Resilience factors associated with mental health of adolescent learners living with mild and moderate intellectual difficulties

Background Globally, around 14% of adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 are reported to face mental health issues. However, mild to moderate intellectual disabilities (MMID) are very prevalent among young people affecting between 1–2% of this population. Most research has focused on risk factors associated with MMID in the Global North. There is a dearth of literature on resilience factors among adolescents diagnosed with MMID from the Global South, including South Africa. This study aims to address this gap. Methods A descriptive quantitative study investigating the resilience factors among adolescent learners diagnosed with MMID was conducted with 414 learners. The Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM-28) was used to assess the prevailing resilience factors. Participants were conveniently selected from three schools that enrolled learners who had been diagnosed with MMID. The CYRM-28 questionnaire was administered with the support of qualified and trained school psychologists and teachers between August and September 2022. Results Caregivers Physical Care (4.27) and Context Education (4.21) factors had the highest mean scores, with the mean scores of Context Cultural (3.97), Individual Social Skills (3.96) and Contextual Spiritual (3.87) in the middle, and Individual Peer Support (3.43), Individual Personal Skills (3,45) and Caregivers Psychological Care (3.69) with lower mean scores than the other factors. Conclusion The results show that in most of the CYRM-28 factors, the mean scores indicated that the items were ‘somewhat’ descriptive of the participants indicating no statistically significant differences in all analyses done. These results suggest the need for more attention in those areas to enable them to facilitate resilience for adolescents with MMID.