ABSTRACT
Young people are widely thought to be affected disproportionately by conflict and displacement (Machel, 2001; Berman, 2001). However, over recent years, there has been a shift within the literature, to focus on the resilience of young people affected and displaced by war and their ability to overcome adversity (Boyden, 2003). Young people may be more adaptable than their elders to rapid social change and better able to take up new livelihood opportunities, sometimes reversing intergenerational flows of wealth and support (Vincent and Sorenson, 2001; Chatty and Hundt, 2001; Swaine, 2004). Such transformations can have important consequences for intergenerational relations. Supporting elders economically can enable young people to establish a role for themselves within a community and become adults (Hinton, 2000; Mann, 2004). Conversely, older people may feel threatened by intergenerational role reversals which challenge social norms around relations of authority and respect (Boyden et al., 2002; Swaine, 2004; Kaiser, 2006).
