title: South African, urban youth narratives: Resilience within community.
abstract: South African youth in low-income, urbanized communities are exposed to high levels of daily stressors, which increase their risk to negative outcomes. Resiliency can provide avenues for youth to transcend adversity and may contribute to their positive development. To provide a deeper understanding of the pathways that adolescents use to overcome adversity, this paper examined future aspirations of South African youth, and how these aspirations were connected to resiliency factors framed by their lived context. A phenomenological approach was used to explore the perceptions of high school students. Fourteen focus groups with girls and boys (N=112) were conducted. Data was analyzed using a thematic approach. Discussions of the harsh conditions undermining the community's future highlighted opportunities for improvement. Community connectedness, hope and altruism were prevalent in youth's responses and could be used to facilitate community and individual resiliency. Our overall findings have important implications for positive youth development efforts.
authors.affiliation: Virginia Commonwealth University/School of Medicine, Department of Social and Behavioral Health, 830 E Main Street, Richmond, Virginia 23298-0149, The United States of America, /
authors.forename: Maghboeba
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mosavel
authors.affiliation: University of the Western Cape, Department of Psychology, Private bag X17, Bellville 7535, South Africa, /
authors.forename: Rashid
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.affiliation: Virginia Commonwealth University/School of Medicine, Department of Social and Behavioral Health, 830 E Main Street, Richmond, Virginia 23298-0149, The United States of America, /
authors.forename: Katie A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Ports
authors.affiliation: Roy J. And Lucille A. Carver School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Program in Bioethics and Medical Humanities, 500 Newton Drive, 1-103 MEB, Iowa City, IA 52242-1190, The United States of America, /
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Simon
keywords: South Africa; adolescents; aspirations; dreams; resilience; youth development