Pathways to Resilience III: Beyond Nature vs. Nurture

Abstract #58
Culture, Context, and Resilience: Complexities and Caveats
Presenter: Linda Theron Co - Presenters: Robbie Gilligan, Kelly Dean Schwartz, Angelique van Rensburg, Tammlyn Jefferis
Abstract:
In this discussion, facilitated by Prof. Linda Theron, we draw on the findings of three independent projects, that all included African children (9 - 19 years), to challenge unsophisticated and idealistic understandings of how culture and context matter for resilience. To this end, Prof. Robbie Gilligan will highlight what the qualitative findings of the Bamboo Project teach about the resilience processes of Ethiopian children who have been sexually abused/exploited. Dr. Kelly Dean Schwarz will report on a quantitative PYD study that offers insight into the developmental assets of youth living in a rural South African township. Informed by a SEM analysis of the quantitative data of the Pathways to Resilience Project, South Africa, Angelique van Rensburg will foreground the differential resilience processes of two comparable groups of youth from the same traditionally-African social ecology. Using visual participatory data from the same project, Tamlynn Jefferis will show how socio-cultural context enables, but also constrains, the resilience processes of black girls challenged by poverty, violence, and sexual abuse.