Adolescent development is synonymous with physical and emotional
changes and challenges. This development has previously been termed
âstorm and stressâ to further illustrate these turmoils that adolescents
experience. Adolescents generally growing up in a coloured community
further experience hardships such as gangsterism, unemployment,
overcrowding and substance abuse.
The implementation of life skills could be seen as a way to possibly
reduce engagement in risky behaviour and effectively face adversity.
Life skills include an unlimited list of complex and integrated skills and
assist in the participation of meaningful occupations. The main
occupation of an adolescent is that of a learner. Within schools, life skills
are part of the form of Life Orientation. Life Orientation includes
subjects such as vocational guidance, religion and physical education
and it addresses the most crucial life skills. Not only can life skills assist
with positive adaptive behaviour amongst adolescents, but supportive
environments also contribute to resilient behaviour. Resilience is being
able to bounce back from challenges. Adolescents engaging in risky
behaviour, having poor to little knowledge of life skills, not applying their
life skills and negative environmental factors all influence their ability to
be resilient.
The researcher undertook this study to establish a profile of coloured
adolescents and their knowledge and application of life skills that lead to
resilient behavior. This was a descriptive study involving a convenience
sampling method. The study took place at four predominantly coloured
schools in Kimberley in the Northern Cape. Three hundred and forty eight (348) learners returned signed permission letters that allowed
them to complete the questionnaire.
The sample comprised of both males and females aged 16 to 18 years.
Grade 12 learners were in the minority, while there were mostly grade
11 learners (45.4%) that participated in the study. Learners mostly
came from coloured suburbs with 26.4% of learners coming from other
suburbs within Kimberley.
The profile of coloured adolescents presented with learners possessing
knowledge and/or application of different life skills. Learners presented
with better knowledge of life skills within communication skills (90.3%),
time management (72.8%) and values (89.9%). When expected to
apply life skills, problem-solving skills (90.9%) and values (81.1%) were
applied best. Learners applied time management and decision making
poorly of all life skills. The researcher further noted that application of
communication skills and time management (whether high or low) were
directly related to resilience. Knowledge of the other life skills (whether
high or low) were related to resilience. The only exception was within
values, where knowledge and application were both directly related to
resilience.
Only small numbers of learners engaged in risky behaviour in the form
of drinking alcohol mostly. Risky behaviour is considered a negative
influence on life skills. Learners portrayed hope, optimism and
competence within individual environmental factors. However learners
from the lower socio-economic backgrounds presented with less hope
(70.7%) compared to other suburbs (84.2%). Within family factors
security, stability and support were prominent factors and had a positive influence on life skills leading to resilience. Peer acceptance was
important for most learners (95.4%).
To conclude the researcher will use findings to develop community and
school programmes that could assist in the implementation of life skills
that would serve to support and empower adolescents. The important
role that the occupational therapist could play in adolescent
development is to ensure optimal engagement in occupations through
life skills in order to develop as healthy adults.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-10162013-113855 |
| Date | 16 October 2013 |
| Creators | Jansen, Anthea Natalie Blanche |
| Contributors | Dr SM van Heerden, Dr S van Vuuren |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-10162013-113855/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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