Resilience In Adverse Settings:
Abstract # 9
Undocumented Latino Immigrants: A Story Of Suffering, Strength And Identity.
Presenter: Consuelo Elizabeth Mendez-Shannon Co - Presenters: Jo Daugherty Bailey
Abstract:
This poster summarizes key findings from a qualitative study about how undocumented Latino immigrants deal with adversity while living in an urban city in the U.S. Through semi-structured interviews, narratives demonstrated key protective factors prevalent in the community.
Key facilitators that were helpful during their initial transition into the U.S included getting help in finding a job, knowing someone in the U.S before immigrating, being connected to support networks, and receiving support from others who shared their struggles. The obstacles they continuously face are language barriers, limited education and unfair work wages. At the same time, another common theme reveals how they transform suffering using personal strengths and drawing on support from close-knit communities. Through it all, they shared that they maintained an identity of seemingly having two lives one originating in Mexico and the other of their current residence in the US.
Recommendations for social work practice include using a bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach and a strengths perspective with narratives. Participants described a three-tiered community network suggesting distinctions from a close-knit network outward to general Latino-based support and further out to a community resident network including teachers and medical doctors.
Abstract # 38
Resilience of Bataknese, Minangnese, And Sundanese Youth Migrants Who Study In Bandung.
Presenter: Ihsana Sabriani Borualogo Co - Presenters: Fons van de Vijver
Abstract:
The aim of this study is to get the new concepts on resilience which is emic and specific in the context of Indonesian culture on three ethnic groups (Bataknese, Minangnese and Sundanese). It is also aims to test the effect of value system and cultural value of migration on resilience. Bataknese have a value system that strongly supports members to leave the area to study. Core to this value system are characteristics like being persistent and diligent, and willing to try and work hard. This study tested a new model of resilience in the context of migration. More specifically, the model postulates that the value system vis-à-vis migration other vales, and social support have an influence on self-esteem, which in turn influences resilience, which in turn influences well-being. Data were collected through questionnaires to 712 respondents who were selected by random cluster sampling technique. The data were statistically analyzed by SEM using Lisrel. Self-esteem plays an important role as a mediating variable to help youth migrants to have resilience. Social support explained the important role of social environment and helped the youth migrants building their self-worth. Social life values helped youth migrants to build their self-esteem, so that they are able to have resilience. Resilience determined satisfaction with life in youth migrants. Culture affected psychological factors in youth migrants, such as value system, cultural value, self-esteem, and satisfaction with life. Cultural values affected resilience through those psychological factors.
Abstract # 60
Do Survival Mechanisms Equal Resilience? The Case Of The Banyamulenge Church Raid In Nairobi, Kenya.
Presenter: Julie Tippens
Abstract:
In times of extreme chaos, can survival be classified as a form of resilience? The goal of this segment is to explore the relationships that exist among “chaos narratives,” resilience-fostering techniques and psychosocial health outcomes in situations of distress.
This conversation is framed using the example of a May 2014 police raid on ethnic Banyamulenge Congolese refugee church-goers in a low-income neighborhood in Kenya. Those arrested were abused and beaten, and eventually taken to a refugee camp along the Kenya-Somalia border. Several families were cleaved in this particular raid, with more than 200 children separated from their parents or main caregivers
Based on a subset of in-depth interviews (N=15), group discussions (N=2) and survey research (N=70) with urban Banyamulenge refugees who were affected by this raid, this segment will address survival mechanisms used by individuals, households and the community. Using a social-ecological lens, this conversation will ask questions pertaining to what structures promote and/or foster resilience (and for whom in what contexts), as well as whether survival in and of itself can be classified within a resilience framework.
Abstract # 61
A Relational Approach: Integrating Individualist And Collectivist Perspectives On The Resilience Of War-Affected Children
Presenter: Sofie Vindevogel
Abstract:
This presentation aims to reflect upon the tenets of an individualist and collectivist approach to resilience and to consider the implications of prioritizing individual or collective resilience in policy, research and practice initiatives for children living in (post-)conflict areas. It delineates that an individualist view risks holding individuals accountable for possible difficulties experienced in the aftermath of war, while disregarding the context on which their well-being strongly depends. As such, social issues may be interpreted as individual failures, leaving structural barriers and deficiencies unquestioned. The collectivist tradition, however, lead to underestimating individual efforts, strengths, and self-determination, and result in an overly standardized approach that is supposed to fit all. An understanding of resilience as a manifestation of relational dynamics, linking both individual and collective responses to the challenges of war, helps to counter the limitations of both traditions as it carves out the space for acknowledging individual experiences and efforts as well as the importance of the broader context and collective world. As a consequence, the primary concern is no longer to identify the locus of core resources and support mechanisms, but the understanding of the dynamic interplay of individual and collective responses to the encountered challenges that enable resilience in the face of armed conflict.
Abstract # 63
Barriers To Violent Radicalization: Understanding Pathways To Resilience Among Canadian Youth
Presenter: Amarnath Amarasingam Co - Presenters: Sarah Morgan
Abstract:
As many scholars and policy analysts have made clear, the nature of contemporary terrorism and political violence is evolving. While terrorist violence has indeed been rare in Canada, we are nevertheless not immune from it. Cases like the Air India bombing of 1985, the Toronto 18 plot of 2006, as well as instances of Canadian youth travelling overseas to fight on behalf of foreign groups like Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka are all cause for concern. While it is important to understand what radicalizes youth to the point of violence, it is also important to identify culturally specific and population wide factors that support the engagement of youth without that engagement leading to violence. Our study, based on year-long field research with the Somali community in Toronto and the indigenous population of Northern Ontario, investigates the social ecologies of resilience that prevent violent extremism. Our methodology is equally innovative, building on the use of mixed methods designs and visual methodologies to explore the hidden, unnamed protective processes that are part of young people’s lives when they are exposed to, and resist, violent extremism.
Abstract # 17
I Am BRAVE: Building Resilience Through Anti-Violence Education.
Presenter: Jennifer Bernier
Abstract:
Stop Now & Plan (SNAP®) is an evidence-based, gender specific, cognitive behavioural program for children under the age of 12 who experience significant externalizing behaviours (i.e. oppositional and conduct issues). These behaviours may include bullying or being mean to others, making threats, being physically aggressive towards or hurting others, not listening, missing school, having negative peers associations, and stealing. At the Centre for Building Resilience through Anti-Violence Education (BRAVE), a unique replication of the SNAP® program is offered specifically for girls aged 6-11 years living in the Halifax Regional Municipality to decrease internalizing and externalizing behaviours such as bullying, delinquency, anxiety, and future criminalization. To reach its goals, BRAVE provides a comprehensive set of gender-specific SNAP® services to girls, their families and peers both in the community and schools that address multiple risk factors, build resilience, and promote healthy childhood development. A gender specific approach is essential, as the context of girls’ behavioural concerns with bullying, delinquency, and criminalization can often differ from boys.
The three aspects of our work that we would like to discuss during the facilitated discussion, includes the importance of providing comprehensive, gender-specific, community-based interventions for children...
