Youth Resilience to Drought: Learning from a Group of South African Adolescents

Adolescent wellbeing and climate crisis: adolescents are responding, what about health professionals?

Alice McGushin and colleagues argue for recognition of the diverse ways in which climate change affects adolescent wellbeing and call for health professionals to work with them to respond to the crisis

The relationships between resilience, care environment, and social-psychological factors in orphaned and separated adolescents in western Kenya

The relationships between care environment, resilience, and social factors in orphaned and separated adolescents and youths (OSAY) in western Kenya are complex and under-studied. This study examines these relationships through the analysis of survey responses from OSAY living in Charitable Children's Institutes (CCI) and family-based care settings (FBS) in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The associations between 1) care environment and resilience (measured using the 14-item Resilience Scale); 2) care environment and factors thought to promote resilience (e.g. social, family, and peer support); and 3) resilience and these same resilience-promoting factors, were examined using multivariable linear and logistic regressions. This cross-sectional study included 1202 OSAY (50.4% female) aged 10-26 (mean=16; SD=3.5). The mean resilience score in CCIs was 71 (95%CI=69-73) vs. 64 (95%CI=62-66) in FBS. OSAY in CCIs had higher resilience (β=7.67; 95%CI=5.26-10.09), social support (β=0.26; 95%CI=0.14-0.37), and peer support (β=0.90; 95%CI=0.64-1.17) than those in FBS. OSAY in CCIs were more likely to volunteer than those in FBS (OR=3.72; 95%CI=1.80-7.68), except in the male subgroup. Family (β=0.42; 95%CI=0.24-0.60), social (β=4.19; 95%CI=2.53-5.85), and peer (β=2.13; 95%CI=1.44-2.83) relationships were positively associated with resilience in all analyses. Volunteering was positively associated with resilience (β=5.85; 95%CI=1.51-10.19). The factor most strongly related to resilience in both fully adjusted models was peer support. This study found a strong relationship between care environment and resilience. Care environment and resilience each independently demonstrated strong relationships with peer support, social support, and participating in volunteer activities. Resilience also had a strong relationship with familial support. These data suggest that resilience can be developed through strategic supports to this vulnerable population.

Multisystemic enablers of sub-Saharan child and youth resilience to maltreatment

BACKGROUND

The resilience of sub-Saharan children and youth to abuse and neglect is under-researched. In particular, the multisystemic and contextually sensitive nature of their resilience is under-appreciated.

PURPOSE

In response we conceptualized a discussion paper. Its intention is to make a case for a contextually relevant, multisystemic understanding of the resilience of sub-Saharan children and youth with exposure to maltreatment.

METHOD

This discussion paper draws on a critical analysis of pertinent peer-reviewed publications. It also draws on our lifelong residence in sub-Saharan Africa and related insight into this region's situational and cultural dynamics.

RESULTS

We advance three assertions regarding the multisystemic nature of sub-Saharan young people's resilience to abuse and neglect : (i) family↔communities are pivotal to sub-Saharan child and youth resilience to maltreatment; (ii) institutional supports matter too, particularly when multiple systems interact to provide networks of institutional support; and (iii) the resilience-enabling potential of built and natural environments is yet to be fully harnessed.

CONCLUSION

Interacting social and ecological system factors and processes matter for the resilience of sub-Saharan children and youth who experience abuse and neglect. Appreciation for their complexity and contextual fit are crucial to practice and policy efforts to advance the protection and wellbeing of sub-Saharan young people.