging from the family to state policy. This review
recommends simultaneous strengthening at the family, institutional, and policy
levels through a life-cycle approach, so that child protection and elderly welfare are
viewed as a continuous continuum of social functioning.

Keywords: Person-in-Environment; Human Behavior in the Social Environment;
child protection; elderly welfare; literature review