Growing Up in Violent Situations: The South African Situation

The author discusses the topic of growing up in violent situations from a number of perspectives. Firstly, she gives a psychological perspective to the notion of resilience, invulnerability or stress resistance, as she thinks that the psychological factors form a crucial base from which to consider long term sequelae and plan ways of intervention and prevention. In order to place the South African situation in a context she looks at some of the descriptions of the traditionally described stressors of childhood, and then considers the more extreme stresses. Finally, she presents some of the research and ideas that are being formulated about the South African situation.