What’s Resilience Got to Do with It? Adolescents’ Attempts to Cope with Childhood Abuse

• In Event: Understanding Youth Victimization

Abstract

Purpose: To date, there are numerous empirical and theoretical examinations of resilience among young people facing childhood abuse (CA). While much has been written about young people and resilience, the narratives of adolescents have often been omitted from the research. This study fills a gap in our knowledge by offering a youth-centered view of how 16 teenagers defined and made sense of survival after CA.
Study design: The data come from an ethnographic study of a group counseling program for high school students in Hawaiʻi. During the study, I got to know and conducted in-depth interviews with 16 teens who discussed their CA experiences.
Major findings and conclusions: The 16 teens had upbeat views of their current lives and futures, although their coping strategies differed. The findings revealed that the lived reality of resilience after CA exposure operates slightly differently than what past research has suggested. For example, none of the 16 teens' strategies would be considered entirely “resilient” or entirely “problematic.” Instead, the healing journey for the 16 youth included a mix of factors documented to play a role in helping young people overcome abuse and processes identified as problematic for adolescent development.

Author

• Katherine Irwin, University of Hawai'i at Manoa