Emotion Regulation and Resilience among Street-Connected Children in Early Childhood: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Background/purpose. Street-connected children face cumulative adversity, yet evidence on emotion regulation and resilience in the early-childhood period remains fragmented. This review examined the direct evidence for children aged birth to eight and cautiously integrated age-adjacent evidence to clarify mechanisms, protective conditions, intervention implications, and research gaps. Materials/methods. A PRISMA 2020-guided systematic literature review searched Scopus, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Google Scholar for peer-reviewed sources published from 2013 to 2025. Of 128 records, 22 sources met eligibility criteria. Ten provided direct evidence on children and young people in street situations; 12 provided contextual evidence on emotion regulation or resilience in early childhood and adversity-exposed populations. Findings were synthesized narratively and thematically, with evidence tiers kept separate. Results. No included direct study isolated street-connected children aged birth to eight, and no study longitudinally tested emotion regulation and resilience together in this population. Direct evidence nevertheless showed that resilience depends on more than individual coping: safe relationships, peer solidarity, education, child-protection services, family and community participation, and access to structural goods were recurrent protective conditions. Evidence that emotion regulation contributes to resilience was plausible but primarily indirect, derived from general early-childhood and adversity research. Intervention evidence favored coordinated, family- and community-linked support; early-childhood-specific trials were absent. Conclusion. Emotion regulation should be treated as a developmentally scaffolded and potentially modifiable process, while resilience should be framed as a relational and structural achievement rather than an individual trait. Claims of effectiveness for street-connected young children remain premature. Future studies require age-disaggregated samples, culturally valid measures, longitudinal designs, and rigorous evaluations of trauma-informed, multisystemic interventions.