Abstract:
Substance abuse has become a global scourge wreaking havoc amongst young people across cities and towns, not excluding Eersterust, a small township to the east of Pretoria. The primary purpose of this study is to discover what causes some young people to triumph over their addiction in what seems an almost impossible feat. Answers to the questions of what young people relate as contributors and detractors to resilience are therefore explored.
The empirical part of this study was conducted in the township of Eersterust which has extensive drug abuse amongst community members. The participants, four in total, were purposively sampled from the local high school and rehabilitation centres in the area. The participants were required not to be younger than 18 years with a history of drug abuse and a minimum rehabilitated period of six months.
A qualitative process of life history research was employed to source the narratives of the participants. Bronfenbrenner’s socio-ecological model also served as theoretical framework in this study. Life maps and semi-structured questionnaires were also used to enrich and validate the data. Interviews were recorded and transcribed and the re-storying of the narratives of the participants was done from these transcriptions. The data was subjected to both inductive and deductive processes with a view to firstly generate new theory, and to then test existing theory.
The major themes related to detractors of resilience were: problematic parental styles; rejection by family and peers; low self-esteem due to view of self and perceived rejection; and pemissive normative climate/uninvolved and resource constrained communities. Themes related to resilience were: religion/faith; development of internal locus of control; hope; optimism; role models and mentors; and self-awareness and introspection.
In conclusion, this study has once more highlighted the pivotal role of parents and family as ameliorating factors in adolescent drug abuse. On the other hand, problematic parental styles as contributing factors to adolescent drug abuse have also significantly come through in this study. A final observation of this study was that resilience is indeed a dynamic process. Therefore, the identified themes in favour of resilience in this study cannot be regarded as a blueprint for every single case of addiction recovery.
