The need for personal guidance was identified amongst senior primary school pupils within a specific environment but no applicable programme was found and a programme needed to be designed. A literature study investigated the development of senior primary children, the field of guidance and five need areas to include in a guidance programme. Guidelines for designing a programme were also identified. An empirical study examined guidance needs of the pupils through a questionnaire administered to them, their parents, teachers, and older pupils_. Senior primary pupils were not able to provide clear information as to their needs. Older pupils and parents did identify certain need areas. Based on this, and on the literature, plans . to draw up a guidance programme to include all five need areas could continue. An introductory programme would also be run for parents and senior primary pupils. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

M.A. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Cur. / The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the role of significantothers in sex education of the Vha-Venda youth and to describe principles of managing sex education of the youth by community nurses. The researcher's view was that if sexuality education of the youth was done effectively, the youth might acquire the necessary knowledge of sex that would help them to deal with the social, physical and emotional demands of sexuality as they occur. This could reduce the high level of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases among the youth. An exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was followed to achieve the aim of this study. Data was obtained from the youth, parents, guardians community nurses through focus group interviews. The main categories that emerged from the process of data analysis are as follows: The content of sex information given to the youth, the role of significant others in sex education of the youth, strategies that are used in providing sex education to the youth and obstacles in providing sex education to the youth. The results of this study show that the content of sexuality information given to the youth is not adequate. The role of significant others in sexuality education of the youth was found to be educating, guiding, advising and listening to the youth when talking about sexuality issues. Mothers and teachers were identified to be the people mostly involved in sexuality education of the youth. The study also revealed that sexuality' education of the Vha-Venda Youth is started very late in a child's life. Non effective strategies of providing sexuality information are used by parents and guardians. All three groups of respondents identified common obstacles in providing sexuality education of the youth. The results of this study and literature control were used as the basis for description of principles of managing sexuality education of the youth effectively by the community nurses . Recommendations ensuing from this study are that community nurses should involve themselves in assessment of need for help and assist the youth and parents, particularly mothers and teachers according to their needs. Nursing curricula should include guidelines on sexuality education and facilitation of parent's role as primary sexuality educators of their own children. The findings of this study can be considered for designing in-service education programs for community nurses and the curriculum for the training of community nurses in under and post graduate level. Further research needs to be done to assess if the principles described in this study are effective in managing sexuality education of the youths.

M.Cur. (Psychiatric Nursing) / In this research an attempt was made to identify manifestations of depression in black children and give mental health education to their mothers in an attempt to alleviate the state of depression in the children. A questionnaire was structured as a tool for collection data. The instrument was based on a standardized depression scale which was used cross-culturally by the World Health Organization during 1983. The non-probability sampling procedure was carried out utilising a purposive sampling method in compiling an experimental and a control group of mothers of depressed children in a quasi-experimental research design. A mental health education programme on depession was developed which was given to mothers in the experimental group. The individual method of teaching was utilised based on adult education principles. At the end of the mental health education session, each mother got a brochure in the language preferred by the mother. Mothers from the control group did not have any discussions on depression. The study was done over the period of three months from 6 August 1988 to 26 October 1988. The analysis of gathered data was computerised using the Mann-Whitney U-test of SPSSX for the independent group and the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test for the dependent groups. The non-parametric statistics of the Z-va1ue and two-tailed probability was utilised. The findings on the comparison. between the experimental group pretest and the control group pretest revealed that there were not any statistical difference in eight of the ten variables of depression i.e. helplessness, anxiety, sleep disturbance, school problems, interpersonal relations, self concept, guilt feelings and the disturbance of perception. The other two variables, suicide and physical functioning, were not included because they showed significant statistical difference prior to experimentation. There was no significant statistical difference between the eight variables of the state of depression in the findings of the control group pretest with the control group post test. That means that if mothers of depressed children do not receive mental health education, the children's state of depression could remain the same. In conclusion, mental health education to mothers of depressed children seems to have a positive effect on a child's emotional stability. It can contribute substantially to diminishing the occurance of childhood depression.

PhDA / Department of Development Studies

The study focuses on the emotional experiences of parental bereavement of African adolescents who live in a rural environment. Findings revealed that the loss of a parent is very devastating for African adolescents. The adolescents received inadequate assistance from family, peers, community members or educators. It is essential after this study to uncover ways in which these adolescents could be assisted to cope with the loss of a parent who had been providing love, care, financial and material support, as well as safety and security. To gather data the researcher drew meaning from eight participants’ lived experiences from transcriptions of interviews with the participants. The participants, seven girls and one boy, were adolescents between the ages of twelve and fifteen years, who had lost their fathers. This study recommended that educators be equipped to take a major role in dealing with children in bereavement, since there are no educational psychologists or other professionals based in the school or neighbourhood. The community needs to be made aware of the plight of bereaved adolescents and should be introduced into giving positive and constructive assistance to these young people. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Specialisation in Guidance and Counselling)

The study focuses on the emotional experiences of parental bereavement of African adolescents who live in a rural environment. Findings revealed that the loss of a parent is very devastating for African adolescents. The adolescents received inadequate assistance from family, peers, community members or educators. It is essential after this study to uncover ways in which these adolescents could be assisted to cope with the loss of a parent who had been providing love, care, financial and material support, as well as safety and security. To gather data the researcher drew meaning from eight participants’ lived experiences from transcriptions of interviews with the participants. The participants, seven girls and one boy, were adolescents between the ages of twelve and fifteen years, who had lost their fathers. This study recommended that educators be equipped to take a major role in dealing with children in bereavement, since there are no educational psychologists or other professionals based in the school or neighbourhood. The community needs to be made aware of the plight of bereaved adolescents and should be introduced into giving positive and constructive assistance to these young people. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Specialisation in Guidance and Counselling)

The introduction of abortion legalisation in South Africa during 1997 gave rise to the need for pre- and post-abortion counselling. Two dominant counselling groups came to the fore namely pro-choice and pro-life, reflecting the respective stances of society on abortion. In order to answer the following research questions: "What value-challenges do abortion counsellors experience, if any?" and "What ways have they found in negotiating these challenges?" A narrative conversation was used to come to an understanding of these research questions in practice. Research was undertaken with counsellors from both pro-life and pro-choice stances. The influence of capitalism, patriarchy and religion on role players confronted with making decisions on abortion was explored. Pro-choice counsellors negotiated their values in terms of forgiveness based on the unconditional forgiveness they would expect from God and pro-life counsellors in terms of God's forgiveness for the client, accepting her own responsibility for the consequences of the abortion. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

Youth Centres such as Faure Youth Centre provide a challenge to questions such as violence and crime. This qualitative research journey started at Faure Youth Centre using narrative pastoral care and counselling and participatory action research to assist the young people there to find alternative ways of standing against violence and crime. Changing circumstances at Faure however, paved the way for the research to follow another direction. This resulted in different voices to emerge and for my family to receive an unexpected `gift' in the process. The `gift' that my pastoral care and counselling at Faure gave to my family initiated a process of change in us and transformed it into a spiralling journey of challenging patriarchal practices and finding alternative ways of living. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)

As sometime course facilitator of the Marriage Preparation Course of my faith community, an Anglican Church of Southern Africa, I had become curious as to what meaning the couples had constructed of their participation in these courses, particularly relating to both the content and style of facilitating the Course. The research finding determined that the main value of the Course had been that the group discussions enabled couples to explore their personal positions on a number of issues related to marriage. The adoption of participative action research as a broad model for the Course is recommended to encourage the engagement between premarital couples and the course facilitator to create/find knowledges and practices that will prepare them for marriage. Furthermore, the course facilitator should adopt a not-knowing, curious stance toward the elements of marriage under discussion, employing the narrative tools of externalisation and deconstructive questioning to facilitate the couples' meaning-making. / Practical Theology / M.Th.(Specialization in Pastoral Therapy)