The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore the dynamics of the parenting experience as it relates to parenting adolescents, with the specific aim of exploring and achieving an understanding of the particular experiences that parents of adolescents and their adolescent children describe; and of discovering how they have experienced a collaborative or participatory approach to the parenting process. The over-arching theoretical orientation is social constructionism. From a social constructionist point of view meaning making and knowledge is contextual, applying only to the specific context from which it is derived. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was the selected methodology, involving careful recording of participantsâ expressions in semi-structured interviews followed by thematic coding and analysis. Three groups of parents and three groups of adolescents, from three culturally and economically diverse communities in the Western Cape, South Africa, participated in focus groups and shared their experiences of the parenting process. Through the explication of the data five main themes emerged as being important to the participants: Connection and communication was seen as being of first importance, reflecting perceptions of effective parent-adolescent relationships as close and emotionally connected. Parental control and protection presented as an equally important and related area of concern, reflecting the belief that effective communication would enable a more collaborative, negotiated approach to issues of safety, limit setting, expectations and consequences. Some of the adolescent participants expressed a strong need for parents to respect their individuality and independence, which in their view was related to the development of trust as a two-way process. The fourth key theme was the need for information and services. The ability to access reliable information and services empowers both parents and adolescents to make effective and informed decisions. Finally, the role of fathers featured strongly in discussions with all groups and was identified as playing a significant role in parent-adolescent relationship satisfaction. This study illustrates a process by which families can be enabled to arrive at a deeper understanding of the needs and challenges specific to each family; and to collaborate in generating ideas that could contribute to a meaningful parenting plan or parenting practices that work for that particular family.

International and national studies indicate that exposure to traumatic events, substance use and abuse are considered important psychosocial issues among adolescents. It is therefore critical to investigate the risk and protective factors that may contribute to the development of this behavioural problem. The main purpose of this study was to determine whether coping could serve as a predictor for the exposure to traumatic events and substance abuse, while the role of ethnicity and gender was also investigated. To exposure to traumatic events and substance abuse into context, the extent of exposure to traumatic events and substance use among adolescents in the Free State was determined. A non-experimental research design, consisting of both correlational and criterion group components, was followed. The initial sample consisted of 496 grade 8 learners. Since only white and black adolescents are being investigated, the final sample consisted of 414 adolescents. The measuring instruments utilised were a self-compiled biographical questionnaire, a shortened form of the Exposure to Traumatic Events Scale (Exposure to Traumatic Events Scale)(McCallin, 1992), Millerâs (1985) Adolescent SASSI-A2 Questionnaire (Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory) and the Revised-Coping Schema Inventory (Coping Schemas Inventory) (Peacock, Reker & Wong, 2006). Statistically significant difference were found between the two ethnic groups in the use of situational coping strategies, meaning formation coping, as well as the use of religion as a coping strategy. It was further indicated that the use of coping strategies do not play a role in the connection with exposure to traumatic events and substance abuse. With regard to ethnic differences, white and black adolescents differed significantly in the prevalence of substance abuse, where black adolescents reported a much higher incidence. The use and abuse of alcohol had a especially high incidence, where just over half of the adolescents reported that they had used substances previously. Free State adolescents were found to experience high percentages of exposure to traumatic events. The most common traumatic event to which adolescents are exposed to, is the death of a loved one due to an accident, murder or suicide. Regarding ethnicity, black adolescents generally are the most affected in the different dimensions of exposure to traumatic events. Based on the results, it is suggested that intervention programmes focus on the development of emotionally regulating characteristics of the adolescent. Further research can investigate specific exposure to traumatic events. This research can provide important information that can be used to limit the effects of trauma exposure on adolescents.

South African adolescents - like their peers around the world â struggle to keep their emotional health intact. These problems are revealed by the youthsâ involvement in risky activities such as suicidal behaviour. The steady increase in suicidal behaviour in South Africa makes it imperative to understand the contextual resources and dispositional factors which can act as potential protectors in adolescent suicide; and also to understand the psychosocial risk factors experienced by South African adolescents at risk of suicide. Suicidal ideation has been proved to be a good predictor of suicide risk and was therefore taken as the criterion variable in the current study. A high level of suicide risk among the participants was determined by cut off scores of above 31; and low levels by cut off scores of below 16 on the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire. The adolescents in the present study with a high suicide risk (N=214) brings the incidence of suicidal ideation to 36% for the current study. The primary aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between a contextual resource (social support from family and friends) and suicidal ideation in a community sample of (N=594) grade 8 to 10 learners from an urban area in the Western Cape region, South Africa. Social support from family and friends was measured with The Perceived Social Support from Family and Friends Scale. A hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the support from family and friends explained 21,5% of the variance of suicidal ideation with support from family being more important than support from friends. The unique contribution of the present study was that social support differed for population groups but not for gender and family structure. Secondly, the present study aimed to determine how adolescents with high risk and those with low risk for suicide differed with regard to the dispositional factors of selfesteem, hope, sense of coherence and cognitive style. The 214 adolescents with a high suicide risk and 267 adolescents with a low suicide risk were compared in terms of these dispositional factors. The results from the MANOVA and ANOVA analyses indicated that adolescents with a high risk of suicide displayed lower self-esteem, a weaker sense of coherence and made more negative attributions for negative life events. The third aim of the present study was to explore the psychosocial risk factors experienced by adolescents. The participants with a high risk of suicide (N=214) were asked to give their opinions on adolescent suicide. These qualitative responses were analysed using the method of content analysis. From this analysis it was clear that adolescents experienced numerous risks, which were given in the following order of prominence: individual factors (substance abuse; negative emotional experiences; self-esteem; problem-solving ability and hope for the future); family environments and family relationships; peer group and romantic relationships; stressful life events; and socio-economic factors. The findings from the present study suggested that a supportive family; a healthy selfesteem; a sense of coherence; and an optimistic explanatory style could be protective mechanisms in lowering the identified risks of substance abuse, feeling stressed, a troubled family environment and poor parent-child relationships found among suicidal adolescents in South Africa.

This study examined the patterns of contact and involvement between adolescents and their nonresident fathers after divorce in an ethnically diverse sample. The data was analysed to determine the role of Lamb, Pleck and Levineâs (1986) three constructs in the involvement of non-resident fathers, i.e. interaction, availability and responsibility. The results indicated that the majority of male and female adolescents reported continued direct and indirect contact with their fathers, regardless of paternal remarriage and the lapse of time since the divorce. In measuring father involvement, the adolescents reported on four aspects of father involvement i.e. financial contributions, shared activities, communication and feelings of emotional closeness. The results on father involvement indicate that most fathers make contributions financially in terms of the payment of maintenance, school fees and pocket money. Adolescents further reported that they spent most of their time with their non-resident fathers engaging in leisure activities such as shopping and frequenting restaurants. Boys reported higher levels of communication and feelings of emotional closeness than girls. Overall, the study postulates that non-resident fathers play a less significant role in providing parental guidance to their children. The most important limitation of the research was indicated as the lack of empirical investigation of mother-child involvement. This study investigated the influence of non-resident fathersâ involvement in the well-being of their adolescent children after divorce. Guided by a systemic ecological framework on father involvement and utilising data from a representative sample of adolescents from intact and divorced families, father involvement was measured by means of the Hawkins Inventory of Father Involvement (IFI). Adolescentsâ sense of well-being was measured by means of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The results obtained on the IFI indicate that adolescents from divorced families perceived their fathers as lacking in support for their mothers and in salient aspects of all three components of Lamb, Pleck and Levineâs (1986) concept of father involvement, i.e. interaction, availability and responsibility. Consequently, the adolescents from divorced families obtained lower scores on reported well-being on the SDQ in terms of externalising behaviours (hyperactivity) and internalising behaviours (emotional symptoms and pro-social behaviour). Recommendations to promote increased father involvement were made. The purpose of this study was to examine the post-divorce attachment security of adolescents to their mothers and non-resident fathers. The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) was used to compare the attachment security of adolescents from intact homes to those from divorced homes. The data gathered indicate that adolescents from divorced homes reported statistically significant differences in attachment security with their fathers overall and specifically in the areas of trust and communication measured by the IPPA. Therefore, the findings indicate that divorce affects attachment security negatively. No statistically significant gender differences concerning the attachment security of male and female adolescents from divorced homes for either mother or father were found. Two theoretical models (the theory of mattering and the reflective functioning of parents) are discussed as guidelines to assist policy makers in addressing problems in attachment security for children from divorced homes.

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Article 1: It is estimated that at present there are 4.253 million orphans in South Africa, comprising 23% of children in this country. In the Free State, 27% of the provinceâs children are orphaned. At the commencement of this study it was estimated that there were 3.95 million orphans in South Africa, comprising 21% of children in this country, while 26% of children in the Free State children were orphaned. From these statistics it is apparent that South Africa is still experiencing an ever increasing magnitude of orphans, all of whom must be absorbed within the school system. Despite many developmental risk factors associated with orphan-hood in South Africa, a study among primary school HIV/AIDS orphans in Mangaung in the Free State, found high scores of positive development and normal childhood functioning, namely pro-social behaviour and good classroom peer relations. Data analysis of the raw scores, by means of the Pearson product moment correlation, established a coefficient of 0.291 on the 1% level of significance between pro-social behaviour and classroom peer relations in a sample of 234 Sesotho speaking HIV/AIDS orphans. This outcome is in line with international studies, but is noteworthy within the South African childhood context of HIV/AIDS and poverty, where the risk factors that potentially compromise developmental outcomes for HIV/AIDS orphans are rampant and robust. Article 2: Among the many risk factors to be navigated by HIV/AIDS orphans in South Africa, is the risk regarding attainment of educational outcomes. In the South African context, orphans are the demographic group most likely not to complete their education. Yet, there are protective factors that can help orphans to manage some of the risk factors that they face daily. One such a protective factor is school connectedness. A study among a sample of 234 primary school HIV/AIDS orphans, aged 7-11 years, in Mangaung in the Free State, found high scores of school connectedness among the selected sample of learners. Product term regression analysis of the data shows that school connectedness plays a moderator role in a previously established relationship between pro-social behaviour and classroom peer relations among the same sample of orphaned learners. This study concludes that there is indeed a need to foster and research school connectedness among orphans and other vulnerable children in South African schools, as the protective qualities of this construct could counteract some of the risk factors regarding educational outcomes, not only for HIV/AIDS orphans, but for all children growing up in the context of adversity.

Increases in standardized testing have been accompanied by increased reports of test anxiety in younger students. School-based test anxiety interventions can be implemented to decrease test anxiety and improve test performance. Skill-based interventions have effectively addressed both of these variables; however, the research has primarily targeted secondary and university students. The purpose of the current study was to determine if a test-taking skills intervention would decrease test anxiety and improve test performance in 4th grade students. Results indicated that the test-taking skills intervention resulted only in a minor decrease in test anxiety that maintained at 1-month follow-up. Effects on test performance were mixed immediately following the intervention, and test performance was equivalent to baseline levels at the conclusion of the study. Limitations of this study and recommendations for future research are included.

In two experiments, I investigated whether providing accuracy feedback on recognition memory tests affects discriminability of encoded targets from lures. The primary hypothesis was that feedback is a source of criterion noise which leads to lower discriminability. Additionally, it was predicted that separate sources of criterion noise might have additive effects. In both experiments, the presence of feedback was manipulated within-subjects. In Experiment 1, participants completed two recognition tests in which they made either old/new decisions or responded using an 8-point confidence scale. Feedback lowered discriminability for both response type conditions, although a slightly larger deleterious effect was observed in the old/new response condition. Whether people responded either with old/new decisions versus on an 8-point confidence scale had no effect on discriminability. In Experiment 2, I manipulated the strength of study items whereby half of the items were studied once (weak) and the other half were studied four times (strong). At test, these targets were intermixed with an equal number of lures. Additionally, the presence of color cues indicating the expected strength of test items was varied between-subjects. Feedback decreased discriminability, although this was primarily for the strong items. The presence of color cues marking expected strength had no effect on discriminability. Taken together, these results suggest that feedback has a deleterious effect on recognition discriminability and that this may result via feedback introducing criterion noise into the recognition decision.

No description available.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are reported to evince high rates of comorbid symptoms. Co-occurring disorders among individuals with ASD are often difficult to assess and diagnose accurately. Also, comorbid conditions frequently exacerbate symptoms of ASD. Different treatment regimens may be effective for comorbid symptoms in ASD; however, research looking at comorbid symptoms and ASD is limited. The current study aimed to extend the literature in this area by examining the relationship between ASD and comorbid symptoms. First, the current study assessed how often and how severely comorbid symptoms were endorsed. Further, autism severity was used to predict comorbid symptoms. Autism severity was measured using the Autism Spectrum Disorder- Diagnostic Child Version (ASD-DC), and comorbid symptoms were obtained using the Autism Spectrum Disorders-Comorbidity Child Version (ASD-CC). A simple regression was conducted using the ASD-DC total score as the predictor and ASD-CC total score as the dependent variable. Then, a series of regression analyses was conducted with ASD severity as the predictor and ASD-CC subscores as dependent variables. In the current study, a high rate of comorbid behaviors was reported. Also, the current study found that autism severity predicted overall comorbid symptoms. Specifically, autism severity significantly predicted repetitive behaviors, tantrum behaviors, and avoidant behaviors. This finding is of considerable clinical value as it suggests that individuals with more severe ASD symptoms also contend with greater comorbid symptoms. This is concerning as these comorbid symptoms alter symptom presentation and further exacerbate deficits, indicating that it is crucial for clinicians to routinely evaluate these comorbid symptoms. Further implications of these findings are discussed.