Exploring resilience of war-affected and internally displaced widows in Nepal: theorizing integrative system model of resilience
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Abstract
This qualitative study conducted in Nepal between 2007 and 2010 explored resilience among 33 war-affected and internally displaced widows in Nepal and probed how they conceptualized experiences of displacement and widowhood. With a mix of grounded-theory and phenomenology approaches, the thematic findings of these widows' emic perspectives provided insight into their context of vulnerability, their internal mechanism for capacity development, and their motivations for livelihood strategies and activities as they coped with or even thrived under adversities. The findings of this study offered clues that theorizing resilience needed to consider conceptual frameworks and models of resilience from psychosocial, ontological, and ecological perspectives. A post hoc literature review provided the basis for the development and proposal of the Integrative System Model of Resilience from the aforementioned perspectives and knowledge domains. This model acknowledges the systemic risk factors for less-resilient outcomes and the need to minimize their effects while assuming that adaptive change is possible without decreasing risk factors necessarily. Moreover, the model proposes that it is possible to influence and induce adaptive change in each individual and in clusters of individuals to lead to resilient outcomes. Results from focus groups and in-depth interviews among 33 widows suggested that this model could be a helpful tool to explain the adaptive cycle of individuals facing adversity. The narratives of 5 widows who demonstrated relatively high degrees of resilience tested the model. This model adds to the growing body of theoretical and empirical research on the concept of resilience. Additionally, the model may serve as a helpful framework for educational intervention strategies to help individuals develop resilience in settings of adversity.
Keywords: resilience, adaptability, adversity, educational intervention, widows
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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University