国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

Adolescent pregnancy has been a global phenomenon of great concern for a considerable time. Adolescent pregnancy and parenting can lead to negative consequences for both adolescents and their infants in health, psychological, developmental and educational spheres. In South Africa recent media reporting has pointed out that adolescent pregnancy at times culminates in infant abandonment. Adolescence is a difficult transition period and the added stress of pregnancy and parenting creates specific challenges. Adolescent parents’ conflicting roles as adolescents, striving for independence, and as parents, who have to care for their children in a selfless manner, have been shown to complicate their lives significantly. Research has indicated that adolescent pregnancy mostly occurs in resource-poor, black, rural, or semi-rural communities. Support for pregnant and parenting adolescents in such communities seems to be minimal, and research on experiences of adolescent pregnancy and parenting in the South African context is scant. Therefore the aim of this study was to explore late adolescents’ (18-22) experiences of their pregnancy and parenting during early adolescence (12-18). The research context was a resource-poor community, namely Sir Lowry’s Pass Village in the Helderberg basin in the Western Cape. The researcher wanted to shed light on the particular challenges and strengths of participants, to inform practice and make suggestions so as to promote support for such parents. From the findings of this study it became clear that participants found adolescent pregnancy and parenting to be a challenging experience. They made mention of various factors complicating their experience of pregnancy and parenting, such as their socio-economic circumstances; stigma experienced from the community, family, peers, and educational and health-related systems; loss and sacrifices; lack of support; and feelings of powerlessness. They felt overwhelmed by their parenting experiences as a result of lack of parenting skills, and the fact that their parental rights were often not respected. However, pregnancy and parenting were also viewed as positive and inspiring in that adolescent parents viewed their children as a source of comfort. Furthermore, they indicated that parenting was more manageable with support, and that becoming parents rendered them more responsible individuals. These findings concur with prior research on adolescent pregnancy and parenting. This study adds value to the field of adolescent pregnancy and parenting in that prior findings were corroborated, and that an adolescent father’s perspective was included. Research on adolescent fathers in the South African context is limited. This study provides a clearer understanding of pregnant and parenting adolescents’ needs and what they find supportive, which could assist health care professionals, welfare organisations, schools, and significant others in supporting them more adequately. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Adolescent pregnancy has been a global phenomenon of great concern for a considerable time. Adolescent pregnancy and parenting can lead to negative consequences for both adolescents and their infants in health, psychological, developmental and educational spheres. In South Africa recent media reporting has pointed out that adolescent pregnancy at times culminates in infant abandonment. Adolescence is a difficult transition period and the added stress of pregnancy and parenting creates specific challenges. Adolescent parents’ conflicting roles as adolescents, striving for independence, and as parents, who have to care for their children in a selfless manner, have been shown to complicate their lives significantly. Research has indicated that adolescent pregnancy mostly occurs in resource-poor, black, rural, or semi-rural communities. Support for pregnant and parenting adolescents in such communities seems to be minimal, and research on experiences of adolescent pregnancy and parenting in the South African context is scant. Therefore the aim of this study was to explore late adolescents’ (18-22) experiences of their pregnancy and parenting during early adolescence (12-18). The research context was a resource-poor community, namely Sir Lowry’s Pass Village in the Helderberg basin in the Western Cape. The researcher wanted to shed light on the particular challenges and strengths of participants, to inform practice and make suggestions so as to promote support for such parents. From the findings of this study it became clear that participants found adolescent pregnancy and parenting to be a challenging experience. They made mention of various factors complicating their experience of pregnancy and parenting, such as their socio-economic circumstances; stigma experienced from the community, family, peers, and educational and health-related systems; loss and sacrifices; lack of support; and feelings of powerlessness. They felt overwhelmed by their parenting experiences as a result of lack of parenting skills, and the fact that their parental rights were often not respected. However, pregnancy and parenting were also viewed as positive and inspiring in that adolescent parents viewed their children as a source of comfort. Furthermore, they indicated that parenting was more manageable with support, and that becoming parents rendered them more responsible individuals. These findings concur with prior research on adolescent pregnancy and parenting. This study adds value to the field of adolescent pregnancy and parenting in that prior findings were corroborated, and that an adolescent father’s perspective was included. Research on adolescent fathers in the South African context is limited. This study provides a clearer understanding of pregnant and parenting adolescents’ needs and what they find supportive, which could assist health care professionals, welfare organisations, schools, and significant others in supporting them more adequately. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

Sexual minority adolescents are at higher risk for a variety of difficulties, including traditional victimization and depression. Also, cybervictimization has been associated with higher rates of depression. However, little attention has been paid to investigating the relations between sexual orientation, cybervictimization, and depressive symptoms, especially within the developmental stage of late adolescence. In fact, very little cybervictimization research has been conducted within this age group due to an assumption that cyberbullying is a problem only seen in middle school and high school. One aim of the current study was to determine whether sexual minority older adolescents are at greater risk for cybervictimization than their heterosexual counterparts. Another aim was to identify the specific sexual orientation and gender categories that were associated with the highest levels of cybervictimization. The study also was intended to examine whether current cybervictimization predicts depressive symptoms above and beyond other predictors, such as current traditional victimization and perceptions of high school cybervictimization. Another goal was to determine whether current cybervictimization interacts with these variables to predict depressive symptoms. The final aim of the study was to investigate whether the relation between cybervictimization and depressive symptoms differed between sexual minority and heterosexual participants. The findings from this study demonstrate that older sexual minority individuals, particularly those who identify as homosexual, are at increased risk for cybervictimization. Also, current traditional victimization and cybervictimization interacted to predict depressive symptoms. The importance of current cybervictimization also was highlighted by the finding that the highest levels of depression were associated with high levels of current cybervictimization, with or without high levels of high school cybervictimization. Finally, the relation between cybervictimization and depressive symptoms did not differ significantly between sexual minority and heterosexual participants. This study examined pressing questions that were previously unanswered in the literature, and the implications for future research, cyberbullying interventions, and societal awareness are vast. This study should be used as a foundation for further investigation on both cyberbullying in late adolescence and cyberbullying among sexual minority individuals. Also, the findings from this study should be applied to the development of cyberbullying interventions for older adolescents with special consideration given to the applicability to the sexual minority population.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of two forms of perspective-taking training on interpersonal and ideological identities of 18- to 21-year-old college students. The primary predictions of the study were that social perspective-taking training would have its greater effect on interpersonal identity and that ideological perspective-taking training would have its greater effect on ideological identity. Ninety-six subjects were pretested for the study. Subject loss occurred due to attrition and the elimination of subjects who scored above set criterion for inclusion in the study. A total of 50 participants who were assigned to one of two treatment groups or to the control group completed the study. Both experimental and control subjects were engaged for two one-hour sessions per week for four weeks. Subjects completed posttesting the week following the last week of training. Nonparametric tests and repeated measures analysis of variance were computed for the pretest and posttest scores. Advances in ideological identity were observed for both the social and ideological perspectivetaking groups. Neither training was effective in promoting interpersonal identity. There was some evidence that formal operational skills also were advanced from social perspective-taking training. The validity and reliability of the measures used were discussed in conjunction with discussion of the findings. Implications for future research and clinical applications were presented.

Nonclinical panic attacks have been defined as "panic reported by individuals not seeking treatment" (Norton, Cox, & Malan, 1992). The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of nonclinical panic attacks and associated symptomatology in a university sample of 576 late adolescents (ages 18-19), and to compare the effectiveness of two group treatments [Education/Support (ES) and Cognitive-Behavioral (CBT)] and a self-monitoring Waitlist (WL) condition in reducing the frequency and severity of nonclinical panic attacks, daily anxiety, and associated symptomatology. Nonpanickers (71.4% of the sample) reported no history of panic on the Panic Attack Questionnaire (PAQ; Cox, Norton, & Swinson, 1992). Past Panickers (16.5%) reported at least one panic attack prior to the past month. Recent Panickers (12.2%) reported at least one panic attack in the past month. Recent Panickers evidenced higher levels of trait anxiety, state anxiety, and depression, with a trend toward higher levels of anxiety sensitivity and internal negative attributions, relative to both Past Panickers and Nonpanickers, who did not differ. Thirty-four Recent Panickers were randomly assigned to the WL, ES, or CBT conditions. The entire sample, regardless of condition, showed a reduction in frequency of panic attacks, as well as their associated symptoms and cognitions, severity of daily anxiety, and three measures of general psychopathology (Le., depression, trait anxiety, and state anxiety). However, both active treatment groups were superior to the waitlist in producing improvement in panic-related self-efficacy, avoidance, and anxiety sensitivity. There was evidence that ES was slightly more effective than CBT in improving panicrelated self-efficacy, while CBT was somewhat more effective in reducing avoidance. Finally, while both treatment conditions combined fared significantly better than the waidist in producing high endstate functioning, assessed via a constellation of variables conceptually related to panic (i.e., panic-free status, high panic-related self-efficacy, low avoidance, low anxiety sensitivity), ES appeared most effective in promoting high ends tate functioning at Post-Treatment and Follow-Up (two months following treatment). Implications of these findings for the treatment of nonclinical panic attacks in late adolescence are discussed. / Ph. D.

Same-sex experiences are more prevalent than is thought. Individuals often engage in same-sex behaviours in order to understand their same-sex attractions, which may result in the incorrect integration of a homosexual or bisexual sexual identity. Same-sex behaviour may also lead to feelings of guilt and shame, and can result in confusion regarding sexual identity, which could ultimately influence the successful integration of a sexual identity (a key developmental task during adolescence) and subsequent stages of an individual’s life. This study investigated how young males experienced their sexual identity after having same-sex experiences. In order to better understand these experiences, this study also looked at sexual identity and its development from a psychosocial approach. In addition, this study also took a phenomenological approach into account to better understand how young males understand their same-sex experiences within their socio-cultural context. The qualitative research method was used because it aims to understand how people make sense of their everyday lives and foregrounds participants’ perceptions and experiences. When researching human behaviour, context and behaviour cannot be separated and therefore a phenomenological design was used. The population included five young males who lived in the Boland and Northern suburbs of the Western Cape and who have had same-sex experiences. The participants were selected utilizing the non-probability (convenient purposive) sampling technique, however, the sampling procedure also made use of snowball sampling. Biographically, the participants were between the ages of 18 and 24, and had different sexual orientations. The participants included black and white students who spoke Afrikaans or English, and originated from different provinces in South Africa. Data were collected through a two-part semi-structured interview. The first interview focused on questions about the participants’ sexual preference and identity, same-sex experiences and support system. During the second interview participants were asked to make a collage representing how they viewed their sexual identity with regards to the same-sex experiences they have had. This interview also focused on member checking. The collages and member checking served as forms of triangulation. Data were transcribed and analysed by means of a content analysis that focused on four main categories. These categories corresponded to four main questions that formed part of the first interview. The researcher concluded that each participant experienced his sexual identity and same-sex encounters differently and that none of them experienced the development of their sexual identity as ‘natural’ or as something that was present from birth. They all experienced confusion and conflict about their sexual preference because it was in contrast to their sociocultural context. Same-sex experiences were the result of confusion but also caused confusion and this confusion was mostly experienced in the earlier life stages. More research is needed on the heterosexual identity development of heterosexual identified individuals who have same-sex experiences, so that these individuals can also be accommodated within a sexuality. The development of programmes for therapeutic and/or educational purposes, that focus on the sexual identity and sexual identity development of adolescents, must also be considered in future research. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The shift from Modernism to Postmodernism had a dramatic impact on different spheres of life, especially on premarital relationships. The Song of songs has been used as basis theory in this study on premarital relationships. The study attempts to lay down guidelines for premarital relationships from the conviction that human relationships are grounded in God's love for man. The perspectives which have became evident are developed and evaluated through the meta-theory. Any study on young people in relationships must consider changes in society due to the fact that young people perform an important seismographic function. This is due to the fact that they are not only deeply affected by these changes but are also acting as indicators for the demands and challenges that changing times has on people and relationships. The lifecycle from late adolescence to early adulthood is studied. Special focus is given to different areas of development in this lifecycle as well as to different relationships young people are involved with. Qualitative interviews have been used to determine the effect of the Postmodernism and the specific lifecycle on young people in premarital relationships. A practice-orientated theoretical framework for pastoral guidance of young people in premarital relationships is drafted. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Same-sex experiences are more prevalent than is thought. Individuals often engage in same-sex behaviours in order to understand their same-sex attractions, which may result in the incorrect integration of a homosexual or bisexual sexual identity. Same-sex behaviour may also lead to feelings of guilt and shame, and can result in confusion regarding sexual identity, which could ultimately influence the successful integration of a sexual identity (a key developmental task during adolescence) and subsequent stages of an individual’s life. This study investigated how young males experienced their sexual identity after having same-sex experiences. In order to better understand these experiences, this study also looked at sexual identity and its development from a psychosocial approach. In addition, this study also took a phenomenological approach into account to better understand how young males understand their same-sex experiences within their socio-cultural context. The qualitative research method was used because it aims to understand how people make sense of their everyday lives and foregrounds participants’ perceptions and experiences. When researching human behaviour, context and behaviour cannot be separated and therefore a phenomenological design was used. The population included five young males who lived in the Boland and Northern suburbs of the Western Cape and who have had same-sex experiences. The participants were selected utilizing the non-probability (convenient purposive) sampling technique, however, the sampling procedure also made use of snowball sampling. Biographically, the participants were between the ages of 18 and 24, and had different sexual orientations. The participants included black and white students who spoke Afrikaans or English, and originated from different provinces in South Africa. Data were collected through a two-part semi-structured interview. The first interview focused on questions about the participants’ sexual preference and identity, same-sex experiences and support system. During the second interview participants were asked to make a collage representing how they viewed their sexual identity with regards to the same-sex experiences they have had. This interview also focused on member checking. The collages and member checking served as forms of triangulation. Data were transcribed and analysed by means of a content analysis that focused on four main categories. These categories corresponded to four main questions that formed part of the first interview. The researcher concluded that each participant experienced his sexual identity and same-sex encounters differently and that none of them experienced the development of their sexual identity as ‘natural’ or as something that was present from birth. They all experienced confusion and conflict about their sexual preference because it was in contrast to their sociocultural context. Same-sex experiences were the result of confusion but also caused confusion and this confusion was mostly experienced in the earlier life stages. More research is needed on the heterosexual identity development of heterosexual identified individuals who have same-sex experiences, so that these individuals can also be accommodated within a sexuality. The development of programmes for therapeutic and/or educational purposes, that focus on the sexual identity and sexual identity development of adolescents, must also be considered in future research. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014