Critique of an intervention programme to promote resilience among learners with specific learning difficulties

A quasi-experimental study, which focused on inculcating resilience skills in adolescents with specific learning difficulties by means of a group intervention programme, is reported on. The results of the study suggested that adolescents with specific learning difficulties can acquire resilience skills despite obstacle-ridden circumstances, but that the programme requires continued research to be optimally effective. South African Journal of Education Vol. 26(2) 2006: 199–21

The specific Life Orientation needs of Grade 9 learners in the Vaal Triangle region

We report on a study aimed at understanding adolescence as a period of heightened vulnerability, and investigate Life Orientation as a possible means of addressing the risk associated with adolescence. However, if Life Orientation is to be an effective solution to the problem, it needs to respond to Life Orientation needs as perceived by adolescents. An empirical study (n = 445) was conducted to survey the specific Life Orientation needs of Grade 9 learners in the Vaal Triangle region. The study aimed to consult with Grade 9 learners in order to determine and rank their specific Life Orientation needs, thus providing insight as to whether the Life Orientation needs o f Grade 9 learners differ according to gender and race, and to examine whether these needs are met by the current Life Orientation programme. South African Journal of Education Vol. 26(3) 2006: 397–41

Researching resilience processes in children's everyday lives during transitioning to school : A dialogic approach

Peer reviewe

How school ecologies facilitate resilience among adolescents with Intellectual Disability: Guidelines for teachers

The global prioritisation of the inclusion of learners with disabilities, and of vulnerable young people’s resilience, means that teachers worldwide require insight into how best to facilitate the resilience of adolescents made vulnerable by intellectual disability (ID). To provide such insight, we conducted a secondary data analysis of a multiple case study of resilient adolescents with ID attending special schools in Gauteng Province, South Africa. The visual and narrative data that inform this case study were generated by resilient adolescents with ID (n = 24), and their teachers (n = 18). Four school-related themes emerge from their accounts of resilience-supporting factors associated with their schools for the physically and severely intellectually disabled (SPSID). From these, we distill three uncomplicated actions mainstream school ecologies can execute in order to enable the resilience of included adolescents with ID. Their simplicity and ordinariness potentiate universally useful ways for mainstream teachers to champion the resilience of included adolescents with ID.Keywords: adolescents; formal services; health and well-being; inclusion; intellectual disability; qualitative research; resilience; SPSID; teacher

Promoting resilience among Sesotho-speaking adolescent girls: Lessons for South African teachers

Teachers are a crucial part of young people’s social ecologies. Considering that black South African adolescent girls remain the most marginalised group in South Africa, the purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study has been to explore if and how teachers champion resilience among black adolescent girls living in rural contexts of structural adversity. Using Draw-and-Talk and Draw-and-Write methods, 28 Sesotho-speaking adolescent girls from the Free State Province of South Africa generated a total of 68 drawings. The drawings were analysed using inductive content analysis. The findings include teachers actively listen and provide guidance; teachers motivate girls towards positive futures; and teachers initiate teacher-girl partnerships. These findings prompt three strategies to support teachers’ championship of resilience, namely pre-empt support; advocate for a changed education landscape; and communicate constructive messages.Keywords: adolescent girls; resilience; rural; Sesotho-speaking; social ecology; structural adversity; teacher(s

Community-based participatory video: Exploring and advocating for girls’ resilience

Resilience studies typically privilege the views and assumptions of minority-world research. One way to circumvent this is through methodologies that give voice to the experiences of majority-world youth. Our aim in this article is to reflect critically on the use of community-based participatory video (CBPV) to understand and promote resilience processes in 28 black South African adolescent girls. The girls, aged from13 to19 years, were recruited by social workers and teachers collaborating with the South African Pathways to Resilience Project. The findings suggest that CBPV does champion participant-directed understandings of resilience. However, the findings also draw attention to the difficulties of realising the potential of the social change inherent in CBPV, and the complexity of stimulating deep reflection in the girl participants

Critical review of studies of South African youth resilience, 1990–2008

Given the growing emphasis in research and service provision on strengths rather than deficits, the focus on youth support in the South African Children’s Act of 2005 and the lack of educational, therapeutic and other resources for most South Africans, insight into, and transdisciplinary commitment to, resilience is crucial. Resilience, or the phenomenon of ‘bouncing back’ from adversity, is common to societies that grapple with threatened well-being. Increasingly, international resilience studies have suggested that the capacity to rebound is nurtured by multiple resources that protect against risk and that these resources are rooted in culture. In this paper, we critically reviewed 23 articles that focus on South African youth resilience, published in academic journals between 1990 and 2008. By broadly comparing South African findings to those of international studies, we argued for continued research into the phenomenon of resilience and for a keener focus on the cultural and contextual roots of resilience that are endemic to South Africa. Although international resilience research has begun to match the antecedents of resilience to specific contexts and/or cultures, South African research hardly does so. Only when this gap in youth resilience research is addressed, will psychologists, service providers, teachers and communities be suitably equipped to enable South African youth towards sustained resilience

Critical review of studies of South African youth resilience, 1990–2008

Given the growing emphasis in research and service provision on strengths rather than deficits, the focus on youth support in the South African Children’s Act of 2005 and the lack of educational, therapeutic and other resources for most South Africans, insight into, and transdisciplinary commitment to, resilience is crucial. Resilience, or the phenomenon of ‘bouncing back’ from adversity, is common to societies that grapple with threatened well-being. Increasingly, international resilience studies have suggested that the capacity to rebound is nurtured by multiple resources that protect against risk and that these resources are rooted in culture. In this paper, we critically reviewed 23 articles that focus on South African youth resilience, published in academic journals between 1990 and 2008. By broadly comparing South African findings to those of international studies, we argued for continued research into the phenomenon of resilience and for a keener focus on the cultural and contextual roots of resilience that are endemic to South Africa. Although international resilience research has begun to match the antecedents of resilience to specific contexts and/or cultures, South African research hardly does so. Only when this gap in youth resilience research is addressed, will psychologists, service providers, teachers and communities be suitably equipped to enable South African youth towards sustained resilience

The inhibitors and enablers of emerging adult COVID-19 mitigation compliance in a township context.

Young adults are often scapegoated for not complying with COVID-19 mitigation strategies. While studies have investigated what predicts this population’s compliance and non-compliance, they have largely excluded the insights of African young people living in South African townships. Given this, it is unclear what places young adult South African township dwellers at risk for not complying with physical distancing, face masking and handwashing, or what enables resilience to those risks. To remedy this uncertainty, the current article reports a secondary analysis of transcripts (n=119) that document telephonic interviews in June and October 2020 with 24 emerging adults (average age: 20 years) who participated in the Resilient Youth in Stressed Environments (RYSE) study. The secondary analysis, which was inductively thematic, pointed to compliance being threatened by forgetfulness; preventive measures conflicting with personal/collective style; and structural constraints. Resilience to these compliance risks lay in young people’s capacity to regulate their behaviour and in the immediate social ecology’s capacity to co-regulate young people’s health behaviours. These findings discourage health interventions that are focused on the individual. More optimal public health initiatives will be responsive to the risks and resilience-enablers associated with young people and the social, institutional, and physical ecologies to which young people are connected.Significance:• Emerging adult compliance with COVID-19 mitigation strategies is threatened by risks across multiple systems (i.e. young people themselves; the social ecology; the physical ecology).• Emerging adult resilience to compliance challenges is co-facilitated by young people and their social ecologies.• Responding adaptively to COVID-19 contagion threats will require multisystem mobilisation that is collaborative and transformative in its redress of risk and co-championship of resilience-enablers

Youth Resilience to Drought:Learning from a Group of South African Adolescents

Exposure to drought is on the increase, also in sub-Saharan Africa. Even so, little attention has been paid to what supports youth resilience to the stressors associated with drought. In response, this article reports a secondary analysis of qualitative data generated in a phenomenological study with 25 South African adolescents (average age 15.6; majority Sepedi-speaking) from a drought-impacted and structurally disadvantaged community. The thematic findings show the importance of personal, relational, and structural resources that fit with youths’ sociocultural context. Essentially, proactive collaboration between adolescents and their social ecologies is necessary to co-advance socially just responses to the challenges associated with drought.UK Natural Environment Research Councilhttp://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerphpm2021Educational Psycholog