Abstract
This study contributes to the literature on resilience, with the focus on the interactional resilience of children who have experienced sexual abuse as an adversity. Authors who have studied resilience have mentioned the challenges that were experienced in their attempts to define the term. Resilience is linked to an adversity that is experienced by an individual, the impact of such an adversity, and the individual’s ability to bounce back from the adversity. In South Africa, child sexual abuse (CSA) is reported to be escalating on a daily basis. CSA has vast consequences for CSA victims, and it also has an impact on their development into adulthood. CSA victims leverage several processes from themselves and from their environment for them to develop resilience. CSA victims need to create a positive self for themselves in order to develop resilience; they need to convince themselves that they are capable of helping themselves. This happens before they develop a need to rely on their environment. CSA victims who know that they are strong (that they have a strong heart and a strong mind) are capable of bouncing back, because such an understanding about themselves enables them to develop a need to help themselves. Working with the self of a CSA victim is an imperative process, which can help them to develop resilience and to bounce back to normality...
M.A. (Community Development)