Literature shows that serious concerns are being raised about the wellbeing of young people in South Africa, however somehow youth manage to sustain their health and wellbeing despite the risks they face. This phenomenon is called resilience; youth are coping well in the face of adversity, nevertheless little is known about the relationship between resilience and service usage. Resources such as empathy, religious leaders and personal faith, supportive family relationships and bonding with a parent empower youth against risks they might face, which might counteract various risks which impair youth from becoming resilient. This study focuses on the correlation between services and resilience through a quantitative cross-sectional survey of the Pathways to Resilience Youth Measure (PRYM). 1209 participants between the ages of 12 and 19, from QwaQwa and Bethlehem in the Free State, South Africa were involved. Statistical analysis found that been questioned by the Police, not as a witness (-0.203), foster home (-0.200), gone to court, not as a witness (-0.190), been put into jail (-0.227), been on probation (-0.222) and substance abuse or addiction services (-0.222) scored statistically practically significantly. These results might indicate that participants in this study do not necessarily use services which are identified in the PRYM; moreover low resilience youth use services due to their involvement in activities which might get them into trouble or have them witness such activities. Findings might also indicate that those at-risk youth whose family cannot care for them sufficiently might have low resilience levels and have to make use of services such as placements in Foster homes. Finally the limited use of services by high resilience youth might correspond with reports that youth make positive meaning of live events and circumstances. / Thesis (MEd (Educational Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Literature shows that serious concerns are being raised about the wellbeing of young people in South Africa, however somehow youth manage to sustain their health and wellbeing despite the risks they face. This phenomenon is called resilience; youth are coping well in the face of adversity, nevertheless little is known about the relationship between resilience and service usage. Resources such as empathy, religious leaders and personal faith, supportive family relationships and bonding with a parent empower youth against risks they might face, which might counteract various risks which impair youth from becoming resilient. This study focuses on the correlation between services and resilience through a quantitative cross-sectional survey of the Pathways to Resilience Youth Measure (PRYM). 1209 participants between the ages of 12 and 19, from QwaQwa and Bethlehem in the Free State, South Africa were involved. Statistical analysis found that been questioned by the Police, not as a witness (-0.203), foster home (-0.200), gone to court, not as a witness (-0.190), been put into jail (-0.227), been on probation (-0.222) and substance abuse or addiction services (-0.222) scored statistically practically significantly. These results might indicate that participants in this study do not necessarily use services which are identified in the PRYM; moreover low resilience youth use services due to their involvement in activities which might get them into trouble or have them witness such activities. Findings might also indicate that those at-risk youth whose family cannot care for them sufficiently might have low resilience levels and have to make use of services such as placements in Foster homes. Finally the limited use of services by high resilience youth might correspond with reports that youth make positive meaning of live events and circumstances. / Thesis (MEd (Educational Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Resilience is defined as doing well despite significant hardships. Based on four principles informing a social-ecological definition of resilience (that is, decentrality, complexity, a typicality, and cultural relativity), Ungar (2011, 2012) hypothesised an explanation of social-ecological resilience. Seen from this perspective, resilience involves active youthsocial-ecological transactions towards meaningful, resilience-promoting supports. Youths’ usage of these supports might differ due to, among others, specific lived experiences, contextual influences, and youths’ subjective perceptions. While Ungar’s explanation is both popular and plausible, it has not been quantitatively tested, also not in South Africa. Moreover, there is little quantitatively informed evidence about youths’ differential resource-use, particularly when youth share a context and culture, and how such knowledge might support social ecologies to facilitate resilience processes. The overall purpose of this study was, therefore, to investigate black South African youths’ resilience processes from a social-ecological perspective, using a sample of black South African youth. This purpose was operationalised as sub-aims (explained below) that addressed the aforementioned gaps in theory. Data to support this study were accessed via the Pathways to Resilience Research Project (see www.resilienceresearch.org), of which this study is part. The Pathways to Resilience Research Project investigates the social-ecological contributions to youths’ resilience across cultures. This study consists of three manuscripts. Using a systematic literature review, Manuscript 1 evaluated how well quantitative studies of South African youth resilience avoided the pitfalls made public in the international critiques of resilience studies. For the most part, quantitative studies of South African youth resilience did not mirror international developments of understanding resilience as a complex socio-ecologically facilitated process. The results identified aspects of quantitative studies of South African youth resilience that necessitated attention. In addition, the manuscript called for quantitative studies that would statistically explain the complex dynamic resilience-supporting transactions between South African youths and their contexts. Manuscript 2 answered the aforementioned call by grounding its research design in a theoretical framework that respected the sociocultural life-worlds of South African youth (that is, Ungar’s Social-Ecological Explanation of Resilience). Ungar’s Social-Ecological Explanation of Resilience was modelled using latent variable modelling in Mplus 7.2, with data gathered with the Pathways to Resilience Youth Measure by 730 black South African school-going youth. The results established that South African youths adjusted well to challenges associated with poverty and violence because of resilience processes that were co-facilitated by social ecologies. It was, furthermore, concluded that school engagement was a functional outcome of the resilience processes among black South African youth. Manuscript 2 also provided evidence that an apposite, necessary, and respectful education contributed towards schooling as a meaningful resource. Manuscript 3 provided deeper insight into aspects of black South African youths’ resilience processes. Manuscript 3 investigated youths’ self-reported perceptions of resilience-promoting resources by means of data gathered by the Pathways to Resilience Youth Measure. Consequently, two distinct groups of youth from the same social ecology made vulnerable by poverty were compared (that is, functionally resilient youth, n = 221; and formal service-using youth, n = 186). Measurement invariance, latent mean differences in Mplus 7.2, and analyses of variance in SPSS 22.0 were employed. What emerged was that positive perceptions of caregiving (that is, physical and psychological) were crucial to youths’ use of formal resilience-promoting resources and subsequent functional outcomes. The conclusions resulted in implications for both caregivers and practitioners. / PhD (Educational Psychology) North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus 2015

Resilience is defined as doing well despite significant hardships. Based on four principles informing a social-ecological definition of resilience (that is, decentrality, complexity, a typicality, and cultural relativity), Ungar (2011, 2012) hypothesised an explanation of social-ecological resilience. Seen from this perspective, resilience involves active youthsocial-ecological transactions towards meaningful, resilience-promoting supports. Youths’ usage of these supports might differ due to, among others, specific lived experiences, contextual influences, and youths’ subjective perceptions. While Ungar’s explanation is both popular and plausible, it has not been quantitatively tested, also not in South Africa. Moreover, there is little quantitatively informed evidence about youths’ differential resource-use, particularly when youth share a context and culture, and how such knowledge might support social ecologies to facilitate resilience processes. The overall purpose of this study was, therefore, to investigate black South African youths’ resilience processes from a social-ecological perspective, using a sample of black South African youth. This purpose was operationalised as sub-aims (explained below) that addressed the aforementioned gaps in theory. Data to support this study were accessed via the Pathways to Resilience Research Project (see www.resilienceresearch.org), of which this study is part. The Pathways to Resilience Research Project investigates the social-ecological contributions to youths’ resilience across cultures. This study consists of three manuscripts. Using a systematic literature review, Manuscript 1 evaluated how well quantitative studies of South African youth resilience avoided the pitfalls made public in the international critiques of resilience studies. For the most part, quantitative studies of South African youth resilience did not mirror international developments of understanding resilience as a complex socio-ecologically facilitated process. The results identified aspects of quantitative studies of South African youth resilience that necessitated attention. In addition, the manuscript called for quantitative studies that would statistically explain the complex dynamic resilience-supporting transactions between South African youths and their contexts. Manuscript 2 answered the aforementioned call by grounding its research design in a theoretical framework that respected the sociocultural life-worlds of South African youth (that is, Ungar’s Social-Ecological Explanation of Resilience). Ungar’s Social-Ecological Explanation of Resilience was modelled using latent variable modelling in Mplus 7.2, with data gathered with the Pathways to Resilience Youth Measure by 730 black South African school-going youth. The results established that South African youths adjusted well to challenges associated with poverty and violence because of resilience processes that were co-facilitated by social ecologies. It was, furthermore, concluded that school engagement was a functional outcome of the resilience processes among black South African youth. Manuscript 2 also provided evidence that an apposite, necessary, and respectful education contributed towards schooling as a meaningful resource. Manuscript 3 provided deeper insight into aspects of black South African youths’ resilience processes. Manuscript 3 investigated youths’ self-reported perceptions of resilience-promoting resources by means of data gathered by the Pathways to Resilience Youth Measure. Consequently, two distinct groups of youth from the same social ecology made vulnerable by poverty were compared (that is, functionally resilient youth, n = 221; and formal service-using youth, n = 186). Measurement invariance, latent mean differences in Mplus 7.2, and analyses of variance in SPSS 22.0 were employed. What emerged was that positive perceptions of caregiving (that is, physical and psychological) were crucial to youths’ use of formal resilience-promoting resources and subsequent functional outcomes. The conclusions resulted in implications for both caregivers and practitioners. / PhD (Educational Psychology) North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus 2015