A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Psychology (Clinical Psychology) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Zululand, 2017 / The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of postnatal depression among adolescent mothers. The study was going to achieve this through a comparative approach. Two groups of adolescent mothers were compared. One group’s participants were still in relationships with their partners (child’s biological father), and the other group consisted of single adolescent partners without the child’s biological father, or a romantic partner. The research study was based in the Umhlathuze region, in two local townships, namely, Enseleni and Esikhawini Townships. A total of 100 adolescent mothers from two health care facilities were sampled for the current research study. A quantitative research methodology was adopted, as the study intended to compare nominal variables. A self-selection sampling method was utilised, and a validated tool called the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used to collect data. Furthermore, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was utilised for the purposes of data analysis. The study revealed that there was no evidence of an association between partner availability and postnatal depression among adolescent mothers. However, the limitations of the current research study were acknowledged. The study recommends that a more longitudinal study be conducted, with a closer look at the quality of romantic relations among adolescent couples, and their impact on postnatal health of both adolescent mothers and fathers. / National Research Foundation

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Aims and Rationale: Romantic relationships are recognised for playing a pivotal role for the emerging adolescent. These relationships are frequently reported to be detrimental to adolescent emotional and psychological well-being, though research focusing on adolescents’ romantic relationships in a clinical capacity is significantly restricted. This study endeavours to understand factors that affect youth in romantic relationships according to practitioners, and how these factors correspond to adolescents with no experience of therapy. These findings aim to broaden an understanding of the subject area, develop therapeutic practices and explore whether adolescents would benefit from counselling regarding their romantic relationships. Method: A mixed-method approach was used to carry out semi-structured interviews with 7 therapeutic practitioners to explore factors that affect adolescent romantic relationships. Themes extracted from a thematic analysis were used to develop an online q-sort survey with a non-clinical adolescent sample. Subjective viewpoints of 33 adolescents were quantitatively examined and triangulated with practitioners’ views. Results: The triangulated findings developed an understanding of factors that may affect adolescent adjustments to romantic relationships. Perspectives held by practitioners and those from adolescents, suggested key differences in developmental benefits, emotional and social adjustments and the role of adults. Similarities regarding the difficulties experienced by adolescent males were identified. Conclusion: Contributions of the findings go beyond whether counselling is appropriate or needed for adolescents in a romantic relationship. They add to an understanding of the discrepancies in the way romantic relationships are perceived by practitioners in affecting adolescents’ adjustments and development, as opposed to how young people actually experience these relationships.

This study examined links between adolescent depressive symptoms, actual pubertal development, perceived pubertal timing relative to one’s peers, adolescent-maternal relationship satisfaction, and couple sexual behavior. Assessments of these variables were made on each couple member separately and then these variables were used to predict the sexual activity of the couple. Participants were drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health; Bearman et al., 1997; Udry, 1997) data set (N = 20,088; aged 12-18 years). Dimensions of adolescent romantic experiences using the total sample were described and then a subsample of romantically paired adolescents (n = 1,252) were used to test a risk and protective model for predicting couple sexual behavior using the factors noted above. Relevant measures from the Wave 1 Add Health measures were used. Most of the items used in Add Health to assess romantic relationship experiences, adolescent depressive symptoms, pubertal development (actual and perceived), adolescent-maternal relationship satisfaction, and couple sexual behavior were drawn from other national surveys or from scales with well documented psychometric properties. Results demonstrated that romantic relationships are part of most adolescents’ lives and that adolescents’ experiences with these relationships differ markedly by age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Further, each respective couple member’s pubertal development, perceived pubertal timing, and maternal relationship satisfaction were useful in predicting sexual risk-promoting and risk-reducing behaviors in adolescent romantic couples. Findings in this dissertation represent an initial step toward evaluating explanatory models of adolescent couple sexual behavior.

Learning about romantic relationships can be one of the central features of adolescence. However, there are not many useful and scholarly tools for adolescents to evaluate themselves and their relationship competence. Such tools can be helpful in the premarital education process. READY is a premarital assessment questionnaire instrument that is used for such purposes but it was designed for use with adults ages 18 and over. In this study READY for Adolescents (READY-A) was developed as a revision and extension of READY with age-appropriate questions to be used with adolescents. A review of literature on adolescent romantic relationships and factors that affect the adolescent's individual competence in these relationships was completed for this study. Based on the ecosystemic developmental theory and developmental theory of interpersonal competence, characteristics found important to adolescent romantic relationships were grouped into two categories: individual characteristics of the adolescent and contextual factors of the adolescent's life. Individual characteristics included the sub-factors of relationship cognitions, emotional awareness, rejection sensitivity, personality traits, and sexual conservativism. Contextual factors were deal with the adolescent's family of origin and same sex/best friendships. An item pool previously created for a similar questionnaire (RELATE for Adolescents, Young, 2002) was reviewed, edited, and expanded to be made suitable for the purposes of READY-A. The items were reviewed by a panel of experts (all professors with extensive background in premarital research and members of the RELATE Board) in order to assess face validity and content validity and to omit items deemed inappropriate, repetitive or unnecessary. This process resulted in the creation of a 141-item questionnaire, READY-A. Additional research will need to further validate READY-A, test for reliability, and further refine the questionnaire through pilot testing with a group of adolescents. READY-A may be helpful to adolescents who are learning about what it takes to develop romantic relationship competence. The main purpose of READY-A is for educational settings; however, it could also be of use to family life educators, premarital counselors or clergy working with adolescents.