Acquired physical disability: Personal meanings in a rural South African setting

This study explored personal meanings attached to acquired physical disabilities in a rural South African community. Informants were seven adults with disability (females?=?4; age range?=?18 to 55 years). They responded to semi-structured face-to-face interviews on the meanings they attached to their physical disabilities acquired during adulthood. Four themes emerged from the thematic analysis: new life style, activity limitations, participation restrictions, and cultural marginalisation. The meanings and accompanying lifestyle changes have implications for personal functioning and social well-being.     

Experiences of the health care delivery system in a rural South African setting

This exploratory study aimed to examine health care provider work-related experiences in a rural South African context. Participants were a convenient sample of 12 medical practitioners (private sector = 55%). The practitioners responded to an open-ended question on their health care delivery-related experiences. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that the medical officers experienced both care provider fatigue and satisfaction from their work roles. Experiences of care provider fatigue were characterised by stress, anxiety, hopelessness, depression, burnout, frustration, and anger. Care provider satisfaction was associated with happiness, ability to cope, security, conscience, and commitment. Job retention and satisfaction of the health care providers were dependent on material and manpower resourcing of health services.     

Parent and Child Anxiety Sensitivity: Relationship in a Nonclinical Sample

Little is known about the relationship between parent and child anxiety sensitivity (AS), particularly in nonclinical samples. The present study examined this association in 207 healthy parent-child pairs including 244 children (mean age = 12.3 years, 103 girls) and 226 parent figures (175 mothers). Sequential multiple linear regression revealed that parent AS was significantly associated with child AS in girls, but not in boys. Parent AS accounted for 9% of incremental variance in child AS, after controlling for child age, parent depression, and parent anxiety. Analyses of parent AS dimensions indicated that the social concerns dimension accounted for 14% of incremental variance in child AS in girls only. Parent anxiety and depression showed no association with child AS, once parent AS was taken into account. The findings indicate that parent AS, especially AS social concerns, demonstrates a significant relationship with child AS in this nonclinical sample of girls.     

Health and well-being among teenage mothers in a rural South African community

This study sought to identify patterns of general health symptoms and coping abilities among school-going teenage mothers in the central region of Limpopo province, South Africa. The participants were 56 teenage mothers and 56 typically developing girls or non-mother peers (age range 16 to 19 years). They attended school ranging from grades 8 to 12. The participants completed the General Health Questionnaire and Coping Strategy Scale. Data were analysed utilising between group t-test comparison statistics. The findings suggest teenage mothers experience fewer somatic symptoms than typical peers. In addition, there was no significant difference between teenage mothers and peers on anxiety, social dysfunction, depression and coping strategies scores. Generally, teenage mothers experienced fewer general health symptoms than non-mother peers.     

Resourcing single parents in a South African community rural setting: an exploratory study

This study investigated the resource needs of single parents as child carers. Participants were a purposive sample of 40 single parents (female?=?70%, Black?=?95%, rural 80%; age range 30 to 55 years old). Data on resource needs of single parents were collected using semi-structured individual interviews. The data were thematically analyzed. The findings indicated that single parents need relationship and socio-emotional, material and time use supports to be successful in their carer roles. Resourcing single parents in their child care roles requires a holistic approach addressing both material and socio-relational support needs.     

Perceptions of parents as a function of their marital status and sex

This study examines participants’ perceptions of four different male and female parent groups (married, divorced, step and never‐married parents) and, as a comparison group, of men and women in general. Using an independent groups design, in which participants made estimations of the percentage of a single specified group possessing particular characteristics, it is found that perceptions of married parents tend to be more positive than perceptions of other groups. The never‐married tend to be viewed least positively. Overall, perceptions of mothers are typically more favourable than those of fathers. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of a career-enabler framework within a South African higher education institution

This study developed a preliminary career-enabler framework for use in a higher education setting. A quantitative survey was conducted with a sample of 1392 employees within a higher education institution in South Africa. Structural analysis was performed using exploratory factor analysis. The analysis yielded three enablers with acceptable psychometric properties, namely: self-transcendence, self-enhancement and self-conservation through work motives and needs. Interventions that focus on career-enablers within a higher education institution need to address these three factors.     

Vicarious traumatisation experiences among South African Police Service members in a rural setting: An exploratory study

The objective of this study was to explore the vicarious traumatisation experiences of South African Police Service members serving in a rural community. The participants consisted of 17 purposively selected police members (females = 4; age range 27 to 55; average years of police service = 10.6 years). Unstructured face-to-face interviews were conducted on the members’ experiences with trauma events where they were called upon to provide police services. Additionally, field notes, telephone follow-ups, and diaries were used to collect data from the members. The data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological approach guidelines. Findings show the police members to report their outlook on life to change from viewing work-life as routine and impersonal, to viewing it as involved and personal. The police members also reported psychological disorientation and being in a sense of stupor from exposure to traumatic cases. Finally, the police members self-reported empathetic experiences with the survivors as concerned citizen parents.     

School and community participation of in-school teenagers affected by orphanhood in a rural South Africa setting

This study investigated schooling and community participation qualities of teenage learners affected by orphanhood in rural secondary South African setting. Participants were a purposive sample of 30 teenage learners, (female = 60% black = 98%, 12 to 19 years old). Data on their school and community participation were collected using semi-structured individual interviews. The data were thematically analyzed with open-coding. The findings indicated that learners need support for livelihoods, relationship development with extended family or guardians, school attendance, school task engagement and follow through. They experienced material shortages despite state support. From livelihood deprivations and forced opportunities, the learners who had been orphaned enter the working environment earlier than is typical and often do menial jobs.

Children who have been orphaned are those under the age of 18 years who have lost one or both parents from any cause (Jeff & Chris, 2002 Jeff, G., & Chris, D. (2002). Impacts and interventions. South Africa: University of Natal Press. [Google Scholar], UNICEF, 2003). This represents about 18.8% of South African children (3 374 971) and 7.3% of children (24 6373) from the Free State or central province of South Africa alone (Central Statistics South Africa, 2011). According to the World Bank (1998 World Bank. (1998). Confronting AIDS. Washington, DC: World Bank. [Google Scholar]), children affected by orphanhood are less likely to have proper schooling from lack of parenting and the resource deprivation associated with being orphaned. Under guardianship, the host family may reduce a child's attendance at school by labour demands or the inability to pay for schooling (UNICEF, 2003). From these deprivations, learners affected by orphanhood may enter the labour force prematurely, and mostly in the unregulated informal sector (UNICEF, 2012). As a matter of fact, a learner who is orphaned is deprived of childhood from the socio-economic demands on him or her which are developmentally atypical (Ganga & Maphala, 2013).     

Motives for Choosing a Career in Teaching: A South African Study

The study investigated motives for teaching career entry by students (n= 232, males= 103, females= 129, mean age 23) at a large South African university. Data were collected using a career motives survey differentiating extrinsic, intrinsic and altruistic motivators. Extrinsic motivators scored higher than intrinsic or altruistic motivators. The motives advanced for teaching were in alignment with those reported in similar research carried out in metropolitan and developing countries.     

Coping strategies of mother carers of children living with chronic illness and disease in a rural South African community

The present study explored the coping strategies used by mother carers of children living with chronic illness and disease (CID) in a rural South African community. Ten mothers (age range = 30 to 56 years) were selected through snowball sampling to participate in the present study. They provided care to their children, a majority (50%) of whom had epilepsy, followed by asthma (20%) and other conditions. Data on the coping strategies used by mothers of children living with CID were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. The results showed that mother carers tended to use three types of coping strategies, namely: appraisal-focused, problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies. Appraisal-focused was commonly used by mother carers whose children had epilepsy, whilst mother carers of children with asthma tended to use problem-focused coping strategies. All mother carers were found to use emotion-focused strategies to varying degrees in coping with the chronic diseases of their children.     

Prevalence of alcohol use in a rural South African community

Among a community sample of 801 rural South Africans, 22.2% of men and 5.0% of women were classified as high-risk drinkers and 3.3% as with probable alcohol dependence.     

Validation of the Life Role Salience Scale in a South African setting

This study aimed to validate the Life Role Salience Scale (LRSS) in a South African context. Respondents were 300 working adults (72.3% = women; 57.9% = non-white; mean age = 35.12 years, SD = 10.25 years; mostly from the finance sector = 35.6%). Confirmatory factor and exploratory factor analyses were conducted to determine the LRSS’s factor structure and reliability of scores from the scale for the South African sample. Results yielded five factors emerging from the analyses: Homecare role reward value and homecare role commitment; marital role reward value and marital role commitment; occupational role commitment; occupational role value reward; and parental role reward value. The reliability of scores from the LRSS ranged from 0.79 (parental role reward value) to 0.95 (homecare role reward value and homecare role commitment). The LRSS shows validity for research use in South Africa.     

Disaster recovery experiences of a South African rural farming community

This study explored the bush fire disaster experiences and coping of South African farmers. Participants consisted of seven male farmers (6?=?White Afrikaans-speaking; 1?=?Black Tswana-speaking). Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, nine months after the disaster, and analysed thematically. The findings showed that the farmers’ recovery was characterised by three distinct, transitioning phases. The first period involved resource-maintenance coping and emotion-focused coping. The second time period was characterised by meaning making related strategies. Finally, the third time period was charactirised by anxiety over reoccurrence and resource-maintenance coping. The results also suggest that successful coping is reliant on the individual's ability to adapt coping strategies continually, in a context-appropriate manner.     

Measuring dimensions of social climate among South African higher education students

We investigated the structure of social climate among university students to characterise the relative importance of personal and interpersonal factors. Participants were 266 students from a school of education of a large South African university (females = 66.5%; black = 53.0%, white = 25.9%; coloured = 7.5%, Asian/Indian = 6.0%; mean age = 28.71 years, SD = 10.51 years). The students completed the Experience of Social Climate Questionnaire (ESCQ). Exploratory principal component factor analysis of the data yielded a three component structure of social climate comprising of (i) Constructive interpersonal relationships, (ii) Unloving towards self, and (iii) Aggression perceptions of self. Relationships and aggression appear to define social climate in a higher education student population.     

Self-regulated learning among teacher education students: Motivational beliefs influence on the use of metacognition

In the present study, we examined the relationships between motivational beliefs (self-efficacy, task value, and control of learning beliefs) and use of metacognitive learning strategies among teacher education students in Uganda. The sample comprised of 649 students selected from seven universities. Data were collected using several scales from the modified Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and analysed using Structural Equation Modelling. Task value and self-efficacy independently and significantly predicted students’ reported use of metacognition. Students’ self-reported self-efficacy and task value explained 38% of the variance in their use of metacognition. The evidence suggests interventions aimed at improving teacher education students’ metacognitive skills to focus on enhancing their efficacy and value beliefs.     

School learner behavioural management: context and practices in a South African school setting

This study explored context and qualities of learner behavioural management with high school students in a historically disadvantaged South African urban school setting. Participants were a convenience sample of seven teachers (females = 3, and males = 4) mean teaching experience = 14 years; SD = 9.0738 years). They responded to an open-ended interview on influences on learner behavioural management and preferred management styles. The data was thematically analysed. Findings reported poor implementation of school code of conduct and lack of parental involvement to lower the learner management. Teachers reported the use of an autocratic management style which could potentially undermine long-term learner development and growth.