Exploring the resilience of youth living in a high-risk community

[摘要] This study is aimed at exploring the resilient attributes of youth in a high-risk community. Theprimary aims were to identify the challenges that youth perceived to be significant to them in theircommunity and then to identify their coping strategies and other supports that helped them to dealwith these challenges and to maintain their positive lifestyle. A basic interpretive, qualitativeresearch design was used. Data were gathered through six semi-structured individual interviews, afocus-group interview, observations and a literature study. The participants comprised four boysand two girls, their ages ranging between 14 years and 19 years. Content analysis was used toanalyse the data.The findings of this study indicate that the youth perceived their environment as posing challengesto them in a number of areas, these included community resources, safety, barriers to communitydevelopment, the negative stereotyping of youth and the specific dangers to the well-being of youth.Furthermore, the participants identified several coping strategies that they employed in dealing withthese challenges. These strategies were related to their choices about friendships, to the strategiesthat they used to protect themselves, to their attitude to others, to respect, to their orientationtowards the future, to work ethic, to successful role-models and to education. In addition,individual, family and community resources emerged as factors that supported the youth inmaintaining their positive lifestyle. The individual resources that were identified were the belief ofthe youth in the value of friendships, their view of their family, religion, their ability to deal withdifficulties, an altruistic attitude, self-awareness and self-esteem, their personal beliefs, personalattributes and their attitude to life. The family resources that were identified were effectiveparenting and family communication. The community resources that were identified were supportfrom a positive adult. These findings confirm that many factors influence an individual's resilienceand that resilience should therefore be understood as a dynamic and fluctuating process that is bestunderstood from an ecosystemic perspective.The implications of these findings are that, in order to support youth in a high-risk environment tocope with their challenges, the focus should be on reducing risk and increasing assets and protectivefactors. This could be achieved through, for example, the provision of resources for extracurricularactivities, programmes for the support and development of parental skills, training and support forschools in order to increase their effectiveness as a source of support and mechanisms for thecommunity to support community members to care for their youth.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University