Asthma is one of the most frequently reported types of chronic illness in children. In an attempt to increase our understanding of childhood asthma in general, and of the individual variations in its clinical severity and the epidemiological variations in its prevalence, a series of social psychological investigations were conducted. Thirty children with asthma and their mothers were interviewed about various facets of the illness. Content analysis of their replies showed that the children with the more mild clinical symptoms, and their mothers, had the more optimistic and sophisticated views of the nature of, and treatment for, asthma. It is suggested that such views may actually help diminish the clinical severity of the children's asthma. The thirty children with asthma and thirty others without asthma answered a test designed to examine how 'responsible' they considered children with and without asthma to be. The children without asthma praised children with asthma more than they blamed them, whereas they blamed children without asthma more than they praised them. This attributional tendency would discourage children without asthma from interacting with children who they perceived as having asthma. The children with asthma, themselves,praised both children with and without asthma more than they blamed them. This attributional tendency would enduce a feeling of helplessness, a sensitivity to adverse comments, and a desire for frequent praise among children with asthma. Both groups of children described their friends and their families. The children with asthma were less able to differentiate their friends and their siblings from themselves and their environment. These children would be awkward in their interaction with their peers and siblings and would find it difficult to establish stable relationships with them. Their reported lack of participation in physical games would exaggerate these problems. The children with more severe clinical asthma reported certain peculiarities in their homelife which may be a reaction to the illness. Teachers answered a questionnaire about the children's classroom behaviour. The children with asthma were more often described as withdrawn and lacking in confidence. The children with more clinically severe asthma were more dissatisfied with school. In conclusion, the different findings are drawn together to provide a social psychological explanation of the different characteristics of childhood asthma. As a result, certain therapeutic strategies are suggested which might help diminish both the extent of the psychological problems of children with asthma and the clinical severity of their illness.

The study aimed to explore, describe and interpret the challenges of the parents who care for diabetic children. The study aimed to attempt to highlight relevant issues that may assist the diabetic team in developing guidelines in managing diabetic children. The data were collected by engaging in face to face in depth interviews with parents of diabetic children who attended the outpatient clinic at a hospital in Durban. The interviews were guided by an interview guide, which allowed the researcher to cover all relevant areas of interest in a logical and uniformed way. The sample consisted of 16 participants, which was racially mixed. The findings of the study revealed that parents who have diabetic children experience many challenges while some are able to incorporate it into their daily lives others continue to experience problems despite the team involvement and education. Diabetes is a life long disease that requires continued management which includes ongoing education, family support, finances and support from the diabetes team. The study also revealed that caring for a diabetic child is expensive and many families struggle to meet their dietary needs due to financial constraints. The finding further revealed that diabetic children are often affected by the diagnosis and many withdraw from family, friends and social activities. Healthy siblings sometimes do not understand the child’s diabetes. In some instances, the parents’ relationships are affected as couples do not have couple time and the family’s lives are altered and most schools have minimal knowledge of diabetes. Based on these findings, recommendations regarding the required information and assistance to be given to the diabetic patients and family members were formulated. Schools have a role to play and the larger communities require diabetes awareness. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

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The purpose of this research was to shed light on the factors that explain the differential achievement in science education between learner groups from different socio-economic backgrounds, through a cross-analysis of two case study schools in the Mafikeng area. It was hoped that a broader understanding of the distinctive factors that account for the achievement gap in science between learner groups from affluent communities and their impoverished counterparts would help in informing the relevant policy makers on the best systems to put in place to address this vexing phenomenon of achievement gap. A multi-faceted instrument technique, comprising a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, class observations, profile of science department and document reviews, was employed to gather data. The research paradigm that was used to underpin this study was the "emancipatory'' type since the issue under investigation was a social one and involved under-privileged individuals as well. The analysis of data was guided by the principles of social constructivist theory which incorporated both statistical, empiricist quantitative and the .qualitative analysis. The cross- analysis of the two case study narratives compared to and contrasted factors that underly leaner achievement in the natural sciences. The findings revealed that a wide variety of factors, all of which are direct manifestations of one's socio-economic standings. have a direct bearing on one 's scholastic achievement. This manifested itself in the form of, among others, the resources available at the school one attends, the quality of education (foundation stages) one received, the attitudes of educator one has, and of course, attitudes of the learner towards his/her school work. Furthermore, learner achievement was found to be consistent with the level of parental involvement in their children's education. Since the cross-analysis of the study revealed that disparity in the allocation of resources was one of the prime culprits in the creation and maintenance of the achievement gap, between learner groups from the two distinct socio-economic societies, it was recommended that some kind of parity be brought to prevail in that regard. Also recommended was the fact that educators and learners alike, especially from disadvantaged schools, recommit themselves to their school work. In addition, parents of learners from poor backgrounds should get involved, more than ever before, in their children 's school matters, in order to register some improvement in the quality of their education. Recommended for further study is the need to establish the factors that explain a differential achievement between schools in the same socio-economic band and the correlation between heredity and achievement. / Thesis (M. Ed.) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2004

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / Far reaching changes on educational, economic and social levels are at present taking place in the Republic of South- Africa. Perceptions with regard to discipline have not remained untouched in this process. The issue of discipline is the root of many problems and much stress in parents, educators and children. This study forms part of a research project initiated by the Department of Educational Sciences at the Rand Afrikaans University. The aim of the project was to establish the prerequisites for disciplining in order to make it more effective and less problematic. The aim of this particular study is to establish how important the social facet of discipline is. Research has been done to establish whether educators (parents and teachers), during the act of disciplining, take cognisance of the effect of discipline on the person and his group. The aspects of the social facet of discipline that received attention in the literature study are amongst others, peer-group pressure, social background of the child, relationship with members of the opposite sex, the child's status amongst his friends and discipline and the values of the community. Following the identification of the above mentioned factors, a questionnaire was compiled to establish perceptions regarding the importance of the social facet of discipline...

“We owe them fathers, and a family and loving homes they never knew because we know deep in our hearts that they are all our children too,” These are words from the musical Miss Saigon by Boubill and Schonberg as quoted by van Dyk (2005:278) which prompted the researcher’s interest in the study. According to a study by Kimane and Mturi (2000:8), a good number of AIDS orphaned adolescents have the responsibility of the care of siblings. Moreover, they are economically active, forced to earn income for their own survival or for their unemployed siblings or extended family household. They are the young people one sees in the streets of Lesotho’s principle cities, selling fruit or collecting fares in local taxis. For girls, the situation is particularly dire. While they too sell goods on the streets or some are employed as domestic workers, many find the lure of commercial sex work and the promise of cash irresistible (Kimane and Mturi, 2000:8). However, Fraser (2004:143) denotes that some children, when faced with stressful conditions, construct socially adverse situations as challenges and opportunities and access adequate amounts of available individual and environmental resources. This general frame of reference through which individuals appraise and react to events and situations in the environment is termed resiliency (Fraser, 2004:143). The aim of the study was to explore and describe the experiences of AIDS orphaned adolescents. A qualitative approach with an exploratory-descriptive research design was employed to meet the aims of the study. The research was conducted in Thaba-Bosiu, Maseru. Purposive sampling was used to access a research sample with the assistance of a service rendering organisation in Lesotho. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews with eight AIDS orphaned adolescents between the ages of 15 -18 years. Data was analysed according to the framework provided by Tesch (in Creswell, 1994:153) and Guba’s model (in Krefting, 1991:217) was employed for data verification. It was anticipated that the study would contribute to the recommendations towards the development of more effective programmes for the AIDS orphans in Lesotho. In addition, undertaking this research was viewed as critical as it would provide the much needed scientific basis on which the Social Work professional body would be able to reflect on its AIDS orphan support strategies.

Children's classroom engagement is important for their learning and academic achievement. Extending Kindermann's (2007) study of peer influence on adolescents' engagement to an ethnically homogeneous sample, the current study examined how different aspects of diversity affect the peer influence process. Three types of diversity were considered: ethnic diversity existing at the school level, relational diversity at the peer network level, and motivational diversity at the group level. Ethnic diversity was observed in the student body as well as among school teachers and staff. Relational diversity was measured by z-scores resulting from binomial tests reflecting how closely two pair of individuals were connected in the peer network. Finally, motivational diversity was measured as the dispersion (SD) around peer group mean engagement levels, thereby reflecting the diversity of engagement within each peer group. The results indicated that adolescents in this ethnically diverse middle school were overall highly engaged; their engagement patterns were comparable to previous findings from homogeneous samples consisting largely of European American adolescents. Also consistent with prior findings, the mean engagement levels of students' peer group members were a significant predictor of changes in adolescents' own engagement, which suggests peer influence on adolescents' classroom engagement. Although previous literature suggests that individuals in diverse settings tend to be less well connected to one another, the adolescents in this ethnically diverse school were well connected with their peers. Unexpectedly, almost all students' peer groups were ethnically diverse. When the impact of relational diversity was examined to see whether strongly connected individuals exerted more influence on each other than weakly connected individuals (differential influence hypothesis), the results indicated that the strength of connections among peer group members did not appear to play a significant role in the magnitude of their influences on each other's changes in engagement. Nevertheless, the present study suggested new pathways and methods to examine differential peer influences. Finally, the impact of motivational diversity of peer groups was examined using a moderated model based on an interaction effect between peer group motivational diversity and individuals' initial engagement. The results indicated that the positive impact of peer group motivational diversity was moderated by individuals' initial engagement status, such that initially low engaged adolescents benefited from diversely engaged peer groups, whereas peer group motivational diversity had a comparatively small negative effect on initially highly engaged students.

This study has found that negative body image is present in third graders, as young as seven years of age. One interesting finding was that a high number of students who viewed body-oriented magazines had a negative body image.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Theory and Policy, School of Economics and Business Science, University of the Witwatersrand, June 2017 / South Africa has uniquely high rates of parental absence from children’s lives. Apartheid-era restrictions on population movement and residential arrangements contributed to family fragmentation, particularly when adults – mainly men – migrated to work in cities and on the mines. Despite the removal of legal impediments to permanent urban settlement and family coresidence for Africans, patterns of internal and oscillating labour migration have endured, dual or stretched households continue to link urban and rural nodes, and children have remained less urbanised than adults. Importantly for children, migration rates among prime-age women have increased, alongside falling marriage rates, declining remittances and persistently high unemployment. Households, and women especially, may have to make difficult choices about how to manage the competing demands of child care and income generation. It is the mobility patterns and household configurations arising from these strategies that are the focus of this research. The thesis uses a mixed-method approach to explore children’s geographic mobility and care arrangements. Using micro data spanning two decades, it traces children’s co-residence arrangements with parents and describes changes in household form from the perspective of children. It maps recent patterns of child migration within South Africa using four waves of a national panel study and compares these with patterns of maternal migration to reveal various dynamics of migration in mother–child dyads: co-migration, sequential migration, independent migration, and immobility. The child-focused analysis augments the existing migration literature, which has tended to focus on adult labour migration and ignore children or regard them as appendages of migrants. A single, detailed case study spanning three generations of mothers adds texture to the analysis by demonstrating the complexity of household strategies and plans for child care in the context of female labour migration. This in turn helps to reflect on the value of micro data for describing and analysing household form and migration patterns, particularly among children. / XL2018