Resilience in Kenyan Youth Living in the Slums and Suburbs of Nairobi: An Exploratory and Descriptive Study

Abstract

The current study focuses on the assessment of personal resiliency as experienced by 83 youth between the ages of 9 and 18 living in the slums and middle class of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. This study is descriptive in nature and begins by comparing subjectively experienced personal resiliency reported by the Nairobi youth with norms based on a representative sample of youth in the USA. The experience of personal resiliency is assessed using the Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents (RSCA, Prince-Embury, 2007). The RSCA was chosen in that it is based on three core developmental processes, sense of mastery, sense of relatedness, and emotional reactivity with the belief that core developmental processes may be shared cross-culturally, although specific competencies and achievements associated with these processes may differ across cultures. This study is exploratory in nature as the RSCA has not been previously administered in Kenya and no norms exist specifically for this country. Personal resiliency as assessed by the RSCA is examined relative to location of testing, gender, ethnic affiliation, and experience of genocide. The relationship between the three global scales for Nairobi youth is compared with the relationship between these scales for US youth. Cluster analyses identifying three characteristic profiles of personal resiliency are described and case examples are provided for each profile. An example of change in personal resiliency of one young victim of genocide is described after 6 months of support by a helping organization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved). (chapter)