Background: Research has widely documented how, even in conditions of extreme poverty, deprivation, or oppression, children are competent and situated actors, capable of actively mobilizing internal, external, or social resources to protect themselves from their environments and safeguard their everyday lives. Yet, the ways in which their agency might support their well-being or instead increase their own vulnerability has remained underexplored. Aims: The present study aims to provide an assessment of all those contributions which, over the past 20 years, have focused on both the positive and negative consequences of children’s actionability, revealing children’s self-destructive acts alongside their self-empowering and protective ones. In the process, it highlights several major theoretical breakthroughs and findings in this area of research. Method: We provide an assessment of peer-reviewed studies that have focused on both positive and negative consequences of children’s actionability, through a qualitative narrative literature review. Results: Of the 168 studies identified from online searches of the literature and the three additional sources gathered through bibliography mining, 76 qualified for full review, with 12 studies included in the final synthesis. Overall, the literature explored the different conditions in which children’s agentic practices expose them to trauma symptoms and to dangerous or self-harmful situations, thereby failing to safeguard their health and overall well-being. Conclusion: The review highlights the need to focus on the dangerous effect of the agentic practices activated by children in terms of their physical and psychological health.

背景：研究广泛记录了即使在极端贫困、剥夺或压迫的条件下，儿童如何成为有能力和处境的参与者，能够积极调动内部、外部或社会资源来保护自己免受环境影响并保护他们的日常生活。然而，他们的机构可能支持他们的福祉或反而增加他们自己的脆弱性的方式仍未得到充分探索。宗旨：本研究旨在评估所有这些贡献，这些贡献在过去 20 年中侧重于儿童可操作性的积极和消极后果，揭示儿童的自我毁灭行为以及自我授权和保护行为。在此过程中，它突出了该研究领域的几个重大理论突破和发现。方法：我们通过定性叙事文献审查，对同行评审的研究进行评估，这些研究侧重于儿童可操作性的积极和消极后果。结果：在通过在线搜索文献和通过书目挖掘收集的另外三个来源确定的 168 项研究中，有 76 项符合全面审查条件，其中 12 项研究包含在最终综合中。总体而言，文献探讨了儿童的代理行为使他们暴露于创伤症状和危险或自残情况的不同条件，从而无法保护他们的健康和整体福祉。结论：审查强调需要关注儿童激活的代理行为对他们身心健康的危险影响。