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Patterns of individual coping, engagement with social supports and use of formal services among a five-country sample of resilient youth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2015

M. Ungar*
Affiliation:
Resilience Research Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
L. Theron
Affiliation:
Optentia Research Focus Area, Faculty of Humanities, North-West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa
L. Liebenberg
Affiliation:
School of Social Work, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
Guo-Xiu Tian
Affiliation:
Political Science, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
A. Restrepo
Affiliation:
School of Public Health, University of Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia
J. Sanders
Affiliation:
School of Social Work, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
R. Munford
Affiliation:
School of Social Work, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
S. Russell
Affiliation:
Resilience Research Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
*
* Address for correspondence: M. Ungar, Ph.D., Resilience Research Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. (Email: michael.ungar@dal.ca)
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Abstract

Background.

Although resilience among victims of child abuse is commonly understood as a process of interaction between individuals and their environments, there have been very few studies of how children's individual coping strategies, social supports and formal services combine to promote well-being.

Method.

For this study, we conducted a multi-phase analysis of a qualitative dataset of 608 interviews with young people from five countries using grounded theory strategies to build a substantive theory of young people's service and support use patterns. We started with an analysis of ten interviews (two from each country) and then compared these findings to patterns found in each country's full dataset.

Results.

The substantive theory that emerged explains young people's transience between individual coping strategies (cognitive and behavioral), reliance on social supports (family members, peers and teachers), and engagement with formal service providers whose roles are to provide interventions and case management. Young people's patterns of navigation were shown to be contingent upon the individual's risk exposure, his or her individual capacity to cope, and the quality of the formal and informal supports and services that are available and accessible.

Conclusion.

Differing amounts of formal resources in low-, middle- and high-income countries influence patterns of service use. Implications for better coordination between formal mental health services and social supports are discussed.

Information

Type
Original Research Paper
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015
Figure 0

Table 1. Description of the five research contexts

Figure 1

Table 2. Participant information

Figure 2

Fig. 1. A Three Stage Reciprocal Coping Process.