Agriculture touches the lives of individuals every day, and some do not even realize it. As a means to educate society, agricultural education programs, such as "AgVenture," have been established to educate youth about the importance of agriculture to both the individual and to society. This study examined the direct impact that one agricultural education program, specifically "AgVenture," had on youth perceptions and knowledge of agriculture. Youth's perceptions and knowledge of agriculture were examined using a pre-test and post-test instrument administered to 41 fourth grade students who participated in the "AgVenture" program. The questions covered the basic agricultural material that the students would be exposed to at the program. Based on findings, it was concluded that the "AgVenture" program had a positive impact on the knowledge of the students regarding agriculture. It was also concluded that the students gained an understanding of what agriculture encompasses and that almost all students were impacted, in a positive manner, in regard to their perceptions of agriculture. Findings revealed that the need continues for agricultural programs to inform youth about agriculture.

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

Ce travail se compose de deux études principales : La première étude est destinée à valider une version française de l’échelle d’évaluation des qualités d’attachement adulte (MAQ ; Carver, 1997). La deuxième étude est destinée à évaluer les qualités d’attachement chez les jeunes adultes antérieurement placés en famille d’accueil et de les mettre en perspective avec la perception qu’ils ont du soutien parental reçu dans le cadre familial de substitution (famille d’accueil ou assistante familiale). Les résultats de la première étude montrent que l’échelle de MAQ-Fr présente des niveaux adéquats de cohérence interne, de stabilité temporelle et d’une bonne validité du construit. Nous pouvons considérer qu’elle constitue donc un bon outil d’évaluation des qualités d'attachement auprès d’une population d’adultes français. Les résultats de la deuxième étude montrent que les jeunes accueillis avaient été marqués par leur expérience de placement. Leurs types d'attachement à l'âge adulte ont été influencés dans une certaine mesure par leurs expériences individuelles en famille d'accueil. Ces types d'attachement sont liés à la fois au soutien parental de substitution et aux conditions dans lesquelles se sont effectuées le /ou les placements. Les types d'attachement insécure influencent l'évolution relationnelle des adultes anciens placés en famille d'accueil. Ils ont alors développé des « modèles internes opérants » provoquant des défenses qui renforcent en fait les angoisses et la méfiance déjà présentes du fait des traumatismes relationnels précoces. Cette étude fournit à la fois des indices positifs comme quoi les enfants placés subissent des souffrances liées à leurs difficultés d’attachement et que celles-ci peuvent se trouver modifiées en bien ou en mal selon la sensibilité des milieux d’accueil à ces difficultés d’attachement. Les résultats obtenus mettent en lumière l'importance de s'intéresser au placement en famille d'accueil et aux relations entre les jeunes placés et les parents d'accueil, celles-ci étant des facteurs susceptibles d'influencer dans une forme de sécurisation l’attachement à l'âge adulte tout en renforçant l’autonomisation et les capacités de mentalisation. / This work is composed of two main studies: The first study intended to validate a French version of the of the measure of adult attachment qualities (MAQ; Carver, 1997). The second study is designed to assess the attachment qualities of young adults previously placed in foster care and put them in perspective with the perception they have of parental support received in foster care. The results of the first study show that the MAQ-Fr scale has adequate levels of internal consistency, temporal stability, and good construct validity. We can consider that it is therefore a good tool for assessing the qualities of attachment to a French adult population. The results of the second study show that the participants have been affected by their foster care experience. Their relationship styles indicate that their attachment style in adulthood has been influenced to some extent by their individual experiences in foster care. These types of attachment are related both to foster parental support and the conditions in which the placement (s) was made. Insecure attachment patterns influence the relational evolution of adults who have been in foster care. They then developed "working internal models" hat provoke defenses that actually reinforce the anxieties and mistrust already present due to early relationship traumas. This study provides both positive indications that the children placed suffer pain related to their attachment difficulties and that these can be modified in good or bad according to the sensitivity of the host environments to these difficulties of 'attachment. The final results highlight the importance of foster care placement and relationships between young in foster care and their foster parents, as these factors are likely to influence attachment in adulthood in a form of securing while reinforcing empowerment and mentalizing abilities.