My study forms part of a bigger project, Resilient Youth in Stressed Environments (RYSE). The purpose of this study of limited scope was to explore the community supports that enable the resilience of adolescents living in the petrochemical-affected community of eMbalenhle in Secunda, South Africa. A number of resilience studies have been conducted both locally and abroad, but none of these has focused on the resilience of youth in petrochemical-affected communities. Since resilience is a complex process that results from individuals’ interaction with their social environments, my study was grounded in the Social Ecology of Resilience Theory (SERT). As an educational psychologist, I employed a phenomenological design with 30 participants (17 males and 13 females) aged 15 to 24 who were selected through purposive sampling from eMbalenhle community. Among these participants, 10 attended school, 2 were at the tertiary educational level and 4 were employed part-time. For this qualitative study I undertook an interpretivist approach to make sense of participants’ interpretations of their experience of living in a petrochemical-affected community. The data was generated by the RYSE team. A variety of arts-based /visual participatory methods (draw-talk-and-write, body theatre, and clay modelling) were used for generating data. I analysed the secondary data by means of inductive thematic content analysis where recurring themes were identified from the data. The main themes that emerged as community supports for adolescent resilience included support from Sasol (jobs, bursaries, learnerships, housing loans etc.), having positive relations with, and drawing support from, other community members and having access to health services and education. These themes indicate that although the petrochemical industry may affect the adolescents negatively it also constitutes their biggest support. The themes also indicate the importance of the social contexts in enabling adolescent wellbeing (as the theory behind SERT suggests should be the case). Therefore, when working with vulnerable adolescents from a petrochemical-affected community, any educational psychologist needs to partner with other role players from the community. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted

My study is a sub-study of the Resilient Youth in Stressed Environments (RYSE) Project (ethics clearance UP17/05/01). RYSE aims to develop a more in-depth understanding of the resilience of youth who live in environments challenged by the petrochemical industry and associated risks, specifically the community of eMbalenhle. In particular, the purpose of my qualitative sub-study is to explore which resilience-enabling factors in social ecologies (SEs) of tertiary education institutions (TEIs) shape the resilience of older adolescents from the eMbalenhle community who are engaged in tertiary education. Despite the common assumption in current South African literature that students who come from backgrounds challenged by disadvantage (the disadvantages that challenge them are often a variety of stressors in their immediate surroundings, with few public resources or services where help can be accessed) are doomed to failure at TEIs, some students from backgrounds challenged by disadvantage progress to TEIs and succeed in completing their studies. However, only a few such students succeed in completing their studies. Research shows that TEIs are not sufficiently prepared to accommodate students coming from backgrounds challenged by disadvantage. Therefore, my study of limited scope might potentially give voice to the perspectives of older adolescents from communities challenged by disadvantage regarding resilience-enabling factors in the SE of TEIs. Phenomenology was the epistemological assumption of my study and a qualitative methodological approach was used. I made use of a phenomenological research design, purposefully selected my six participants (with an average age of 20), and made use of photo-elicitation with conversational interviews to generate data. To analyse the data I made use of Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-step guide to inductive thematic content analysis. The main themes that emerged from my study were that university structures, a sought-after qualification (underpinned by a certain view of the future), and fellow students (with the subthemes same course and different course) were resilience-enabling factors. The usefulness of these themes to resilience theory is that older adolescents entering TEIs might potentially demonstrate resilience when experiencing the identified resilience-enabling factors in the SE of their TEI, and, therefore, my suggestion would be for TEIs to consider prioritising these protective factors. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted