LITERATURE OVERVIEW: ADOLESCENCE AND RESILIENCE

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Risk factors associated with social contexts

Negative family and child outcomes have also been liked to harmful environments and social conditions, dangerous and disorganized neighbourhoods and low social status. In the Southern African context and in particular the South African context, it goes without saying that pandemics like HIV/AIDS, illnesses like tuberculosis, poverty and high levels of violence, take their toll on family well-being and stability and are major risk factors associated with negative child outcomes. In the paragraph below, special attention will be focussed on the risk factors associated with the school and the peer group as it is within these two contexts that the adolescent spends most of his time.

THE ROLE OF THE EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST IN INTERVENTION

There are many opportunities for the educational psychologist to initiate and support positive change in one of the most influential aspects of the young person’s life, namely his experience of school. Intervention can occur at various levels to bring about positive change for vulnerable learners. These are summarised below: • Vulnerable children should be treated as a priority group. The educational psychologist needs to recognize the variety and complexity of these children’s needs, understand the importance of a team approach in co-operating and enabling the local school clinics and learner support teams to put into practice its shared responsibilities for corporate parenting.

Collage

In his collage, the themes were once again coloured by his prolonged drug use and his sadness at the wastage and loss not only of time and opportunities but also of close friends who succumbed to drugs. He depicted his present as uncertain as he was coming to terms with his new identity without drugs. He felt that he was in a moratorium in that he was in a school environment where he felt that he couldn’t escape others’ perceptions of his past life as a drug addict and the temptations that still awaited him in that environment. He saw school as a means to an end. He felt that he couldn’t wait to move on to the next phase of his life which would be exotic as he’d live in a foreign county (to escape?). He’d fulfil a dream to be a reporter and writer and he would live on his own terms and would not allow himself to be encumbered by emotion or love.

Social support

The results of the study indicate that the resilient participants (Participants 1, 2, 5 and 6) appeared to cope well across social systems (home, school, community). Each of these resilient participants indicated that he had one adult who was nurturing, supportive, independent and available to him. This person was also often capable of solving problems. In these four cases, this person was the mother. Each of the perceived resilient participants had forged good relationships with friends, educators or adults in the community who could act as mentors to them and who created circles of support for them, particularly during difficult times. They all indicated that at least one adult had always been available to them as a source of emotional support.

Sense of control

According to Boyd and Eckert (2002:10-11) non-resilience indicates the inability to learn and grow through experience and a loss of hope and optimism, which the researcher witnessed in participants 3 and 4 and to a lesser extent in participants 7 and 8. This loss of hope and optimism results in the individual choosing an empty life and assuming a victim’s mentality. Such individuals fail to manage stress but instead, they prefer to toughen their minds, bodies and spirits by combating stress in a reactive way. In the cases of participants 3, 4 and 8 in particular, this was evident in their withdrawing from others and their feelings of helplessness in certain situations.

Belief system

Three of the resilient participants (participants 2, 5 and 6) were religious and one of the resilient participants (participant 1) strongly believed in a philosophy of life that espoused the striving after higher ideals and self-actualization. Their faith in a higher calling or a higher being gave their lives meaning and served as a source of comfort during difficult times. Of the non-resilient participants, only participants 4 and 7 expressed that they had a philosophy of life that they adhered to. Participant 4, however, admitted that he felt disillusioned with his spirituality which he described as « short-lived. »

TABLE OF CONTENTS :

• CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTORY ORIENTATION
  • 1.1 INTRODUCTION
  • 1.2 ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM
    • 1.2.1 Awareness of the problem
    • 1.2.2 Statement of the problem
    • 1.2.3 Hypotheses
  • 1.3 DEMARCATION OF RESEARCH
    • 1.3.1 Adolescent
    • 1.3.2 Resilience
    • 1.3.3 Psycho-educational
  • 1.4 AIMS OF THE RESEARCH
    • 1.4.1 Main aim: Literature study
    • 1.4.2 Secondary aim: Qualitative assessment
    • 1.4.3 To suggest guidelines for educators
    • 1.4.4 Role of the educational psychologist
  • 1.5 RESEARCH METHOD
  • 1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS USED IN THE STUDY
    • 1.6.1 Resilience
    • 1.6.2 Adolescence
    • 1.6.3 Psycho-educational perspective
      • 1.6.3.1 Identity, self-concept and self-esteem
      • 1.6.3.2 Self-actualisation
      • 1.6.3.3 Involvement
• 1.7 PREVIEW OF CHAPTERS
• 1.8 CONCLUDING REMARKS
• CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE OVERVIEW: ADOLESCENCE AND RESILIENCE
  • 2.1 INTRODUCTION
  • 2.2 ADOLESCENCE DEFINED
    • 2.2.1 The developmental stages and tasks of adolescence
  • 2.3 ADOLESCENCE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF RELATIONS THEORY
  • 2.4 THE CONCEPT OF RESILIENCE
    • 2.4.1 Introduction
    • 2.4.2 Historical context
    • 2.4.3 The construct of resilience
  • 2.5 ADOLESCENCE AND RESILIENCE
  • 2.6 PROTECTIVE FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO RESILIENCE
    • 2.6.1 Individual characteristics contributing to resilience
    • 2.6.2 Family factors in risk and resiliency
      • 2.6.2.1 Absence of marital discord
      • 2.6.2.2 Healthy, caring relationship with at least one parent or stable care-giver
• 2.7 RISK FACTORS AND RESILIENCE
  • 2.7.1 Characteristics of individuals
  • 2.7.2 Family risk factors
  • 2.7.3 Risk factors associated with social contexts
    • 2.7.3.1 Risk factors associated with the school
    • 2.7.3.2 The peer group
• 2.8 THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL AND THE EDUCATOR IN FOSTERING RESILIENCE
• 2.9 THE ROLE OF THE EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST IN INTERVENTION
• 2.10 CONCLUSION
• CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH DESIGN
  • 3.1 INTRODUCTION
  • 3.2 RESEARCH PROBLEM
    • 3.2.1 Hypotheses
  • 3.3 AIM OF THE RESEARCH
  • 3.4 RESEARCH METHODS
    • 3.4.1 Qualitative research
    • 3.4.2 Selection of the participants
      • 3.4.2.1 The educators
      • 3.4.2.2 The learners
    • 3.4.3 Lists of questions
      • 3.4.3.1 The Vulnerability Questionnaire
      • 3.4.3.2 The Resilience Questionnaire
    • 3.4.4 The Child and Youth Resilience Measure
    • 3.4.5 The Collage
  • 3.5 RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION
• CHAPTER FOUR SUMMARY, FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

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RESILIENCE IN ADOLESCENTS: A PSYCHO-EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE