Resilience to drought : adolescents perspectives on what enables health and well- being

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the intrapersonal and interpersonal health- and wellbeing- enabling resources that adolescents regard as important to both their health and wellbeing when faced with adversity, specifically in the context of drought. Limited information is presently available about what enables resilience amongst adolescents when faced with the challenges of drought. Resilience is a process that, with the occurrence of risk, draws on interpersonal and intrapersonal enabling resources to facilitate/sustain positive adaption. To fulfil this purpose, I conducted a qualitative study. The reason for this was to gain a deeper understanding of resilience to drought, through the experiences of the adolescents living in Leandra, Mpumalanga, South Africa. My study of limited scope was part of a larger study entitled: Patterns of resilience among young people in a community affected by drought: Historical and contextual perspectives. Forty-three participants were recruited to the greater study by purposive sampling. I focused on adolescent participants (n = 25, including boys and girls). The data generation was through visual arts-based methods of body mapping and “sandtray” activity. Data analysis was done using inductive content analysis following the steps of thematic analysis by Braun and Clarke (2006). Two themes emerged. The first focused on intrapersonal resources: a resilience-supporting way of life, adopting a non-drought focus and managing drought-related challenges, and valuing peer and community relationships. The second theme focused on interpersonal resources: supportive parenting, spiritual support and the community managing drought related challenges. An educational psychologist is able to draw on the emerged intrapersonal and interpersonal resources found in my study to tentatively create context-specific insights, in order to understand and promote resilience in adolescents experiencing adversity, specifically drought.