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

Both oil and gas production and the process of consumption (as it relates to climate change) have large impacts, both positive and negative, on social, economic and environmental systems that affect young people's mental health and overall wellbeing. To better understand these complex relationships at both ends of the carbon cycle, a multidisciplinary and multisectoral team of researchers and community and industry partners in two communities in Canada (Drayton Valley in Alberta, Cambridge Bay in Nunavut) and two communities in South Africa (Dunoon in the Western Cape, Secunda in Mpumalanga) will study the resilience of young people and the systems with which they interact. Unique among studies of resilience, this project will carry out case studies that examine at the same time the biological and psychological resilience of young people, family and community resilience, and the resilience of environmental systems as they interact over a period of several years. The research uses a transformative sequential mixed methods design to facilitate data collection across multiple human and ecological systems. We expect that a systemic understanding of how oil and gas industries affect the multiple social and physical 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 family stressors, social disruptions, pollution 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 youth. To do this research, we will provide training for 50 graduate students and 5 postdocs, and we will engage youth themselves as citizen scientists and co-researchers. Our findings will inform socially and environmentally sound government policies and industry practices.