Adolescents face many challenges in their communities, families and individually during the
complex developmental stage of adolescence. It is during this time that their sense of self and an
identity apart from their parents become more strongly developed and they become more
autonomous. As adolescents separate more and more from their parents they move progressively
towards their peer relationships, which is an important part of identity formation. However, during
this period they are exposed to many healthy and unhealthy influences in the community, especially
when engaging with their peers and other social structures outside of the family. During childhood
they were less likely to engage in undesirable or risk behaviour for fear of disapproval and rejection
from their parents but during adolescence there is a strong need for approval from their peers, who
might engage in and encourage risk behaviour. Effective coping strategies can be an important
protective factor aiding them in making the right choices and decisions and resisting peer pressure.
Previously, many models of adolescent coping have been taken from coping studies done with
adults, which have not accounted for the developmental differences between adults and adolescents.
Now as literature on coping with regards to adolescence is growing, the studies often ignore
religious coping strategies and their potential impact on functioning. Yet, recent data suggests that
religious behaviour and beliefs have a protective influence that moderates the impact of adverse
interpersonal life events and social adversity as well as physical and mental health. Thus, this
qualitative study applied case study methods to explore and describe the different coping strategies
used by a group of church-going adolescents from branches of a non-denominational church in
Durban. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the North-West University and informed
consent was obtained from the parents and the adolescent minors before they participated in the
study. Data was collected using a visual representation technique, two individual interviews and a
focus group discussion with twelve participants. The data was analysed using thematic analysis and
three main themes and various subthemes emerged. The first theme was understanding of coping as
indicated by participants while the second theme identified the sources of their coping strategies and
the third theme involved their specific coping strategies, which included religion, leisure activities, physical coping, social support systems, creativity and behaviour. These findings provide a greater
understanding of the coping strategies and modalities used by church-going adolescents. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/11531 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Chamberlain, Sarah M |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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