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Early socioemotional development: Investigating protective factors that support resilience in a South African birth cohort study
Globally, the prevalence of mental health challenges amongst children is increasing, raising significant concerns. Despite this, there remains a limited understanding of the protective factors that support resilience in children from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In high-risk contexts, r...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
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Department of Psychology
2025
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| _version_ | 1867613230064467968 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | De Leeuw, Joannes |
| author2 | Malcolm-Smith, Susan |
| author_browse | De Leeuw, Joannes Malcolm-Smith, Susan |
| author_facet | Malcolm-Smith, Susan De Leeuw, Joannes |
| author_sort | De Leeuw, Joannes |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Globally, the prevalence of mental health challenges amongst children is increasing, raising significant concerns. Despite this, there remains a limited understanding of the protective factors that support resilience in children from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In high-risk contexts, resilience can serve as a critical buffer against adverse effects on mental health. However, the intricate interplay between risk and protective factors in young children has been insufficiently explored, despite the foundational role of early childhood experiences in shaping an individual's positive developmental trajectory. In my thesis, I conducted a scoping review to summarise the current evidence on resilience in children aged 10 years and younger, synthesizing how resilience is conceptualised and operationalised in LMICs. I also presented a novel perspective on childhood adversity by examining both children's exposure to community violence and their emotional response. Finally, I investigated the relationship between resilience, adversity, and mental health outcomes over time in children aged 8 years and younger in the South African Drakenstein Child Health Study. The scoping review revealed that only 26 studies from 14 countries investigated childhood resilience in LMICs, highlighting a significant paucity of data, particularly in longitudinal research. In my own study of adversity, I provided a novel bifactor model, with a general adversity factor (combining violence exposure and emotional responses) and four subscales, capturing nuanced emotional responses beyond frequency and severity of adverse exposures. Importantly, higher resilience scores were consistently linked to lower mental health difficulties over time, with significant interaction effects between adversity and resilience. Moderating effects were observed at individual levels (e.g., emotion regulation, temperament), relational levels (e.g., caregiver resilience, maternal employment), and contextual levels (e.g., household income), underscoring the multifaceted nature of resilience in high-risk settings. This thesis underscores the dynamic nature of resilience in the face of ongoing adversity during childhood in high-risk contexts. By identifying several protective factors at different timepoints, it makes a significant contribution to this underexplored area and emphasises the importance of designing resilience-focused interventions to mitigate mental health difficulties in young children from LMICs. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42159 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:50.328Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Department of Psychology |
| publisherStr | Department of Psychology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42159 Early socioemotional development: Investigating protective factors that support resilience in a South African birth cohort study De Leeuw, Joannes Malcolm-Smith, Susan South Africa Birth Middle income countries Globally, the prevalence of mental health challenges amongst children is increasing, raising significant concerns. Despite this, there remains a limited understanding of the protective factors that support resilience in children from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In high-risk contexts, resilience can serve as a critical buffer against adverse effects on mental health. However, the intricate interplay between risk and protective factors in young children has been insufficiently explored, despite the foundational role of early childhood experiences in shaping an individual's positive developmental trajectory. In my thesis, I conducted a scoping review to summarise the current evidence on resilience in children aged 10 years and younger, synthesizing how resilience is conceptualised and operationalised in LMICs. I also presented a novel perspective on childhood adversity by examining both children's exposure to community violence and their emotional response. Finally, I investigated the relationship between resilience, adversity, and mental health outcomes over time in children aged 8 years and younger in the South African Drakenstein Child Health Study. The scoping review revealed that only 26 studies from 14 countries investigated childhood resilience in LMICs, highlighting a significant paucity of data, particularly in longitudinal research. In my own study of adversity, I provided a novel bifactor model, with a general adversity factor (combining violence exposure and emotional responses) and four subscales, capturing nuanced emotional responses beyond frequency and severity of adverse exposures. Importantly, higher resilience scores were consistently linked to lower mental health difficulties over time, with significant interaction effects between adversity and resilience. Moderating effects were observed at individual levels (e.g., emotion regulation, temperament), relational levels (e.g., caregiver resilience, maternal employment), and contextual levels (e.g., household income), underscoring the multifaceted nature of resilience in high-risk settings. This thesis underscores the dynamic nature of resilience in the face of ongoing adversity during childhood in high-risk contexts. By identifying several protective factors at different timepoints, it makes a significant contribution to this underexplored area and emphasises the importance of designing resilience-focused interventions to mitigate mental health difficulties in young children from LMICs. 2025-11-10T07:37:01Z 2025-11-10T07:37:01Z 2025 2025-11-10T07:34:53Z Thesis / Dissertation Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42159 en eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | South Africa Birth Middle income countries De Leeuw, Joannes Early socioemotional development: Investigating protective factors that support resilience in a South African birth cohort study |
| thesis_degree_str | Doctoral |
| title | Early socioemotional development: Investigating protective factors that support resilience in a South African birth cohort study |
| title_full | Early socioemotional development: Investigating protective factors that support resilience in a South African birth cohort study |
| title_fullStr | Early socioemotional development: Investigating protective factors that support resilience in a South African birth cohort study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Early socioemotional development: Investigating protective factors that support resilience in a South African birth cohort study |
| title_short | Early socioemotional development: Investigating protective factors that support resilience in a South African birth cohort study |
| title_sort | early socioemotional development investigating protective factors that support resilience in a south african birth cohort study |
| topic | South Africa Birth Middle income countries |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42159 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT deleeuwjoannes earlysocioemotionaldevelopmentinvestigatingprotectivefactorsthatsupportresilienceinasouthafricanbirthcohortstudy |