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Resilience practice in action: five principles for intervention
- Author:
- UNGAR Michael
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work Now: the Practice Journal of Child, Youth and Family, 43, August 2009, pp.32-38.
- Publisher:
- Child, Youth and Family (Department of Child, Youth and Family Services, Te Tari Awhina I te Tamaiti, te Rangatahi, tae atu ki te Whanau)
This article defines resilience, focusing particularly on the implications for development of residential services for young people, and using as an illustration the case of a 15-year-old First Nations youth in an urban residential group home in Canada. It identifies five principles of resilience relevant to practice: its ecological and multi-level approach to intervention, its focus on the strengths of individuals and communities, its varied pathways, its relationship with social justice, and its diverse cultural and contextual importance, which are explored in the context of residential practice with young people. It concludes that interventions guided by the five principles outlined are more likely to build capacity among young people and their communities, and to help them thrive and succeed.
Patterns of abuse disclosure among youth
- Authors:
- UNGAR Michael, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Qualitative Social Work, 8(3), September 2009, pp.341-356.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Evaluation forms completed by youth following participation in abuse prevention programming by the Canadian Red Cross (RespectED) offer a unique opportunity to explore disclosure strategies among a diverse national sample of 1621 young people. The sample comprised all youth in 5 regions who made anonymous written disclosures of abuse on evaluation forms administered after workshops delivered between 2000 and 2003. Focus groups, interviews and observational data were used to ensure the trustworthiness of the data analysis. Findings show that youth who have been abused or witnesses to abuse employ five disclosure strategies: using self-harming behaviours to signal the abuse to others; not talking at all about the abuse to prevent intrusive interventions by others; seeking help from peers; seeking help from informal adult supports; and seeking help from mandated service providers (social workers and police). Findings highlight young people’s use of indirect and direct means of disclosure to ensure their safety.
Resilience across cultures
- Author:
- UNGAR Michael
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 38(2), February 2008, pp.218-235.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Findings from a 14 site mixed methods study of over 1,500 youth globally support four propositions that underlie a more culturally and contextually embedded understanding of resilience: 1) there are global, as well as culturally and contextually specific aspects to young people’s lives that contribute to their resilience; 2) aspects of resilience exert differing amounts of influence on a child’s life depending on the specific culture and context in which resilience is realized; 3) aspects of children’s lives that contribute to resilience are related to one another in patterns that reflect a child’s culture and context; 4) tensions between individuals and their cultures and contexts are resolved in ways that reflect highly specific relationships between aspects of resilience. The implications of this cultural and contextual understanding of resilience to interventions with at-risk populations are discussed.
The CYRM-R: a Rasch-validated revision of the Child and Youth Resilience Measure
- Authors:
- JEFFERIES Philip, McGARRIGLE Lisa, UNGAR Michael
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 16(1), 2019, pp.70-92.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
The Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM) is one of the most popular measures of resilience. In this paper, the authors investigate the CYRM using Rasch analysis to explore and improve its psychometric properties, leading to a more robust measure of resilience.Cross-sectional data were obtained from a questionnaire administered to n = 408 individuals in Canada aged 11-19 who were participating in the Pathways to Resilience study. Rasch analysis was applied to these data, resulting in the production of a 17-item, 2-subscale CYRM-R, consisting of intra/interpersonal and caregiver resilience subscales. The subscales demonstrated good fit to the Rasch model by satisfying requirements of unidimensionality, good fit statistics and internal reliability, and a lack of item bias and problematic local dependency. The person separation indices also indicated that the subscales had good ability to differentiate between individuals of varying levels of resilience. In sum, the CYRM-R is a 2-subscale, 17-item Rasch-validated measure of resilience with robust psychometric properties. This revised measure is recommended for researchers and practitioners who are interested in measuring resilience across diverse cultures and contexts. (Edited publisher abstract)
Neo-Liberalism and responsibilisation in the discourse of social service workers
- Authors:
- LIEBENBERG Linda, UNGAR Michael, IKEDA Janice
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 45(3), 2015, pp.1006-1021.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
In this paper, the authors explore the ways in which child welfare, adolescent mental health and juvenile justice service providers engage in processes of responsibilisation. Drawing on qualitative data gathered from service files of youth receiving concurrent services from child welfare, corrections and mental health services, this article discusses how a neo-liberal approach to service is reflected in the case notes of front line staff. Analysis reveals an overarching reliance on discourses of youth responsibilisation in the service files, where the risks which young people are exposed to were perceived as rational choices rather than contextual factors that needed to be accounted for in case management and service plans. Front line workers discussed case plans in terms of youth being willing or unwilling, compliant or non-compliant with regard to programming. This view of youth as autonomous actors had repercussions for youth who did not present as ‘co-operative’ and ‘mature’. The article concludes with a reflection on the role of services in the lives of vulnerable youth and implications for practice. (Edited publisher abstract)
Patterns of service use, individual and contextual risk factors, and resilience among adolescents using multiple psychosocial services
- Authors:
- UNGAR Michael, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Child Abuse and Neglect, 37(2/3), 2013, pp.150-159.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Very little research has examined the relationship between resilience, risk, and the service use patterns of adolescents with complex needs who use multiple formal and mandated services such as child welfare, mental health, juvenile justice, and special educational supports. This article reports on a study of 497 adolescents in Atlantic Canada who were known to have used at least 2 of these services in the last 6 months. It was hypothesized that greater service use and satisfaction with services would predict both resilience, and better functional outcomes such as prosocial behaviour, school engagement and participation in community. Youth who were known to be multiple service users and who were between the ages of 13 and 21 participated in the study. Participants completed a self-report questionnaire administered individually. Path analysis was used to determine the relationship between risk, service use, resilience, and functional outcomes. MANOVA was then used to determine patterns of service use and service use satisfaction among participants. Findings show that there was no significant relationship between service use history and resilience or any of the three functional outcomes. Service use satisfaction, a measure of an adolescent's perception of the quality of the services received, did however show a strong positive relationship with resilience. Resilience mediates the impact of risk factors on outcomes and is affected positively by the quality, but not the quantity, of the psychosocial services provided to adolescents with complex needs. Results show that resilience is related to service satisfaction but not the quantity of services used by youth. Coordinated services may not increase resilience or be more effective unless the quality of individual services is experienced by an adolescent receiving intervention as personally empowering and sensitive to his or her needs. (Publisher abstract)
What Canadian youth tell us about disclosing abuse
- Authors:
- UNGAR Michael, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Child Abuse and Neglect, 33(10), October 2009, pp.699-708.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Data was collected from a “purposeful sample” of 1,099 evaluation forms that were completed in the course of a Red Cross RespectED violence prevention programme delivered between 2000 and 2003. The forms were selected on the basis of programme facilitators identifying voluntary, anonymous disclosures by youth participants of neglect, and emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Additional data was collected from 27 interviews. Focus groups were used to understand the context of disclosures and help interpret them. The study, although exploratory and not representative in its design, suggests high rates of hidden abuse, with 244 of 1,099 young people with abuse experiences reporting a disclosure. Disclosure patterns varied. Boys, youth aged 14-15, victims of physical abuse, and those abused by a family member were the most likely groups to disclose to professionals or the police. The data revealed a perception among young people of negative consequences following disclosure. It is suggested that certain professionals and prevention programmes may be used to encourage more young people to disclose.
Designing resilience research: using multiple methods to investigate risk exposure, promotive and protective processes, and contextually relevant outcomes for children and youth
- Author:
- UNGAR Michael
- Journal article citation:
- Child Abuse and Neglect, 96, 2019, p.104098.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Background: Inconsistent, poorly designed research on resilience in the human sciences has contributed to epistemological and ontological ambiguity which has fuelled claims that resilience as a concept is poorly theorised. Objective: Building on research with abused and neglected children around the world, the objective of this paper is to show that studies of resilience must account for: (a) risk exposure (of relevance in different contexts); (b) promotive and protective processes (internal and external resources associated with resilience across systems); and (c) desired outcomes (as privileged by stakeholders in different cultures and contexts). Method: By identifying common aspects of resilience research from a purposeful selection of studies (ones with weak and strong methodologies), this paper identifies three dimensions of well-designed studies of childhood resilience. Results: Attention to all three dimensions enhances both the empirical validity (in the quantitative research paradigm) and phenomenological trustworthiness (in qualitative research) of resilience research with children and families. Challenges researching resilience can also be resolved by designing studies that account for all three dimensions. These challenges include the lack of systemic thinking to account for contextual factors and other external threats to child wellbeing, and the excessive generalization of findings. Conclusion: This three-part model for resilience research reflects the very best practices among resilience researchers and has the potential to address the definitional and methodological ambiguity that plague studies of resilience. (Edited publisher abstract)
The differential impact of social services on young people’s resilience
- Author:
- UNGAR Michael
- Journal article citation:
- Child Abuse and Neglect, 78, 2018, pp.4-12.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Differential Impact Theory (DIT) can help explain which services and supports work best for which young people at which levels of risk exposure. As a complement to a growing understanding of how a child’s genetic and phenotypic traits influence treatment outcomes, DIT focuses attention on the relative impact of a child’s environment on psychosocial development. In this article, three principles of DIT will be discussed: (1) demands of higher level systems compel individuals to adapt; (2) the factors that influence individual change the most depend on the individual’s degree of risk exposure; and (3) the more complex the challenges an individual faces, the more complex the systems required to improve functioning. Two detailed case studies based on interviews and multiple file reviews will be used to illustrate these principles of DIT. Both case studies were drawn from a study of young people (average age 16.1 years) who were clients of multiple social services. While support for DIT requires further study, findings presented in this paper demonstrate the potential of the theory to explain the differential impact of services and supports on young people’s developmental trajectories where there has been exposure to high levels of risk. The application of DIT to service design is also discussed. (Publisher abstract)
Rules or no rules? Three strategies for engagement with young people in mandated services
- Authors:
- UNGAR Michael, IKEDA Janice
- Journal article citation:
- Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 34(3), 2017, p.259–267.
- Publisher:
- Springer
A qualitative study of 61 youth receiving mandated services (child welfare, mental health, probation) or services where there were no alternatives (residential care for homeless youth) explored worker-client relationships from the perspective of young people themselves. Findings suggest three different but related roles played by workers that successfully engage adolescent clients: (1) “Informal supporters” de-professionalise their role and flatten hierarchies, emphasising empathy and enforcing few rules; (2) “Administrators” enforce rules that are in the child’s best interest but do so with little emotional engagement; and (3) “Caregivers” who hold reasonable expectations and impose structures but are flexible in their negotiations with youth when rules were broken. While youth spoke most positively about their workers when they acted as informal supporters, a deeper analysis of the data showed that youth also engaged well with workers who enforced rules when those rules were necessary for the child’s safety, applied flexibly, age-appropriate, and fit with cultural norms. Use of all three approaches to youth engagement may help workers create better therapeutic relationships with youth receiving mandated services. (Edited publisher abstract)