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The magic in the (extra)ordinary: Intensive validation to recalibrate the life-worlds of adolescents exposed to abuse |
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| Authors: | Helen Kolb Anders Dovran Carina Ribe Fernee Tore Dag Bøe |
| Institution: | 1. Department of Psychosocial Health, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway;2. Department of Psychosocial Health, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway
Stine Sofie Centre, Stine Sofies Foundation, Grimstad, Norway Department of Health Promotion, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Bergen, Norway;3. Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Sørlandet Hospital, Kristiansand, Norway |
| Abstract: | This qualitative case study aimed to explore environmental circumstances and interactional processes that appeared to be relevant for the dynamics of resilience in adolescents exposed to child abuse. Fieldwork at a learning and coping centre for children and their families was combined with semi-structured interviews with adolescent participants aged 12 to 18 years. A critical realist approach was used to unpack what has been called the ‘ordinary magic’ of resilience. We found that intensively validating qualities of both the environment and relationships seemed to be driving components for resilience. Borrowing ideas from the sociometer theory, we propose that particularly the consistent intensiveness may offer a recalibration of the adolescents' immediate life-worlds, in terms of how they perceive the people they meet and the environments they step into. In keeping with the transactional-ecological model of resilience, we suggest that such a recalibration leads to altered social agency that becomes visible through their immediate social participation. |
| Keywords: | adolescents child abuse critical realism interpersonal environment qualitative case study resilience |