Patterns of Resilience Among Youth in Contexts of Petrochemical Production and Consumption in the Global North and Global South

Whether at the extraction end of the carbon cycle, or at the consumption end, the petrochemical sector has a large impact, both positive and negative, on social, economic and environmental systems that affect young people's mental health and social wellbeing. Accordingly, it is crucial to identify and enable those processes that protect young people's health and wellbeing while moderating or eliminating processes that have a negative influence. To do so, three multidisciplinary and multisectoral teams in Canada and South Africa (the global north and south) will study the resilience of young people and its relationship with the petrochemical industry at both ends of the carbon cycle. Teams of scholars and community and industry co-applicants will examine the interactions between the psychological resilience of young people, family and community resilience, and the resilience of environmental systems over a period of several years. We expect that a systemic understanding of the petrochemical industry's impact on multiple social determinants of youth health can increase the potentially positive impacts of extraction industries (e.g., employment, community cohesion) while mitigating the negative consequences of oil and gas production (e.g. finding better ways to help youth deal with social disruptions and forced migration). Simply put, we want to learn how young people adapt across the carbon cycle and use what we learn about their patterns of resilience to improve the lives of all young people. Four communities (two Canadian, two South African) will facilitate this research-based learning. The selected communities have been identified because of their involvement in petrochemical production or because they are known to be affected by post-consumption climate change. Young people and Local Advisory Committees will play a key role in the research, contributing to the research design and the development of age and culturally relevant knowledge mobilization strategies.