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This study explored ways in which a music therapy student could modify and improve her own clinical practice in order to facilitate client contribution in group music therapy in an acute adolescent inpatient unit. Through cycles of observation, evaluation, planning, and action, the music therapy student was able to examine her facilitation techniques in detail and modified them accordingly. There were six fortnightly cycles and in each cycle, the research journal, research notes, and video-recording were systematically reviewed by the music therapy student herself, and themes were drawn out to contribute to the planning of the next cycle. The results suggested that while direct questions predominated at the start of study, the music therapy student was able to adopt a variety of other techniques by the end of the research period, including self-disclosure, appropriate eye contact, and the shifting of responsibility. The music therapy student also found that her own anxiety level, which was often caused by periods of silence in music groups, also had an important impact on her ability to facilitate. The discussion addressed other factors that are believed to have contributed to the student?s ability to facilitate in group music therapy.

Background: Entrepreneurship potential amongst rural Nama youth should be considered a courageous idea to enhance the motivation and development of the community. At independence in 1990, Namibia developed its own economic and youth policies which were drafted in alignment with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which address concerns about the role rural young people, can play in their own communities. Theoretical Background: This paper explores the role of indigenous entrepreneurship as it pertains to development amongst rural youth in Namibia. It considers the cultural context within which entrepreneurship takes place. To identify and understand the cultural context, the study draws upon the theoretical frameworks of Geert Hofstede, specifically his continuum of individualism/collectivism. The need to continually incorporate new aspects whilst consciously maintaining the traditional, reflects a key African concept, that of "Ubuntu" (unmuntu ngumutu ngabantu). Methodology: An empirical investigation of rural youth in Arandis village was conducted. To explore the significance of entrepreneurship, culture and the notion of Ubuntu in Africa, a comprehensive study of stakeholder views at both a community and national level was also carried out. These investigations were guided by questionnaires, in-depth interviews (supported by story-telling), playback national radio interviews, a panel discussion and a review of Namibian policy documents. Analysis of data also explored practical initiatives and possible forms of enterprise which could contribute to the creation of opportunity for youth in Arandis and in Namibia. Findings: The major findings of this thesis are that: entrepreneurship in Namibia is defined by participants and stakeholders as the efforts made by an individual in accumulating the necessary resources to benefit the community; rural young people in Arandis are potential entrepreneurs (illustrated, by the strong passion they showed to be role models in their community and their strong sense of cultural identity).

In broad terms, parentification can be defined as a child taking on the role of parent to his or her own parents; though in reality the construct is more complex. Although related constructs (e.g. boundary transgressions, role reversal, ‘hurried child’) have been discussed in the literature for many years, the term ‘parentification’ per se is a relatively new one within the field of psychological research and empirical studies are still limited. When researching in the field of parentification, an issue that is apparent is the lack of adequate measures of parentification available for children and adolescents. The few measures of parentification that exist have been (a) retrospective (asking adults to recall levels of responsibility within their families of origin as adolescents) and/or (b) uni-dimensional (measuring parentification as a single score rather than taking into account different facets such as confidant to one’s own parents, mediator between conflicting parents, ‘pseudo-parents’ to siblings, or excessive household responsibilities). The first aim of the current research was to develop a reliable and valid multidimensional measure of parentification that was appropriate for completion by children and adolescents. The series of studies that follow utilise this newly developed parentification scale to examine parentification of adolescents aged 10-16 years from families undergoing parental divorce. A comparison group of children from two-parent continuously married (not remarried) families were included. A previously validated uni-dimensional measure of parentification, the Parentification Questionnaire – Youth (PQ-Y: Godsall & Jurkovic, 1995) was also used throughout the studies (although in the current sample, this measure was multidimensional, yielding two factors labelled Alienation and Tangible Tasks). Broad research goals of the studies are: 1. to examine parentification (and its association with family functioning and sibling relationship quality) from the perspective of multiple family members, 2. to explore parentification differences between families on variables of age, sex, birth order, family size and parental marital status, and 3. to assess the extent to which parentification affects adolescent psychological adjustment, and how burden of parentification may mediate the relationship between parentification and psychological adjustment. Parents and children aged 10-16 years from 304 families (127 divorcing; 177 married) were invited to participate in a 12-month study of parentification that included questions about demographics, family responsibilities, family functioning, adolescent adjustment, and sibling relationships. In addition, in divorcing families, both parents and one child (target child) were invited to be interviewed regarding their experiences surrounding the separation and divorce. The measure of parentification designed for the current research adapted the multidimensional, retrospective measure written by Mika, Bergner and Baum (1987). This new measure was labelled the Youth Parentification Scale (YPS), and findings suggest that it is a reliable measure of parentification in the current sample of married and divorcing families. Results revealed that children from divorcing families and girls reported higher levels of parentification (across various factors). Results on multiple perspectives within the family were mixed. In general, children were more likely than their parents to report higher levels of parentification within the family, although this effect differed slightly dependent upon parental marital status. Siblings who reported offering support to other members of the family also rated their relationship with their sibling as warmer: this result held true for both firstand second-born children. Additionally, both first- and second-born children agreed that parentification may affect the relative status/power between siblings. While few direct associations between parentification and adjustment existed, negative adjustment outcomes (higher anxiety, higher depression and lower self-esteem) were evident when the burden associated with increased responsibility was taken into account. Taking on the role of confidant to one’s parents, playing ‘pseudo-parent’ to one’s siblings, or feeling alienated within one’s family of origin was associated with higher levels of burden, which in turn led children to report higher depression and anxiety and lower self-esteem. Additionally, taking on a parentified role was associated with higher levels of burden, which in turn was associated with reports of lower levels of family functioning (i.e. lower intimacy, higher conflict, and a more controlling parenting style). The current research has implications for the development and refinement of future measures of parentification for use in empirical studies. The Youth Parentification Scale showed that different facets of parentification do seem to exist, and that offering comfort and support to mothers or fathers seems to have an association with various aspects of adjustment, sibling relationships and general family functioning. Alienation (a factor emerging from the PQ-Y), while not actually associated with increased responsibility or parentification per se, showed associations with parentification that indicate that this may be an important construct to include in future attempts at developing a comprehensive measure of parentification. Additionally, the current research unveiled findings that may have clinical importance. Findings revealed that while children from divorcing families did exhibit higher scores on various scales of parentification, outcomes were not necessarily worse for these children than for children within married families who were similarly parentified. Adolescence is a time of emotional growth when some age-appropriate adoption of adult responsibility is warranted; and in fact for children undergoing the transition of parental separation and divorce, adoption of extra responsibilities may be adaptive, perhaps even protective inasmuch as it may bring the child closer to parents during a time when anxiety about family dissolution is high. Further studies (preferably longitudinal) exploring the adaptive facets of parentification are warranted.

Adults can mentally relive experiences from their past and anticipate possible future events, a process called mental time travel (MTT). Recently, several theorists have argued that the ability to mentally travel through time may not emerge until 3- to 5-years of age. This proposal is based on evidence from a wide range of research, including investigations into children’s recall, planning and differentiation of the times of events in the past and the future. However, as yet there has been no dedicated effort to find out how and when MTT develops. The current series of studies brought together a wide range of resources with the aim of designing a series of novel paradigms to measure aspects of MTT development between 3- and 5-years of age. The first of these novel approaches asked children to report events that occurred to them “yesterday” and would occur to them “tomorrow”, revealing that by 4- to 5-years of age most children could accurately do so. Another series of studies examined children’s ability to anticipate a different, future situation, finding that only by 4- to 5-years did children’s behaviour reflect differences in an anticipated future environment. Subsequent studies focusing on children’s discrimination of past and future also suggested that by 4- to 5-years children could distinguish the different causal impact of past and future events on the present. Another task revealed that during the preschool years children become better at differentiating the times of events from throughout their own lifespan. These new data provide support for the claim that the ability to mentally travel into one’s own past and future emerges during the preschool years. This thesis describes the first directed investigation into the development of MTT as a whole, bringing together much of the empirical and theoretical literature for the first time. The tasks designed are new approaches to investigating MTT and represent a starting point for future research. This thesis also introduces and discusses theories for the development of MTT, aiming to stimulate discussion not just of when it emerges, but how, and what processes may underlie the transition.

Adults can mentally relive experiences from their past and anticipate possible future events, a process called mental time travel (MTT). Recently, several theorists have argued that the ability to mentally travel through time may not emerge until 3- to 5-years of age. This proposal is based on evidence from a wide range of research, including investigations into children’s recall, planning and differentiation of the times of events in the past and the future. However, as yet there has been no dedicated effort to find out how and when MTT develops. The current series of studies brought together a wide range of resources with the aim of designing a series of novel paradigms to measure aspects of MTT development between 3- and 5-years of age. The first of these novel approaches asked children to report events that occurred to them “yesterday” and would occur to them “tomorrow”, revealing that by 4- to 5-years of age most children could accurately do so. Another series of studies examined children’s ability to anticipate a different, future situation, finding that only by 4- to 5-years did children’s behaviour reflect differences in an anticipated future environment. Subsequent studies focusing on children’s discrimination of past and future also suggested that by 4- to 5-years children could distinguish the different causal impact of past and future events on the present. Another task revealed that during the preschool years children become better at differentiating the times of events from throughout their own lifespan. These new data provide support for the claim that the ability to mentally travel into one’s own past and future emerges during the preschool years. This thesis describes the first directed investigation into the development of MTT as a whole, bringing together much of the empirical and theoretical literature for the first time. The tasks designed are new approaches to investigating MTT and represent a starting point for future research. This thesis also introduces and discusses theories for the development of MTT, aiming to stimulate discussion not just of when it emerges, but how, and what processes may underlie the transition.

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