Abstract

Adolescents’ self-development relies heavily on resilience. Resilience as a correlate of self-development among teenagers was the focus of this study.

The study’s main goal was to evaluate resilience as a correlate of self-development among teenagers. For the study, a survey research design was used to collect the data.

Using a simple random sampling procedure with replacement, data was collected through the use of a questionnaire. To conduct the study, 357 students were randomly selected and given questionnaires.

An EpiData database with built-in consistency and validity tests was utilized to enter the data.

SPSS version 21.0 was used to perform additional consistency, data range, and validation checks to identify invalid codes. The Cox & Snell R Square was used to determine the relationship between the dependent and independent variables (with Omnibus Test of Model Coefficients).

Frequency tables were used to present the data. There was a 95% Confidence Level (CL) and an Alpha of 0.05. There was a substantial association between self-development and optimism, goal-oriented behavior, problem-solving skills, and self-esteem among teenagers. Descriptive data showed that teenagers were optimistic, with a goal-oriented behavior of 92.4%, problem-solving skills of 69.4%, and self-esteem of 58.14%.

Results showed that resilience and self-development of adolescents were significantly linked. Problem-solving skills had the highest predictive value of the four indicators of resilience with a predictive power of 49.7%, followed by optimism with an explanatory power of 27.0 percent, and self-esteem with an explanatory power of 24.3 percent.

With an explanation power of 21.8 percent, goal-oriented behavior had the lowest predictive value Therefore, resilience determines the self-development of teenagers, according to the above data.

When it came to fostering resilience in teenagers, it was recommended that attributes like optimism, goal-oriented behavior, and problem-solving skills be promoted.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Many teenagers encounter adversity around the world, and the number of adversities they face looks to be growing (Goldstein & Brooks, 2013). Annually updated assessments (for example, UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children reports) detail the nature and scope of these difficulties (UNICEF, 2013). Poverty, prolonged parental disagreement, violence, trauma, disability, and bad health, among other things, put adolescents at risk for negative developmental outcomes.

In 2010, for example, 60 percent of all South African children were poor (living on less than $50 per month), 3.8 million children were orphaned (80% of whom were in secondary school), and 0.5 percent (about 90 000 children) lived in child-headed families (Smith, 2012).

Adolescents’ positive self-development is jeopardized by such problems. Inadvertently contributing to the learners’ difficulties occurs when schools and communities fail to fulfill their responsibility of giving possibilities for growth and development to their students.

When schools fail to function as safe harbors, students are exposed to physical and emotional violence, boredom, alienation, academic frustration, bullying, gangs, humiliation and failure, harsh punishment, and expulsion from the school community and resources, according to Osher (2014).

Despite all of these challenges, not all young people are equally affected by adversity. Adolescents adapt effectively to difficult situations in many cases (Masten, 2001). As a result, the principle of resilience should never be overlooked. Masten (2000) gave a broad definition of resilience, defining it as “the process of, the ability for, or outcome of successful adaptation in the face of challenging or threatening situations.”

The difficulty of identifying resilience has become more widely understood since then. Differences in measuring the relevance, quality, and a number of adversities, as well as positive adjustment, are typically discovered in explaining why some adolescents sustain positive adaption even if they grow up in deprived, turbulent, and scary situations. As a result, resilience and teenage self-development are linked because their common effect is accountable for preserving a relationship that would otherwise be based on common ground.

This might be based on the citizenship paradigm, which claims that resilience and positive self-development are both important components of citizenship in terms of personal and social responsibility (Zimmerman, 2000).

Because both resilience and young self-development play a similar role in meeting society’s citizenship needs, a resilient person will honor his or her civic responsibilities. Self-development, according to Oster (2000), entails taking actions to improve oneself, such as learning new abilities or breaking negative behaviors.

According to Werner (2005), self-development entails encouraging each individual to become personally, emotionally, socially, and physically effective in order to live healthy, safe, and fulfilled lives. It also entails encouraging individuals to become confident, independent, and responsible citizens who make informed and responsible choices and decisions throughout their lives.

This chapter provides as a foundation for the rest of the research. The backdrop of the study, the study’s statement, the study’s primary research questions, hypothesis, and importance, the study’s scope and delimitations, and operational definitions of words are all included.

Objectives of the study Main objective

To investigate resilience and its effect on the self-development of adolescents

Specific objectives

1. To look at optimism and its impact on teenage self-development in schools.
2. To investigate goal-oriented behavior and its impact on adolescent self-development in schools.
3. To determine problem-solving abilities and their impact on teenage self-development in schools.
4. To investigate self-esteem and its impact on teenage self-development in schools.