Resilience factors of orphans and vulnerable children in a children’s home during the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons and implications for practice post pandemic

Abstract

Studies have shown evidence of resilience among orphans and vulnerable children living under different circumstances. This article explored the resilience factors that enabled orphans and vulnerable children in a children’s home to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, lessons learned and implications for practice. A total of 18 children aged between 11 and 13 years from a children’s home in Soweto, South Africa, were purposefully selected for this study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. The study revealed that individual traits such as agency, positive outlook on life and motivation were regarded as resilience factors. Furthermore, relationships with peers, physical caregiving and donors also enabled orphans and vulnerable children to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the results, lessons learned and implications for practice were drawn.

Introduction

Many orphans and vulnerable children are placed in children’s homes due to their vulnerability (Malatji & Dube, 2017). For example, their vulnerability could include being an orphan or coming from abusive homes. Skinner et al. (2004, p. 625) discuss other factors of vulnerability such as

severe chronic illness of a parent or caregiver, poverty, hunger, lack of access to services, inadequate clothing or shelter, overcrowding, deficient caretakers, and factors specific to the child, including disability, direct experience of physical or sexual violence, or severe chronic illness.

Worldwide Orphan Statistics. (n.d). estimates that globally, 147 million children under the age of 18 are orphans and millions of other children around the world have been separated or are at risk of being separated from their parents. In South Africa, there are over three million orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) (United Nations, 2016). With such high numbers of OVC, children’s homes become a reasonable solution contributing towards solving the phenomenon of vulnerable children. In South Africa, children’s homes are institutions where OVC are taken care of. Allman et al. (2023) stated that OVCs face several psychological, academic, social and emotional adversities. Some OVCs do not reach their development potential or struggle to grow and develop because of multilevel barriers, including those resulting from poverty or homelessness (Rosenthal et al., 2020). Thus, children’s homes are expected to assist OVC placed in their care to develop fully and enjoy their childhood. However, a study by Munongi and Mawila (2023) showed that some OVCs continue to have adverse experiences despite being placed in children’s homes.

The COVID-19 pandemic added a whole new layer of adversities for OVC in children’s homes. The COVID-19 is a pandemic that is caused by the severe acute respiratory condition coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Rathore & Ghosh, 2020). Currie et al. (2020) reported that the COVID-19 pandemic is probably the worst infectious illness in this generation. Approximately 62 million people in South Africa were reported to be infected with this deadly disease (Statistics South Africa [Stats SA], 2023). Kentor and Thompson (2021) elucidated that more than four million people died globally because of the COVID-19 pandemic and this has left many bereaved children behind. In South Africa, 102,595 deaths were reported by February 2023 (COVID-19 South African Online Portal, 2023). The COVID-19 pandemic had detrimental effects on the wellbeing of individuals. Due to the restrictions and lockdown put in place to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Magson et al. (2021) noted that individuals experienced mental health illnesses such as isolation, depression, and anxiety. Spaull and van der Berg’s (2020) study revealed that school closures compromised children’s educational and mental health needs. Many respondents in a study by Lee et al. (2013) reported depression, anxiety, fear, and over-thinking because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenges faced by OVC were exacerbated as Jones et al. (2020) reported disruptions in daily life, lack of access to health, school, and other services, coupled with social distancing measures and only being confined at home as risk factors for OVC in children’s homes. Thevenon and Adema (2020) also noted that the most impoverished children, including the homeless and orphaned children in detention, were hardest hit by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. OVCs living in children’s homes in South Africa were not spared from the impact of the pandemic according to Munongi and Mawila (2023) because their pre-existing adversities were aggravated. Since OVC already face risk factors, for example, not living in a typical family, living in a shelter, loss of parents, and possible limited resources (Mutiso & Mutie, 2018), one wonders what factors may have enabled their resilience during this pandemic. In this study, we focused on the factors that enabled the resilience of OVC in a children’s home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the lessons learned, and the implications for practice. Research in South Africa on factors that enabled resilience among OVC during the COVID-19 pandemic remains limited. Therefore, this study was undertaken to contribute to this knowledge gap. In addition, the study provided insights into what could be learned from the resilience of OVC living in a children’s home during the pandemic and the implications for the practice thereof.

Resilience factors of OVC

Van Breda (2018) defines resilience as the ability to bounce back and keep growing despite adversity. Adversity refers to negative experiences that affect an individual’s functioning (Ungar, 2013). Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with adverse outcomes in the development of OVC. According to Ungar (2013), adversities are mediated by resilience-enabling factors accessed from the context to sustain emotional and psychological wellbeing. These adversities can be associated with pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In contexts with many social disadvantages, such as South Africa, resilience factors among children and youth become increasingly essential to buffer against adversity (Van Breda & Theron, 2018). In this study, we focused on resilience from a contextual perspective, which refers to the capacity of the OVC in children’s homes to traverse and extract the resources required to withstand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, we looked at factors that enabled OVC in a children’s home to bounce back and develop in accordance with developmental milestones during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following this, OVC were interviewed to elicit data on the factors that enabled them to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study was underpinned by Ungar’s (2011) Social Ecological Framework of resilience. This theory credits the development of resilience to the integration of individual traits as well as relational and contextual factors. Consequently, Ungar (2011) posits that resilience is not solely based on individual traits, rather, it is contingent upon an individual’s social and physical ecology. Ungar (2011) affirms that the development of resilience is fostered by the accessibility of social ecological factors. Various social ecological factors have been documented in literature as resilience-enabling, such as individual and contextual factors (Theron, 2016; Ungar, 2013; Van Breda, 2018). Individual factors enabling the resilience of OVC include aspirations and wellbeing (Forrest-Bank et al., 2015), optimism, religion, morality, social values, and humour (Pienaar et al., 2011). Likewise, contextual factors that enable OVC resilience include relationships with peers (Turliuc et al., 2013), caregivers (Graber et al., 2015), teachers, and culture (Theron, 2016). The Social Ecological Framework of resilience was therefore used in this study because it provides a comprehensive understanding of resilience. In this study, we sought to explore the multiple social ecological resilience factors that enabled OVC in a children’s home to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. This framework contributes significantly to South African studies as Western approaches of understanding resilience are not always relevant to South African contexts (Malakou, 2019), such as those of OVC. It is clear that there are studies on the resilience of OVC; however, limited similar studies have been done on children’s homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is, therefore, critical to investigate what factors enabled the resilience of OVC in a children’s home to withstand the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aims of the study

The aim of this study was to explore the resilience factors that enabled OVC in a children’s home to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, with the hope of drawing lessons learned and implications for practice. These insights could assist in developing interventions that can promote the resilience of OVC in children’s homes during times of crisis and similar pandemics.

Methods

Participants

Participants comprised 18 Black female children, between the ages of 11 and 13 years from a children’s home in Soweto township, South Africa. The children’s home caters to 70 OVC between the ages of 3 and 19 years who are from the immediate community of Soweto. For a child to be eligible to be part of the study, they had to be residing at the children’s home during the COVID-19 pandemic, aged between 11 and 13 years, residing at the children’s home for at least 1 year, be enrolled in a school and be conversant in English.

Instruments

Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with participants to collect qualitative data using an interview schedule that was designed in alignment with the research questions. The study aimed to address the resilience factors that enabled OVC to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. The guiding research question was: What resilience factors enabled OVC in a children’s home to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic? The interview schedule comprised the following major questions:

1. How are you coping with the problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic?

2. What gives you hope for the future despite the COVID-19 pandemic?

3. On a scale of 0-10, where 0 is not coping at all and 10 is coping very well, how well are you coping with the COVID-19 pandemic challenges?

Based on the findings, we deduced lessons that could be learned from the resilience of OVC in a children’s home during the COVID-19 pandemic and the implications for practice.

Procedure

Participants were purposefully selected from a children’s home in Soweto township, South Africa. Purposive sampling was preferred as it allowed us to sample participants with relevant information who could adequately answer our interview questions. We introduced ourselves and explained the purpose of our study to the administrators, social workers, and children. Thereafter, we invited children to participate in our study. With the assistance of the social workers, we purposefully selected 18 participants who met the inclusion criteria and were willing to participate.

The interviews were audio recorded with the consent of administrators and social workers and assent from the participants. Interviews were conducted using conversant English as it was the medium of communication in the children’s home and participants were able to converse in English. Data were collected by the primary researcher for over 1 month in September 2021. All the COVID-19 pandemic protocols were observed, including wearing masks, social distancing, and sanitising of hands. Interviews were conducted individually in a private room at the children’s home provided by the social workers. Each interview lasted for no more than 30 min. In addition, interviews were conducted to the point of data saturation where no new information could be elicited from the participants.

Ethical considerations

The University of Johannesburg Ethics Faculty of Education Committee’s Research Committee granted ethical clearance (Ethics number: Sem 2-2021-003) to conduct this research. In addition, permission from the children’s home administrator, social workers, and caregivers was also sought before the inception of this study. Assent was sought from participants since they were all minors. Participants were informed of their voluntary participation and the right to withdraw from the study at any time, and pseudonyms were used to ensure confidentiality and anonymity. A psychologist was on standby during and after data collection to assist with any psychological issues that may have arisen. Nonetheless, there were no incidences of psychological problems reported or observed.

Data analysis

Thematic data analysis was used to analyse data following the six steps by Braun and Clarke (2019). We read all transcripts several times to familiarise ourselves with the data, making notes on what the data were generally depicting. We generated initial codes using theoretical thematic data analysis as we were concerned with answering the specific research questions. We used open coding by manually coding the data piecemeal independently before comparing, discussing and modifying the codes. Initial themes were developed by examining the codes to see which ones fit together. The themes were further reviewed and modified to make sense (Kiger & Varpio, 2020). Thereafter, we refined the identified themes. Finally, we wrote up the report by providing a clear interpretation and discussion of the results supported by the actual words from the participants (Braun & Clarke, 2019).

Results

This study explored the resilience factors that enabled OVC in a children’s home to cope during the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary themes that the researchers developed based on the data were agency, positive outlook on life, motivation, relationships with peers, provision of resources by caregivers and provision of resources by donors. These themes function as resilience factors based on the experiences of the OVC interviews.

Agency

Participants showed agency as they took action to bounce back from COVID-19 pandemic-related challenges. Participants portrayed urgency for schoolwork and self-protection from the COVID-19 pandemic infections which enabled their resilience. In cases where schoolwork was concerned, some participants mentioned that since they did not have access to their teachers for academic support, they used their own initiative to cope despite challenging situations. Thus, they were conscious that they could get help from other people to change their situation. Participant 7 stated, ‘I make sure I do my best to understand schoolwork on my own. If I can’t, I try find help from other people’. Participant 11 also said, ‘I couldn’t read at that time, so my roommate would always teach me how to read and study’. In addition, participant 2 mentioned ‘I’m used to studying on my own, that’s how I cope. I try to motivate myself and work harder, I don’t give up’. The participants’ words suggest that despite the academic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, they still found ways to continue learning.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, protection of self was extremely necessary for one’s survival and to be safe from being infected by the virus. As evidence of being resilient, despite the high infections in South Africa, most participants took urgency to protect themselves. Some used survival skills like sewing their own masks, while most of them observed COVID-19 pandemic safety protocols. To illustrate, participant 16 said, ‘I sew a mask when torn . . . I adhere to all COVID-19 regulations, and I go to the clinic when not feeling well’. Participant 3 stipulated that ‘I always wear a mask, I avoid crowded places, sanitise and maintain social distancing. I try to avoid getting infected by it [COVID-19], so I make sure that I mask up and protect myself’. Participant 12 added,

What I do to adopt is that here where I stay, they teach us about it [COVID-19] and so we have to care about other children’s health also. So that’s how I cope about the system of COVID-19. Carry the sanitiser and wear my mask to also protect others.

This shows that the children could deliberately act to shape their lives and protect themselves and others during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite being confined in a children’s home, participants showed the importance of protecting themselves from the infection.

A positive outlook on life

From our results, participants experienced several challenges during the pandemic, including isolation, fear of the virus, being confined to the home, and academic disruptions. Despite the challenges faced by OVC in this children’s home, participants expressed a positive outlook on life which enabled them to be resilient. They looked forward to life after the COVID-19 pandemic and they had aspirations for the future. Some of the participants were hopeful that the COVID-19 pandemic would come to an end. To demonstrate, participant 17 said, ‘COVID-19 will end, we will not wear masks one day because it will end. Since they have discovered vaccines, it will end’. Participant 5 also stated, ‘My hope is that COVID-19 disappear (clapping), I hope that we find the cure and it ends you see’. Furthermore, participant 1 mentioned, ‘I hope to be successful and achieve my goals and l wish I can be a writer and write my books and also be a poet and then actor. I want to be a businesswoman’. Participant 14 also said, ‘I believe the COVID-19 pandemic will end. I am alive, I can still dream and attain everything I wish for’. Thus, such positive outlooks gave them hope for the future and enabled them to be resilient.

Motivation

Generally, the results showed that the participants were highly motivated. This was evidenced by the high scores they gave themselves when assessing their motivation levels on a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being no motivation whereas 10 meant highly motivated. Most of them scored themselves above 6 out of 10. For example, participant 7 scored herself 8 out of 10 and she stated, ‘I don’t give up easily, especially with my academics’. Participant 8 rated herself 7 out of 10 and added, ‘My best friend gives me motivation for the future because we share mutual goals and dreams’. Some participants were motivated by the recognition they got from their efforts as mentioned by participant 6 who scored herself 8 out of 10 and said, ‘I am always a leader when there are programmes. So, I would say it’s the recognition I get here that motivates me’. Thus, the sources of motivation seemed to be varied among participants as some were motivated by internal factors while others by external factors.

Relationships with peers

During the COVID-19 pandemic, relationships with peers were another enabling resilience factor among OVCs in the children’s home. According to the participants, the idea of living with peers as a family strengthened their resilience. This setup allowed them to play with each other and confide in one another about their emotions. Participant 2 expressed that, ‘We stay together like we are a family – as children, we can easily share our feelings, on how we feel, yes and we can easily make friends’. For some participants, these peer relationships were also beneficial as they had people to play with during the COVID-19 pandemic, which possibly combatted the feeling of isolation and enabled their resilience. To demonstrate, participant 13 mentioned ‘The only thing that makes me feel at home is playing hide and seek with other children’. In addition, participant 15 elucidated, ‘I would sometimes go out to play with my friends at the home and I wore my mask all the time’. It is, thus, clear that relationships with peers was fundamental for OVC to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and made them resilient. Of interest was that none of the children mentioned their relationship with caregivers as a source of resilience. This could point to insignificant relationships between the participants and their caregivers.

Provision of resources by caregivers

During the COVID-19 pandemic, having necessary personal protective equipment, such as masks and sanitiser, was mandatory to protect individuals from getting infected by the virus and preventing the spread of the virus. In the children’s home, participants recognised that their caregivers provided them with resources to protect themselves from COVID-19. Such provisions assisted them in feeling safe and protected from the virus, which in turn promoted their resilience. Participant 10 indicated, ‘We have everything we need here to protect ourselves from the virus. We are fine and our safety is secured. I feel fine’. In support, participant 11 said, ‘I am cared for enough here at the home because they always give me masks, sanitisers and everything else I need to protect myself. I feel I can carry on my life even though there is COVID’. Participant 4 concurred and said,

I am cared for because they take us to the clinic when we feel ill, and they provide us with masks and sanitisers. Even though some people are getting sick, here at home we are protected as we have everything we need.

Furthermore, participant 15 stated, ‘Caregivers give us masks and we sanitise, and they also tell us to keep the social distance. They also fumigate the home and scan us daily to ensure that our temperatures are normal. This makes me safe and protected from the virus as caregivers takes care of us’. The above expressions by participants revealed that the provision of these resources seems to have offered participants a sense of hope and protection, hence enabling them to be resilient.

Provision of resources by donors

Donors played a critical role in the lives of participants by providing for their needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. This seemed to enable their resilience as participants expressed that initially they felt scared of the virus but were now confident that the resources provided by donors protected them. Donations provided by donors included sanitisers, masks, and the fumigation of the children’s home. To illustrate, participant 13 said, ‘At first, we had challenges as we did not have enough resources. When the donors came, we had everything we needed. We had donors who donated sanitiser and masks’. In addition, participant 9 stated, ‘There are people who are still coming . . . to fumigate the cottage which made me feel safe and less scared’. Participant 18 also noted, ‘I am coping because donors donated masks and sanitisers at the home that protected me and my friends, which made me less afraid of the virus’. As noted from the above narratives, donors actively provided needed resources to the children’s home which appears to have played a fundamental role in assisting participants to be resilient.

Discussion

This study examined the resilience factors that enabled OVC in a children’s home to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, intending to highlight the lessons learned and implications for practice. According to the results of the study, it was evident that all the identified factors were related in promoting resilience among the OVC in the children’s home. The factors revealed in this study align with several studies (Lee et al., 2013; Nam et al., 2016) which have identified similar factors as enabling resilience of OVC in times of adversity. Our results show several factors that enabled the resilience of OVC in a children’s home during the pandemic. Participants identified factors such as agency, positive outlook on life, motivation, relationships with peers, provision of resources by caregivers and provision of resources by donors. They reflected on how these factors enabled them to persist with life as normal as possible despite the adversities associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In most cases, OVCs are excluded from research owing to their vulnerability (Thompson et al., 2012). Research ethics considers research with children as high risk, especially vulnerable children like OVC (Kelley et al., 2016). This has resulted in OVC being excluded as participants in matters that concern them. Their perspectives are usually from adults’ point of view, who prescribe what is relevant for OVC without considering their own perspectives. By including children in our study, OVCs were given the opportunity to work as co-creators of knowledge on what enables their resilience in the face of hardships. This is evident from the results that showed OVCs’ ability to express some of the factors that can be exploited to enable OVCs to become resilient in similar situations and future crises, including pandemics.

Despite all the challenges OVC encountered during the pandemic, participants maintained a positive outlook on life, ensuring they stayed motivated, which enabled them to be resilient. As noted in the literature (Forrest-Bank et al., 2015; Pienaar et al., 2011), aspirations, optimism, motivation and wellbeing are individual factors that enable resilience. Our results also showed that participants took urgency to protect themselves and continue with schoolwork despite the academic disruptions. Haffejee and Levine (2020) have also specified OVC’s ability to take urgency in solving problems in times of crisis.

Furthermore, the results of our study show that relationships with peers play a critical part in promoting resilience among participants. In alignment with the results of our study, Katyal (2015, p. 326) revealed that orphan children’s resilience is attributed to the ‘development of close and warm social bonds and friendships with peers in orphanages’. In addition, a study by Bireda and Pillay (2018) affirms that relationships with friends and emotional support could potentially alleviate adversities among individuals who experience negative situations. In line with Ungar’s (2011) Social Ecological Framework of resilience, relationships with other people are critical in promoting individuals’ resilience in the face of adversity.

Provision of masks, sanitiser and fumigation by caregivers and donors assisted participants in combatting the adversities accompanying the presence of the pandemic. This corresponds with literature by Haffejee and Levine (2020) which suggests the accessibility of these resources is essential for protection against the COVID-19 and preventing the spread of the virus. Similarly, Ungar’s (2011) framework of resilience notes that for an individual to develop resilience, the availability of resources is critical. Therefore, as seen in this study, caregivers at the children’s home provided paramount resources necessary for OVC to flourish despite the adversities brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ability of the OVC to effectively use these resources can be credited for the development of their resilience. Furthermore, this study revealed that a combination of factors fostered the resilience of OVC during the COVID-19 pandemic in a children’s home. This aligns with Ungar’s view of resilience as multifaced and resulting from the interrelation of different factors.

Lessons learned and implications for practice

This study provides an essential contribution to knowledge about the resilience factors that enabled OVC in a children’s home to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Several lessons and implications for practice can be deduced from this study. One of the critical lessons that can be learned from this study is that children can take agency and contribute towards their own resilience in times of crises such as pandemics. In our study, children developed specific adaptations, such as sewing masks, which were relevant to protecting themselves from COVID-19. This implies that adults should not underestimate children’s ability to be proactive in dealing with crises. Since most participants in our study were able to take urgency, they can be used as peer mentors to help those who could be struggling to take urgency in times of crisis. However, the authors argue that children are not solely responsible for their outcomes in life as this shifts responsibility from caregivers and government onto children. Therefore, it remains the responsibility of adults and the state to ensure that OVC are supported to sustain their resilience.

Another significant lesson that can be drawn from this study is that being vulnerable does not mean the absence of resilience. This study showed that OVC could be resilient amid the COVID-19 pandemic as they had aspirations which enabled them to be resilient. This implies that there is a need to expose them to relevant opportunities that can assist them to fulfil their aspirations so that they do not regress in the future. Such opportunities could sustain their motivation and positive outlook on life.

From this study, it can also be learned that children need the support of peers for their resilience. In this study, the support comes in the form of motivation and emotional support from peers. As peers play a crucial role in the development of resilience among OVC, this infers that finding ways to sustain and foster healthy peer relations is crucial. Given that children in children’s homes come from adverse backgrounds, making connections with other people can be challenging. Therefore, relationships with peers are critical in building each other’s resilience. We recommend that caregivers should facilitate relationship building among OVCs under their care as this plays a role in enhancing the resilience of OVCs in children’s homes.

The critical role that the provision of relevant resources plays is another lesson that can be deduced from this study. In our study, the provision of resources by donors proved to be critical in building resilience among OVC during the COVID-19. Thus, it is critical that children’s home administrators and caregivers maintain positive relationships with donors for continued provision of resources in future pandemics or similar situations. Even though the children in our study portrayed resilience, interventions to sustain their resilience should be considered. Consistent with this, mental health practitioners should consider developing and implementing programmes that target strategies to maintain and elevate the OVCs’ resilience in similar pandemics or crises. Interventions should focus on ways to promote resilience that were not mentioned in this study. This could include counselling, meditation (Kunzler et al., 2020), keeping journals (Crawford et al., 2021), online support groups, relaxation, and self-containment activities like reading a book and listening to music (Ergas, 2019) depending on the nature of the crises.

Although children reported relationships with peers as resilience-enabling, they did not report similar relationships with caregivers or other significant people within and outside the home. Future interventions by mental health practitioners should, therefore, focus on building relationships with social workers, caregivers and other significant adults in the children’s lives depending on the nature of the future pandemic or crises.

Limitations

The study is limited to one children’s home with only 18 female participants and the results of the study cannot be generalised to other children’s homes. Future and similar studies should be undertaken in other children’s homes across South Africa and should include boys.

Conclusion

The study provides insights into factors that enabled resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, which could provide a guide on how to cope with similar and future crises. Similar to prior studies, our study also confirms that adverse situations do not always predict negative outcomes due to individuals’ ability to resile. Post the COVID-19 pandemic, more studies can be done on lessons learned from this pandemic in terms of the resilience of OVC.