Identities as protective processes: socio-ecological perspectives on youth resilience

Abstract

Identity formations are critical developmental accomplishments in negotiating resilience. They involve establishing cohesive senses of self and appraisals of inherent personal strengths and weaknesses in contexts of environmental offerings. Further, identity processes call upon understanding the collective beliefs and values of one's community. Using Day in the Life semi-naturalistic videos, photo elicitation and interview data, we observed four at risk but resilient migrant adolescents in two different cultural contexts (Vancouver, Canada, and Chiang Mai, Thailand) and inspected relationships between their identity formations (personal, social, cultural, and religious) and their positive participation in, and personal interpretations of, their social relationships and cultural engagements. We ask how and in what fashion the youths’ identities, practices, and perspectives might serve protective functions, especially in the face of significant geographic dislocation.

Keywords:

• identity
• immigrants
• risk
• youth culture

Notes

1. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded this research. A priority for that council is development of Canadian research strength including support of highly qualified personnel training, so Canadian expertise development and graduate student support made the matching of overseas sites to Canadian sites and the training of as many Canadian assistants in Canada and abroad recommended. The primary Canadian research assistant collected data in Canada and then partnered with the research assistant in Thailand to collect the Thai data. This situation insured that procedures in both locations were as comparable as possible, while taking into account their differing circumstances.

2. The authors of this paper are associated with one or other or both of these research sites and experts for interpretive purposes in the cultural contexts of these chosen locations.