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Resilience and marginalized youth: Making a case for personal and collective meaning-making as part of resilience research in public health

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  • Wexler, Lisa Marin
  • DiFluvio, Gloria
  • Burke, Tracey K.

Abstract

The public health research community has long recognized the roles of discrimination, institutional structures, and unfair economic practices in the production and maintenance of health disparities, but it has neglected the ways in which the interpretation of these structures orients people in overcoming them and achieving positive outcomes in their lives. In this call for researchers to pay more - and more nuanced - attention to cultural context, we contend that group identity-as expressed through affiliation with an oppressed group-can itself prompt meaningful role-based action. Public health's study of resilience, then, must consider the ways that individuals understand and, in turn, resist discrimination. In this article, we briefly outline the shortcomings of current perspectives on resilience as they pertain to the study of marginalized youth and then consider the potential protection offered by ideological commitment. To ground our conceptual argument, we use examples from two different groups with whom the authors have worked for many years: indigenous and sexual minority youth. Though these groups are dissimilar in many ways, the processes related to marginalization, identity and resilience are remarkably similar. Specifically, group affiliation can provide a context to reconceptualize personal difficulty as a politicized collective struggle, and through this reading, can create a platform for ideological commitment and resistance.

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  • Wexler, Lisa Marin & DiFluvio, Gloria & Burke, Tracey K., 2009. "Resilience and marginalized youth: Making a case for personal and collective meaning-making as part of resilience research in public health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 565-570, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:69:y:2009:i:4:p:565-570
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    4. Mohatt, Nathaniel Vincent & Thompson, Azure B. & Thai, Nghi D. & Tebes, Jacob Kraemer, 2014. "Historical trauma as public narrative: A conceptual review of how history impacts present-day health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 128-136.
    5. Rauscher, Emily, 2017. "Plastic and Immobile," OSF Preprints cjweu, Center for Open Science.
    6. Pritzker, Suzanne & Minter, Anthony, 2014. "Measuring adolescent resilience: An examination of the cross-ethnic validity of the RS-14," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 328-333.
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    8. Joan Versnel & Jennifer de Lugt & Nancy L. Hutchinson & Peter Chin, 2011. "Work-Based Education as a Pathway to Resilience," Journal of Education and Vocational Research, AMH International, vol. 2(5), pages 143-153.
    9. Cavanaugh, Daniel L. & Sutherby, Carolyn G. & Sharda, Elizabeth & Hughes, Anne K. & Woodward, Amanda T., 2020. "The relationship between well-being and meaning-making in kinship caregivers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    10. Noble-Carr, Debbie & Barker, Justin & McArthur, Morag & Woodman, Elise, 2014. "Improving practice: The importance of connections in establishing positive identity and meaning in the lives of vulnerable young people," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(P3), pages 389-396.
    11. Woodgate, Roberta L. & Morakinyo, Oluwatobiloba & Martin, Katrina M., 2017. "Interventions for youth aging out of care: A scoping review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 280-300.
    12. DiFulvio, Gloria T., 2011. "Sexual minority youth, social connection and resilience: From personal struggle to collective identity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(10), pages 1611-1617, May.

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