INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL CAPITAL ON RESILIENCE CAPACITY OF YOUNG ADULTS RESIDING IN MARGINALIZED NEIGHBORHOODS IN LAGOS STATE
Resilience is increasingly becoming a necessity for young adults considering the unpredictable nature of the world today and the adversity that characterizes living in poor and marginalized areas. The need to understand the social processes that facilitate building of resilience capacities in young adults who live in volatile and marginalized communities is the major motivation for this research.The study was conducted among 250 young adults from public high schools located in Ajegunle, Oshodi and Mushin areas of Lagos, neighborhoods considered as slums and characterized by poverty and social vices. The participants were mostly from Igbo and Yoruba ethnic groups who were in their final year in secondary school. They responded to a set of questions in a scale designed to measure their resilience capacity, and were also measured on their perception of the social capital of their community. The study found a significant relationship between social capital and resilience competence of the participants. However, the hypothesis that participants fromdifferent (selected) communities would differ on resilience could not be supported in the study. The studysuggested the need for those in leadership of various levels of government to do more to lessen the hardships of the people in marginalized areas and also leverage on the social capital of the people in these areas in the implementations of policy aimed at developing these areas and in movingthe people out of poverty.