SECTION II Literature Review
53. Descriptions of the protective processes
5.5. Mechanisms through which resilience can be developed
There is little doubt that the empirical and theoretical exploration of resilience has been a major contribution to understanding child development. However, despite having a large literature that explores the concept, there is still no consistent vocabulary, conceptual framework or methodological approach (Coutu, 2002; Zimmerman & Arunkumar, 1994). Just as the term stress lost its scientific meaning (Rutter, 1983), the concept of resilience runs the risk of becoming an unverified popularised notion (Cicchetti & Garmezy, 1993; Coutu, 2002). There is still much confusion about what constitutes resilience.
Many of the identified protective processes are inflected with normative, middle-class values (Howard & Dryden, 1999). Rutter (1990, 1999) proposes that the empirical studies are useful in identifying the general processes through which children develop resilience, but that the precise nature of these will vary across contexts. For example, family support and care is regarded as a strong predictor of resilience, but the exact manner in which family care and support is interpreted and enacted varies in different historical, social and cultural contexts (Super & Harkness, 1994).
Particpatory action research affords one the opportunity to explore with community members the context mil ly and culturally specific ways in which, for example, family care and support could be achieved.
Resilience is a dynamic and unfolding process in which individuals and their environment interact to produce beneficial outcomes. Resilience is "not something some children simply have a lot o f (Sroufe, 1997, p. 256), rather it seems to be a capacity to cope and bounce back after periods of difficulty and it draws on the total context of internal and environmental influences. The person evolves the capacity to stay organised, to actively cope, and to maintain positive expectations in the face of challenges and across successive periods of adaptation. It is an acquired capacity influenced by on-going changes in context (Sroufe, 1997, p. 256). Adopting the position that it is a learned phenomenon enables the development of intervention programmes that have clear aims and objectives. One can explicitly focus on building capacity and enhancing individual, family and community abilities to face adversity and to foster inner strengths (Benard & Marshall, 1997;
Garmezy etal., 1984;Grotberg, 1999,1995; Werner & Smith, 2001). The empirical work in this field
has helped to identify internal and external mechanisms that appear to enable children to deal better with their difficulties. For example, a simple, but effective, resilience enhancing technique requires children, and adults, to build resilience and develop self esteem by generating a set of self-descriptive statement: "I am..."; "I can..." ; and "I have ..." (Grotberg, 1995; Killian et al., 2002;). Grotberg (1999,1995) advocated this method of translating theory into practice and developing resilience in individual children, families and communities. A child can be encouraged to develop resilience by being trained to acknowledge personal strengths and assets by cognitively reframing their life experiences into strengths-based formulations. The International Resilience Project has endorsed this simple yet effective technique as a method of promoting resilience (Grotberg, 1999).
From a broader perspective, there are four pathways through which resilience and protective processes can exert an influence, each of which may operate at an internal and/or external level (Masten, 2002; Rutter, 1987,1990):
• Reduction of exposure to risk: Protection is afforded to some children simply by reducing their exposure to risk. Family and community variables are significant in terms of this form of resilience. For example, some children experience minimal exposure to risk by virtue of their family or community circumstances. They live in close secure families, in which hostility is handled adaptively and their basic physical, emotional and social needs are met.
This pathway to resilience enhancement is especially important at exo-, and macrosystemic levels. If a nation truly embraces the principles of the CRC, children are protected from many risks. Strong advocacy towards reduction of children's exposure to risk is needed and will always form an integral aspect of an effective intervention. Examples or risk-focused strategies of intervention include the provision of adequate antenatal, health and social care, prevention of child abuse and neglect, and programmes that reduce bullying, crime and violence, and so forth (Masten 2002).
• Minimising negative chain reactions: A stressful event or experience often sets in motion a sequence of negative chain reactions, resulting in the cumulation of risks from both external and internal sources. An example of this form of resilience boosting is offering psychosocial support to children who have recently, or soon will suffer, the death of their primary caregiver (Germann & MSdorin, 2002). Poverty alleviation programmes aim to reduce negative chain reactions associated with poverty (Toomey & Chrisite, 1990) by providing food security, adequate sanitation, health resources and mental stimulation to communities who are considered to be at high risk.
• Promotion of self esteem and self efficacy: Positive self esteem is recognised as being critically important to boost resilience. One method of promoting self esteem is through enhancing opportunities for accomplishment and a sense of achievement, by developing competency and success in various spheres of one's life (Brooks, 1998; Erikson, 1963).
Experiential programmes offer opportunities to create cognitive and emotional shifts in the self concept and enhance self esteem through the provision of challenges within a supportive and facilitative environment. The Masiye Camp Model is a clear example of this form of intervention programme (PACT, 2002; Think Tank, 2000). These often take the form of asset-based strategies that increase access to resources such as schools, libraries and recreation centres (Masten, 2002)
• Provision of opportunities for positive relationships and experiences offer children access to needed resources and new directions in life. The goals of most community development programmes are consistent with this form of resilience building. Their major goal is empowerment through participation in programmes that enable supportive, caring and focused interpersonal interactions and the opportunity to experience new ways of being.
When people develop their social networks through participation in positive and supportive processes, they develop greater resilience (Catholic AIDS Action, 2003). Masten (2002, p.
13) describes these strategies as the "big guns" for change as they adopt a more holistic perspective that attempts to restore, engage or mobilise the power of human adaptational systems for children. The examples given by Masten (2002) include programmes that improve the bonds with competent and caring adults and programmes that build self-efficacy through experiences of success and the development of talents and competence.
All of these pathways to building resilience are relevant to the current research programme. The children and communities in this research are immersed in hardship. Just as Straker, Moosa, Becker and Nkwale (1992) challenged the relevance of the concept of post traumatic stress disorder for South African populations who lived in circumstances of continuos traumatic stress, researchers and community workers need to acknowledge the co-occurrence of numerous profound risks and hardships for children living in high prevalence HIV/AIDS communities. The real-life context is that individuals, families and communities pass in and out of difficult and challenging circumstances on a more or less continuous basis with little respite (Richter et al., 1994). Little is actually known about either resilience or coping in such dire circumstances (Foster & Williamson, 2000; Stein, 2003; Wild, 2001). Therefore, in developing an intervention programme it was necessary to include as many of the mechanisms to reduce risk and build resilience as possible. The pioneering work of MadSrin
(2000) was considered to be especially useful in this regard. Working with AIDS orphans in Tanzania, Madorin developed a structured group therapy programme that systematically enabled children to deal with their experiences of risk and to enhancing the development of resilience (ibid.).
Mad8rin's programme was adapted for the South African context, with the aim of further developing the resilience enhancing variables and including a greater focus on cultural rootedness (Killian, 2002). The resilience promoting strategies that are incorporated in this community based intervention programme are listed Table 5.3, where the reader will note the marked similarity with the protective processes that tabulated in Table 5.1.