A Qualitative Study of Adaptation and Resilience in the Context of Public Housing Neighborhoods

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the risk and protective factors, as well community capacities and individual strengths, experienced by youth who reside in public housing neighborhoods. Low-income neighborhoods expose youth to numerous challenges or risk factors associated with future problems like school failure and delinquency. These same neighborhoods also provide protective factors that promote resilience. However, our understanding of how youth negotiate between risk and protection within low-income communities is limited. With few exceptions, research tends to focus on the deleterious effects of low-income communities and omits youth perspectives on risk and protection across the social ecology of neighborhoods. While this excellent research provides a foundation for policy practice and structural interventions, local community agencies' ability to tackle specific risks and promote strengths in youth across contexts is improved by uncovering the perspectives of the youth themselves. Our study addresses this gap and provides implications for practice in community-based organizations as well as future research. Method: A random sample of elementary and middle school youth (grades 3rd - 8th, n=20) was drawn from participants in an after school program located in 3 public housing communities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 elementary school children and 10 middle school youth (Female = 12; Hispanic 70%, African 15%, African 5%, Asian 5%, Native American 5%.). Interview topics included: neighborhood, school, and family contexts; interpersonal relationships and intrapersonal factors. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed for analysis in ATLAS-ti. Constant comparative methods were used in conjunction with content analysis. The first round of analysis employed a priori categories developed from theories of resilience, positive youth development, and social ecology. The second round of analysis applied constant comparative strategies to ensure observations remained grounded in the voices of the youth. Results: Results demonstrate unique challenges as well as positive contextual factors that foster resilience and adaptation in study participants. Seven themes explain this phenomenon: resources, coping, advice, challenges, aspirations, health, and values. For example youth express aspirations which reflect reality-driven advice and values. Youth demonstrate active use of resources, especially a range of social relationships, to make healthy choices. Results also demonstrate variation in reaction to risk factors. For example youth harness a range of coping mechanisms to face challenges. Some describe resilient adaptations while others point toward risk types of coping which suggest a need for social work practice interventions. Conclusions and Implications: Youth perspectives lend crucial depth to the conceptualization of how they negotiate risk and protection within a public housing context in order to reach for resilience. Results demonstrate the importance of youth voices for opening the “black box” of contextual factors that promote and restrain resilience. Implications for assessment and intervention across all contexts of the social ecology are discussed. Knowledge gained through the qualitative findings also suggests items that could be included in measures for future quantitative studies.