Die verband tussen persepsie van ondersteuningsnetwerke en psigologiese weerbaarheid by kinders in hul laat middelkinderjare uit enkelouergesinne

English: Due to South Africa's history, a South African child must adjust to a variety of experiences that confront them. A large number of children are exposed to family break ups and divorce, which results in single parent families. Some children will develop stable and healthy personalities while other children will not. The quality that enables a child to cope with these circumstances, is called resilience. In this study the concept of resilience will be discussed under the concept of psychofortology, which is the opposite of psychopathology. Resilience can be defined as the result of a dynamic, interactional process between the individual, with their own strengths and interpersonal and social competence, and the individual's perception of their own support system. Resilience manifests in the individual who remains psychologically healthy in the midst of a stressful or traumatic life experience. The question that must be asked is, ho do children manage to stay psychologically healthy in the current situation in South Africa. The situation in South Africa is characterized by an increase in poverty, unemployment, Aids, disintegration of the education system and the break down of the family system. In this study, the changing circumstances that occur in families with single parents are discussed as risk factors. Changes that occur in single parent families are: financial implications, changed parenting styles, limited support systems and the loss of an established support network. The aim of the research was to determine the relationship between perception of support networks and the other constructs of resilience in children from single parent families. The perception of support networks was used as a variable because limited support networks seem to be a stressor in single parent families. This research forms the foundation for future research on resilience in children in the South African context. The sample group consisted of children who were radomly selected out of five provinces of South Africa. A correlational design was used to determine the relationship between the perception of support networks and resilience scores. There was no available test to measure resilience, so the tests that were used was: Personality for Children, which measured the following constructs: outonomy, temperament, self-confidence, ego strength, impulse control, morality, empathy; Nowicki-Strickland Locus-of-Control Scale for Children measuring the internal locus of control of the child; Torrance Test of Creative Thinking measuring creativity; Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale measuring self esteem and the Survey of Children's Social Support measuring children's perception of social networks. The parents completed the Child Symptom Inventory- 4/Parent Checklist, to indicate behaviour obe served as by them as parents. ,I V r A analysis of the research results show no relationship between perception of support networks and the other constructs of resilience. There is negative relationship between self-esteem and the child's perception of their support networks. The results of this study does not correlate with the findings in the literature. It is evident that there is still uncertainty about the concept and measurement of resilience in children in South Africa. The conclusion that can be made is that more research and information should be gathered in South Africa on the resilience of children in the South African context. This research has laid the foundation for further exploration about the constructs of resilience in the South African child.