Pathways to Resilience IV: Global South Perspectives

Resilience in Cultural Contexts

Abstract #217
Title: “Me Da Cuenta:”Sources of Resiliency Identified by Mexican-American Young Men in Kings Beach, CA, USA
Presenter: Betsy Dobbins (Center for Children's Rights, USA)
Introduction: American Latino youth are categorized as an at-risk population in the juvenile justice system.  Overrepresented within the juvenile justice system and misunderstood as a group collectively, Mexican-American male adolescents are a group without a voice literature describing how minority youth identify, access, and navigate internal and community-based sources of resiliency.
Methods: Using a constructionist framework of resiliency, this exploratory, qualitative study examines how Mexican male adolescents who have had access with the juvenile justice system describe their experiences as “at-risk”and how they negotiate competing identities generated by a discourse of “illegality”and processes of marginalization.  
Findings: These youth occupy a marginalized space within their community resulting from perception(s) of (il)legality, racism (experienced and internalized), and invisibility. Despite structural constraints generating a very real sense of risk, the participants indicated relatedness/connectedness, when grounded in Mexican cultural values of family, respect, and collectivism, as a pathway to resiliency.  

Abstract #17
Title: Cultural Differences: An Investigation on Resilience in Costa Rica
Presenter: Rachel Renbarger (Baylor University, USA)
Co-Author: Grant Morgan, Tracey Sulak
Introduction: In determining the resilience of an individual, one must consider the culture and context. Examining minority populations would help the field by better understanding how different groups may reflect resilience differently. While many studies have measured resilience in other cultures, only one study found examined resilience specifically in Latin America.
Methods: A total of five schools were asked to participate in the study based on contact relationships in Costa Rica (n=313). Participants were given the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM) (Ungar & Liebenberg, 2011b), a 28-item survey with a 5-point Likert-type rating scale designed to be culturally and contextually sound. We then compared means between males (n=142) and females (n =142) and then private (n =64) and public (n =233) students using t tests for independent samples.
Findings: Results indicated that neither gender nor enrollment in a certain type of school were significant in affecting overall resilience score or scores on the subscales (individual, caregiver, or contextual). The p values ranged from .15 to .923 on gender and .058 to .425 on school type.

Abstract #10
Title: Resilience in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago: A Caribbean Experience in Response to Crime, Sudden Violence, and Personal Devastation
Presenter: Caron Asgarali (Trinidad)
Introduction: Almost every day, the media in Trinidad and Tobago report at least one murder. Statistics since 2004 reveal annual murder rates in excess of three hundred victims. In 2013,   Caron Asgarali, the author, almost became another victim. Fortuitously, she survived being shot in the face, chest and shoulder.
Methods: In this auto ethnography, the author discusses the physical, social, emotional, spiritual and economic effects of the incident on her life. She analyses how that experience negatively impacted her life and those within her immediate sphere of influence. With copious examples, she reveals how crime and violence can impact victims. She explains how she developed principles of and strategies for resilience to manage and conquer the trauma of her experience.
Findings: Using these principles, the author was able to extricate herself from the depths of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and embark on a path characterized by positive outcomes to help empower others to understand what victims experience as a result of the consequences of growing violence and crime in the 21st century.