Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / The following study aimed to explore the development of resilience within male youth, despite exposure to numerous factors traditionally classified as high-risk. The research focussed on the developmental process of six male youth who engaged in positive coping through actively seeking protection in a high-risk environment, in the form of a non government organization within their community. The study assumed that the active seeking of a protective environment by high-risk youth is an indication of resilience. A phenomenological approach was used to understand the processes that aided the development of resilience within the individuals, through semi-structured in-depth interview guides. Qualitative thematic analysis was utilized to attain and understand common themes. An ecosystemic approach was used in conceptualizing the findings of this research. Indications of resilient development within male youths, relating to systemic factors, which contributed to resilience were explored. The major findings of this research were congruent with past research, both in South Africa and internationally. Three primary themes of support, control, and security emerged from the analysis. The research findings indicated that individuals possessing an internal locus of control were able to cope with adversity and had hence developed resilience. The participants in this sample were confident in their abilities, possessed motivation and belief in success. Systemic factors that were elicited as important in the optimal development of resilience were belief in the youth’s ability, and faith in their capacity to achieve,as well as providing support and guidance to youth when needed. The research found that if youth were faced with factors understood as high-risk, and were able to overcome them, these risk factors served to further enhance resilience. This research offers researchers and community organizations further insight into effective intervention programs to promote optimal youth development in high-risk areas.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / This study aimed to (1) establish the conceptualization of youth violence perpetration within the literature; (2) explore identified community-level protective factors, (3) establish whether the interaction between community-level risk and protective factors are discussed, and (4) establish whether community-level protective factors are conceptualised within community resilience framework within the literature on youth violence. The research design of this study is a systematic review of literature focused on youth violence perpetration, community-level protective factors against perpetration of violence by youth, as well as community resilience. English-medium research literature published between Jan 1994 and Jan 2014 was reviewed. Databases that were searched are: Academic Search Premier, PsycArticles, MEDLINE, JSTOR, SocIndex, and SageOnline. Data extraction was done by two reviewers at three stages of review (abstract reading, title reading, and full-text reading), using three instruments for quality assessment across the three stages. Fifteen articles were deemed acceptable after review at the end of the three stages, achieving a threshold score of 50% or more, and these articles were used in the findings of this review. These primary studies were collated, systematically assessed, synthesised, and interpreted. Findings of this review indicate that youth violence perpetration is conceptualised within the research as various forms of violence committed by young people. The literature has suggested that youth violence perpetration may be as a result of a lack of social infrastructure and opportunities within impoverished communities. For this reason the provision of community resources, economic opportunity, educational and mentoring programmes, and subsequently the development of prosocial involvement/ interaction was suggested as strategies for intervention at a community level. Major findings of the study as well as the implications for practice and further research are discussed.

The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the relationship between resilient and less-resilient middle-adolescent learners and their township school context. This research was guided by Bioecological theory and the Resiliency Wheel programme to understand resilience as manifested in the proximal processes within the microsystems of the school and the family. The degree of resilience of learners was observed in behaviour and development outcomes inferred from personal characteristics and adverse family conditions demonstrated in the person, proximal processes, context and time. The study sequentially employed a mixed method approach of quantitative and qualitative research. In Phase 1, the construct ‘resilience’ was operationalised and defined in a Resilience Scale for Middle-adolescents in a Township School (R-MATS). The questionnaire was validated on 291 middle-adolescent learners in two township schools. In Phase 2, an Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA) was performed. Focus groups were conducted with 16 middle-adolescents in the two schools. In answer to the main research question, ‘How does the school influence the resilience of middle-adolescent learners in a black-only township school?’, it was found that the school environment can influence the resilience of middle-adolescent learners in township schools by providing or failing to provide a supportive teaching and learning environment with effective implementation of rules and educational policies, that provide for care and safety of its learners and ensure they realise their future goals. In answer to the sub-question, ‘What are middle-adolescent resilient learners’ experiences of their black-only township school system?’ it was found that the resilient middle-adolescent learners acknowledged the contribution of their school to their resilience and development. The learners were aware of the school policies and engaged with them to benefit from their schooling, but were critical of their school if they perceived a lack of provision and support by the school. In answer to the second sub-question, ‘What are middle-adolescent less-resilient learners’ experiences of their black-only township school system?’ it was found that the less-resilient learners experienced their school environment as less supportive. They struggled to access school resources and experienced the school as an environment where they could use their personalities to grow and develop, or just exist. Overall, it was found that township schools do have resources for their learners to use, but implementation of policy and the accessibility of resources are problems to less-resilient learners who struggle within their proximal processes in their school microsystem. Middleadolescent learners appreciate and require clearly defined rules, structure and consistent implementation to ensure a stable, supportive and caring learning and teaching environment to grant them opportunities for realising their future goals. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Behaviour difficulties displayed in childhood and adolescence have pervasive and long term effects into adulthood and across various domains of functioning (Healey, et al. 2004, Woodward, et al. 2002). The numbers of children who suffer with them remain worryingly high (Green et al. 2005). Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are considered particularly at risk of displaying behaviour difficulties; however, despite representing around one fifth of the school population (DfE 2011), little research to date has explicitly investigated these problems in this population. The present study therefore aimed to investigate risk, promotive and protective factors for behaviour difficulties in children with SEND across multiple ecological levels. Data were collected through a concurrent research project evaluating Achievement for All (Humphrey et al. 2011). The sample comprised children identified with SEND in years 1, 5, 7 and 10, from ten local authorities deemed representative of England. A final sample consisted of 2660 primary pupils nested in 248 primary schools and 1628 secondary pupils nested within 57 secondary schools. Predictor variables were measured at the individual and school levels at baseline, along with a teacher reported measure of behaviour difficulties which was assessed again eighteen months later. Analyses were carried out using multi-level modelling revealing that primary schools accounted for 15% and secondary schools 13% of the total variance in behaviour difficulties, with the remainder being at the individual level. Significant risk factors for these problems across both school types were: being male; eligibility for FSM; and being a bully. Risk factors specific to primary schools included being autumn born, being older in the school, having poor positive relationships, and attending schools with lower levels of academic achievement. Risk factors specific to secondary schools included being younger in the school, having poor attendance, having poor academic achievement, being a bystander to bullying and attending a larger school. Results showed evidence for a cumulative risk effect that increasing numbers of contextual risk factors, regardless of their exact nature, resulted in heightened behaviour difficulties. This relationship was non-linear with increasing risk factors in an individual’s background having a disproportional and detrimental increase in behaviour difficulties displayed. The specific type of risk was however, more important than number of risk factors present in an individual’s background in accounting for behaviour difficulties displayed. Finally, results revealed significant protective factors at the school level; specifically attending primary schools with high academic achievement and with more children on the SEND register at school action can protect against the display of behaviour difficulties when these children are at risk in terms of having poor positive relationships. Attending urban secondary schools can also protect against the display of behaviour difficulties, when these children are at risk in terms of having poor academic achievement. The implications of these findings are discussed along with directions for future research.

The current study examined the role of self-reported and child-reported maternal lack of acceptance in increasing the likelihood of developing internalizing and externalizing symptoms among children with ADHD symptomatology. The effects of a social desirability bias on mother’s self-reports of rejection were controlled for. Mother-child agreement about parenting behaviors like warmth/affection, hostility/aggression and indifference/neglect was also investigated. In addition, variables with the potential to affect agreement (i.e., parents’ social desirability bias, child age, child sex) were examined. Participants included 120 boys and 90 girls, 6 to 11 years old (M = 8.25, SD = 1.18) with and without ADHD and their primary parent/guardian (N = 209). Parent and child participants completed self-report instruments separately. Results indicate that the relationship between mother-and-child-reported ADHD symptoms and internalizing symptoms is strongest when mothers exhibit low levels of rejection. Among the ADHD subsample, maternal lack of acceptance acts as a risk factor by strengthening the relationship between hyperactive/impulsive symptoms and externalizing symptoms. In addition, mothers and their children report significantly different levels of parenting behaviors. Child age and child sex were significant predictors of parent-child disagreement.

The first of January 2018 an amendment of the Socialtjänstlag accrued stating that municipalities now have to provide care and treatment for individuals with a pathological gambling disorder. However in the spring of 2017 only 17 percent of the municipalities offered a specific treatment for gambling disorder. An assumed aftermath of the amendment is an increase of the workload for current gambling therapists and furthermore a rise in educating new additional gambling therapists. The aim of this study is to analyze what knowledge and which models of operation are fundamental factors that are required in managing a gambling treatment. The studies selection consisted of a total of five currently active gambling therapists employed in Region Skåne and Malmö Stad. The empirical material has been collected through thematic semi-structured interviews that took about 60 minutes each. Then a thematic analysis of the transcribed interviews was performed. The result in this study showed that a gambling therapist should have knowledge concerning risk- and protective factors in relation to the gambling disorder, this to prevent the client from a possible relapse and to make the client aware about the risk factors directly connected to the gambling game-layout. Furthermore the results showed that one of the fundamental models of operation is to normalize the addiction to the client and raise the clients awareness of the patterns of behavior and consequences regarding the gambling. One model of operation that is also found to be fundamental is for the gambling therapist to have a pedagogical approach towards the client. Thus for the results of this study and former research have shown that people with a gambling disorder have an impaired metacognitive capability regarding their decisions.

abstract: Small island developing states (SIDS) are on the very frontlines of climate change (UNDP, 2017). Increasing attention on the unique social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities SIDS face has led to the discussion of the overall resilience of this population. Specifically, post-disaster studies of resilience carried out on SIDS have pointed to social resilience and education as two primary indicators of the overall resilience of these vulnerable communities (Aldrich, 2012; Muttarak & Lutz, 2014); yet social aspects of resilience related to SIDS have been underexplored, in comparison to ecological and economic themes (Berkes & Ross, 2013). Thus, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the personal and professional lived-natural disaster experiences of SIDS residents who are educators in order to understand their role in building social resilience within their community. In-depth interviews were conducted with educators employed at public and private schools in the United States Virgin Islands. The findings indicate that residents who are educators conceptualized resilience according to the following themes and sub-themes: (1) Social Process which involves Social Recovery and Community Alliances to ‘bounce back’ to an undefined level of normalcy and (2) Embodied Identity which was described in terms of Community Personifications of resilience as a trait in general citizens and educators. Participants identified internal and external resources as influential in how residents responded to natural disasters, by so doing, significantly contributing to positive post-disaster outcomes; these resources are referred to in the literature as protective factors (Rutter, 1985). The findings also demonstrate that educators had both a personal and professional responsibility to help their community contend with disasters, and this outcome is best explicated through the concept of protective factors. The research findings are significant because they: (1) contribute to the limited body of literature on social resilience in small island developing states, (2) demonstrate the importance of subjective perspectives in the development of disaster preparedness and management strategies for climate-vulnerable island populations, and (3) indicate a need for future research to use terminology which acknowledges the many ways in which disaster-prone communities have historically demonstrated and/or embodied resilience. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Community Resources and Development 2020

This study was designed to explore the role of community music therapy in enhancing protective factors for youth at risk, which are associated with, and predictive of resilience. Resilience is understood as adaptive behaviour when faced with adversity and threats to adaptation. This qualitative research utilised a case study of six learners from Heideveld Primary School, aged nine to eleven, who participated in nine group music therapy sessions. Video recordings of the sessions and portfolio entries created by the participants were analysed by means of thematic coding and categorising. Individual, relational, community and cultural protective factors, which can enable resilience, were observed in the music therapy space and were incorporated into eight themes that offered insight into the contextually pertinent factors that can promote resilience in relation to the types of adversity faced in the Heideveld ecology. It was also explored how these factors may be enhanced in a community music therapy process. The importance of affording experiences of safety and a nurturing support system in the music therapy space, as well as the ability of interactions within musicking to evoke and enhance protective factors, are highlighted. / Mini Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Music / MMus / Unrestricted

The purpose of the study was to identify the risk- and protective factors to the family identity experienced by same sex family systems, as well as the resilience processes implemented by these family systems. It forms part of a broader study, and aimed to provide additional information in order to support researchers, health care practitioners, and family therapists in working with same sex family systems. Secondary data analysis was conducted on 21 transcribed interviews, which included 14 lesbian, 4 gay, 1 bisexual, and 12 child participants living in the Western Cape and Gauteng provinces. Risk and protective factors were found within the individual, family, and community contexts. Resilience processes identified from the family resilience framework were clarity in communication, open emotional expression, positive outlook, meaning making through adversity, flexibility and connectedness. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted

The international recommendation for breastfeeding is that a baby should be exclusively breastfed for six months. Breastfeeding should be continued for up to two years and beyond with complementary foods (WHO, 2016). The United Kingdom exhibits some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world (HSCIC, 2012). The percentage of mothers who breastfed in the United Kingdom falls below 34% at six months, with only 1% of mothers breastfeeding exclusively at this point (HSCIC, 2012:31). This study sought to examine the protective factors and barriers for breastfeeding in the UK. Mums (n=28), their partners (n=6), and facilitators at breastfeeding support services (n=3) were interviewed (n=37) to learn more about breastfeeding experiences and related factors. Mums (n=28) also completed the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale Short-Form. Factors related to individual knowledge and beliefs, support from partners, family, and friends, clinical experiences, formal support, and stigma all played central roles in the mum’s breastfeeding experience. Efforts should be made to address these factors at community, organizational, and policy levels to improve breastfeeding in the UK.