Disordered sleep in PTSD constitutes a major component of the presenting symptomatology. However, the literature on PTSD and sleep is characterized by discrepancies across studies, especially due to the fact that some use objective and some use subjective measures of sleep quality. As a result, disordered sleep and its underlying mechanism have been ambiguously characterized in PTSD. Our research focused on the link between PTSD and disordered sleep, using both objective and subjective measures of sleep quality. Specifically, we investigated hypervigilance (one of the three symptom clusters in the PTSD diagnosis) as an underlying mechanism of this link. We also investigated whether hypervigilance affects dream content and themes in individuals with PTSD.

Includes bibliography. / The present study investigates the relationships between exposure to community violence, household demographic characteristics, social support , parenting attitudes and child/adolescent behavioural adjustment. Participants were drawn from two economically disadvantaged, high-violence neighbourhoods in the Western Cape. The total sample comprised 305 children aged between 9 and 16 years and their primary caregivers (N = 213) . Questionnaires were administered to children at primary and high schools . Caregivers were administered questionnaires in their homes by trained research assistants . Children completed the Survey of Exposure to Community Violence, the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale and the Social Support Scale for children. Caregivers completed a demographic questionnaire, the South African Child Assessment Schedule, the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory and the Social Support Questionnaire for caregivers. Analyses of variance and covariance, Pearson's Product-Moment correlations, and hierarchical multiple regression procedures were conducted to establish direct and indirect relationships between exposure to community violence, household demographic characteristics, social support, parenting attitudes and child/adolescent behavioural adjustment. The results of this study indicate strikingly few violence-related behavioural disturbances in children and adolescents . Other variables, particularly parenting attitudes and child social support were identified as the most important determinants of child and adolescent outcomes . The findings additionally indicate that parental social support mediates the relationship between parental attitudes and internalising symptoms in participating children and adolescents . The need to develop more complex and comprehensive models of community, parental and child factors contributing to child/adolescent outcomes in high-risk South African neighbourhood contexts is discussed.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / Parenting programmes have been shown to have wide-ranging benefits, including the prevention of behavioural and emotional problems in children as well as child maltreatment. The majority of research conducted on parenting programmes is from high-income countries, with little available knowledge on programmes within low- and middle-income countries, such as South Africa. This study sought to identify, as far as possible, the range of parenting programmes offered in South Africa and investigate their design and evaluation practices in relation to best practices. It also sought to identify high-quality programmes which could be scaled-up successfully. This is particularly important in South Africa due to the country’s high rates of violence and child maltreatment.

Bibliography: leaves 94-99. / This study investigates factors which affect the motivation of volunteer telephone counsellors, including demographic variables as well as volunteers' subjective perceptions of the factors which have influenced their involvement. The study was conducted in two stages. The first consisted of a demographic analysis of two groups of counsellors from an organisation in the Western Cape, while the second stage involved a qualitative analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews with respondents who were drawn from these groups. 446 volunteers were selected for demographic analysis, of whom 247 were the full complement of current counsellors in the organisation as of April, 1993, and 199 were ex-volunteers who had terminated their involvement during the preceding three years. Eight demographic variables were recorded for each volunteer: current age, gender, age on joining the organisation, educational level, religious orientation, marital and parental status and length of service. Volunteers were predominantly female (75%), and were on average middle-aged, well-educated, and Christian (64%). Approximately half of the group were married. Parents comprised 50% of the group. The average length of service was approximately five years. Length of service was analysed in relation to each of the other demographic variables in turn in order to discover which factors, if any, were implicated in volunteer turnover. Parental status was the only variable found to be significant in terms of length of service across both current and ex-volunteer groups. A regression analysis performed on the data set as a whole identified parental status as a significant predictor of length of service. The second stage of the study consisted of 23 in-depth interviews. Respondents ( 12 current volunteers, 11 ex-volunteers) were selected according to a purposive technique which took the form of a systematic, structured sampling strategy in order to maximize the diversity of obtained responses. A descriptive phenomenological perspective was adopted in order to tap the rich, subjective experiences of respondents. Interview data was analysed according to an inductive, constantly comparative approach. Findings based on respondents' self-report suggest that motivational factors underlying volunteer participation are multifaceted and complex, changing in nature ii and salience during the course of involvement (from initial contact with the organisation until termination of participation). Although self-serving motives seemed to play a major role in influencing participation, especially during the early stages of involvement, altruistic motives appeared to be important in sustaining on-going involvement. On the basis of findings which have emerged from the study, recommendations have been made as to possible strategies that could be adopted by the organisation to improve volunteer management. The most important of these concerns the implementation of a supervision and support structure for all active volunteers.

This study explored the relationship between maternal involvement and child adjustment in two parent and single parent families. This study examined whether the amount of involvement by mothers differed according to family structure and whether greater mother involvement was associated with better adjustment in children. The study further examined to what extent maternal involvement accounted for the child's adjustment when other factors such as socio-economic status were taken into account.

Includes bibliographical references. / Dreaming is yet to be studied in relation to sleep microstructure. By endeavouring to study mentation in relation to the finer neurophysiological processes underlying the rhythmicity of the sleep cycles, dream science stands to benefit from the wealth of knowledge of these processes. While relationships between dreaming and certain of these processes have been identified in the literature, a comprehensive study of dreaming in relation to all of the recognized components of the sleep microstructure is completely lacking. With this in mind, the main aim of this study was to examine sleep microstructure in relation to dreaming and determine whether there is any relationship between dream recall and the various types of phasic arousal phenomena during NREM sleep, as systematised within the global framework of the cyclic alternating pattern (CAP).

Includes bibliographical references. / A review of the literature indicates that a physiological function for dreaming has not yet been empirically established. Based on recent findings regarding the neural correlates of dreaming, this study tested the Freudian hypothesis that dreams protect sleep. In order to do this, sleep architecture in patients who had experienced dream loss as a result of thrombotic stroke in the region of the posterior cerebral arteries was compared with that of patients with the same pathology who had not experienced dream loss. Using medical records, structural neuro-imaging, clinical interviews, neuropsychological testing, analysis of subjective sleep quality, and polysomnographic data collected over two consecutive nights in the sleep laboratory, two non-dreaming and three dreaming cases were studied. Analysis of the individual case studies indicates that sleep was disrupted in both non-dreaming cases.

Immeasurable effort has been dedicated to estimating mortality using direct and indirect demographic techniques. However, literature available on methods applied to replacing missing values for non-responses in surveys or censuses so that these methods are implemented using sound data is sparse. The National Income and Dynamics Study (NIDS) household dataset includes the relationship of the deceased to the head of household variable. The relationship of the deceased to the head of household and the age of the head of household are incorporated into the Multiple Imputation (MI) technique proposed by Rubin (1987) to impute the missing ages at death for the deceased.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-82). / Revonsuo's Threat Simulation Theory of dreaming asserts that dreaming was selected during human evolution because it has the adaptive function of providing a threat-free context in which threat perception and avoidance can be rehearsed. This study aimed to test the prediction that the threat simulation mechanism will activate differently depending on waking exposure to ecologically valid threat cues. It also compared the impact of waking threat events on dream content with that of waking positive events, as TST asserts that only threat impacts on dream content. Data was collected from three contexts: a high threat context (the Western Cape in South Africa; n=208); a medium threat context (a black southern university in the US; n=34); and a low threat context (North Wales; n=116). Questionnaires included a Most Recent Dream report, details of exposure to walking threatening and positive events, and dreams of such events.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-94). / The present investigation is about men and their bodies. Against the increasing visibility of the (idealised and eroticized) male body in Western popular culture as well as claims that men are becoming the new victims of 'the beauty myth', this study aims to examine men's appearance related practices in relation to meanings of masculinity. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen men between the ages of 18 and 38. Using that method of discursive analysis developed specifically for the investigation of masculinities by Wetherell & Edley (1999), various subject positions taken up by the men in talking about their appearance related practices were identified. The men positioned themselves as unconcerned with appearance, untraditionally masculine, heterosexual, well-balanced and disembodied. A concern for appearance appears inconsistent with ideals of hegemonic masculinity (as valued by these men), and it is suggested that men are unlikely to constitute a large proportion of those individuals who might be described as 'victims' of 'the beauty myth'.