Personal protective resources supporting adolescent resilience to the challenges of a petrochemical-affected community

Abstract

My study is a sub-study of the Resilient Youth in Stressed Environments (RYSE) Project. RYSE aims to better understand the resilience of youth who live in environments that are stressed by the petrochemical industry and its associated risks. In particular, the purpose of my study is to explore and understand the personal protective resources that facilitate resilience among adolescents (aged 15-24) living in the petrochemical-affected community of eMbalenhle in Secunda, South Africa. My study was guided by Ungar’s (2011) Social Ecology of Resilience Theory (SERT). To this end I employed a phenomenological research design. Purposive sampling was used to recruit the participants. Thirty participants were selected from eMbalenhle community. Arts-based activities, namely body-map storytelling, draw-write-and-talk, and group discussions were used in four groups to generate the data. Thematic content analysis was used to identify themes that emerged from the data set. These themes related to personal motivation and determination, cognitive competencies, social skill, positive emotion, and physical well-being. My study fills a gap in the current resilience literature related to research on the resilience of adolescents living in a petrochemical-affected community with its associated risks for adolescents (e.g., crime, violence, drug and alcohol abuse) in South Africa, and the lack of knowledge pertaining to how these adolescents adjust positively despite exposure to the challenges associated with living in such a community.