Exploring the digital narratives of resilience of South African adolescents exposed to violent crime
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Date
2020-02
Authors
Raath, Francilie
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Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
This qualitative study aimed to explore the digital narratives of resilience of South African adolescents exposed to violent crime. Violence affects adolescents from different walks of life: growing up in poor, middle class and upper-middle class urban South African settings. For some adolescents, exposure to violence is a once-off incident, but for others their exposure is pervasive. Falling victim to a violent crime in the transitional life-stage of adolescence can have a lasting impact on physical and mental health outcomes in adulthood. However, most adolescents adapt well in the aftermath of trauma. Therefore, stories of resilience are the focus of this study. Eight adolescent participants were purposefully selected from the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria. Each participant engaged in a digital storytelling workshop followed by a semistructured interview. Eight rich cases were analysed according to thematic analysis following which a narrative analysis lens was applied to the data. In-depth interpretation of the findings yielded seven themes of significance across the cases, which were portrayed in a model. These are: (1) connection with nature, (2) culture, (3) the role of faith in God / spirituality, (4) a positive future orientation, (5) love and kindness, (6) friendship and (7) the digital storytelling and making experience. The results indicate that the participants' positive adaptation was enabled by various combinations of the above protective mechanisms which played a role in their resilience processes. Connection to nature emerged as a significant and unexpected resilience-enabler, while culture played an important role in the resilience processes of African participants. The participants' belief in God helped them cope with challenging situations, while a positive future orientation along with emotional support and positive friendships facilitated their resilience. Exploring the participants' narratives of resilience through the method of digital storytelling appealed to the adolescent participants. It not only provided them with a new outlook on their experiences but also amplified their resilience. The results of this research contribute to adolescent resilience literature in the context of violence. The study captures rich, nuanced understandings of adolescent resilience in the wake of violent crime. The findings could be used to inform intervention programmes aimed at enhancing well-being in adolescents. These efforts must not focus on the adolescent exclusively, but give equal attention to transforming low-resource environments into more resilience enabling contexts. There is much scope for further studies utilising digital storytelling as resilience intervention with adolescents. Moreover, the further exploration of the role that the natural environment plays in the positive adaptation of South African adolescents holds much promise for further studies.
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Keywords
Thesis (Ph.D. (Psychology))--University of the Free State, 2020, Resilience, Positive adaptation, Digital storytelling, Violent crime, Trauma, Adolescents