Master of Science - Agricultural Education and Communication / Department of Communications and Agricultural Education / Jason D. Ellis / Genetically modified crops have been beneficial to farmers in terms of saved time, money, and energy while increasing yields and often times reducing pesticide dependency. These benefits outweigh the increased costs, allowing genetically modified crops to become one of the fastest adopted farm technologies in history. Despite overwhelming approval of genetically modified crops among farmers, consumers have been hesitant to consume genetically modified food. Consumers see genetically modified food as a risk without immediate reward. Millennial consumers are a powerful population segment that rivals or overtakes other population segments in terms of size, influence, and purchasing abilities. Yet, they are often lumped into one homogenous group by marketers when they are a diverse group comprised of unique segments. The purpose of this study was to better understand how millennial consumers find and process risk information about genetically modified food so that agricultural communicators can better strategize communication efforts. Applying the Situational Theory of Publics and the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model, this study went one step further by differentiating between Supportive and Non-supportive publics. The research objectives of this study are as follows: 1) Identify the individual characteristics of both Supportive and Non-supportive millennial publics of genetically modified food; 2) Examine relevant channel beliefs of Supportive and Non-supportive millennial publics of genetically modified food; 3) Identify and describe the information gap of Supportive and Non-supportive millennial publics of genetically modified food; 4) Define the perceived information gathering capacity of Supportive and Non-supportive millennial publics of genetically modified food; and 5) Characterize the information seeking and processing behavior of Supportive and Non-supportive millennial publics of genetically modified food. An Internet survey was distributed to individuals between the ages of 18 and 36 within the United States. The majority of Non-supportive publics had a high level of issue involvement and the majority of Supportive publics had a low level of issue involvement. Meaning, the majority of Non-supportive publics are more active about the issue than Supportive publics. Age was found to be correlated with systematic processing and information avoidance with older millennials more likely to systematically process information and less likely to avoid information. Additionally, this study found that regardless of knowledge level, wealthier individuals who do not support genetically modified food are more likely to be actively involved in the issue and wealthier individuals who support the technology are more likely to be passive about the issue. The majority of millennial publics in all eight groups reported a knowledge deficit to some degree. The research also found that heuristic processing was negatively correlated to systematic processing and higher levels of information avoidance were negatively correlated with lower levels of active information seeking. Non-supportive Active publics (high issue involvement/high knowledge) were found to have the highest mean active information seeking and systematic processing scores and lowest mean heuristic processing and information avoidance scores; supporting past findings that knowledge does not always equate to support and that communication practitioners may have trouble changing the opinion of a large portion of Non-supportive publics.

M.A. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

A significant number of youth experience mental health disorders for which they suffer negative consequences. Although there are evidence-based therapies available to help children and their families, most youth do not receive treatment. Parental problem recognition is likely a primary barrier in this process. This study begins to address why parents may have difficulty recognizing mental health problems by extending existing models and integrating evidence about parental perceptions. Specifically, the study aimed to investigate the relationship between parental attributions and parents’ problem determination, and to examine the influence that parental characteristics have on this judgment process. Participants included 164 parents of youth ages 6-11 years. Purposive sampling was used to recruit mothers and fathers from both lower and higher SES communities. Parents completed self-report measures of parental characteristics, including: parental psychopathology, parenting stress, parental tolerance, and parental self-efficacy. Parents read ten brief child behavior vignettes and completed a version of the Written Analogue Questionnaire to rate the cause of each behavior (assuming it was their own child in the vignette) along four dimensions. Parents also rated the extent to which the behavior was seen as a problem. Results indicated that parents’ causal attributions were highly associated with parents’ problem ratings, and the attributions of stability and controllability were particularly robust predictors of problem determination. Hypotheses regarding parental characteristics as moderators of the relationship between attributions and problem determination were not supported. Findings are discussed in light of clinical and public health implications; results suggest that recognizing the influence of parental beliefs and attributions may help to increase the efficacy of outreach efforts for early intervention and help seeking for parental concerns.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / The main aim of the current study is to examine the relationship between community violence exposure and the development of psychopathology and examine the relationship between community violence exposure and other types of trauma, that is, childhood trauma and stressful life events. It was hypothesised that exposure to community violence will have a high correlation with development of psychological disorders such as mood and anxiety and psychotic disorders. The main study employed a quantitative research design in order to determine the relationship between PTSD in children and adolescents. The current study used secondary data to measure the correlation between exposure to community violence and the development of psychopathology. The data for this study was collected from 132 consecutive referrals between the ages of 13 to 19 (mean age = 15.4, SD = 1.6) from a youth stress clinic at a university in the Western Cape. Findings indicated that community violence prevalence was higher than previous South African studies but lower compared to American studies. There was generally a high prevalence of PTSD and major depressive disorder (MDD) in this sample compared to previous South African studies. An unexpected outcome was that even though there was a high prevalence of PTSD, there was no relationship between community violence exposure and PTSD in this sample, rather, community violence exposure was related to MDD. Furthermore, MDD and not PTSD was related to experiences of childhood trauma. Stressful life events were related to acute stress disorder (ASD). / South Africa

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / This study is aimed at empirically examining health seeking behaviours in terms of illness response on household level at South Africa using 2007 General Household Survey and other relevant secondary sources. It provides an assessment of health seeking behaviours at the household level using individuals as unit of analysis by exploring the type of health care provider sought, the reason for delay in health seeking and the cause for not consulting. This study also assesses the extent of dissatisfaction among households using medical centres and this factor in health care utilisation is considered as the main reason for not consulting health care services. All the demographic and health seeking variables utilised in this study are controlled for medical aid cover because it is a critical variable in health care seeking. Therefore this study makes distinction on illness reporting and they type of health care consulted by medical aid holders and non medical aid holders. Statistical analyses are conducted to explore and predict the way in which demographic variables and socio economic variables affect health care seeking behaviours. / South Africa

Master of Public Health - MPH / Background: The Western Cape's Comprehensive Service Plan (CSP) is committed to "treating the right patient at the right level right, with the right skills and at the right cost" (Page 1, Tygerberg Hospital Annual Report, 2007). Occupational therapy (OT) Managers in the Metro District, Western Cape Province are in the process of aligning the OT services to the new CSP document. A major problem is the high default rate (non attendance) and irregular attendance (patient attends but skips sessions) amongst paediatric out-patients. In order to properly improve the OT paediatric services, it is vital for the OT managers to know the reasons for the poor utilisation of the OT services at the paediatric out-patient units. Purpose of study: The irregular attendance and high default rates (where patients stop attending the OT sessions completely) among children are a major problem at three OT out-patient units in Cape Town, Western Cape Province. The occupational therapists who work at these units are adamant that this impacts negatively on the child's progress. This study sought to explore the factors influencing the utilisation of the OT service in these three OT paediatric out-patient units in the hope of providing relevant information to the OT managers of these units in order to rethink the current service and make appropriate changes to improve adherence and treatment progress. Study design: This was an exploratory study using qualitative research methods. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten parents of children who have to attend the OT out-patient services. One group discussion was conducted with the occupational therapists that provide the services at the out-patient units. Sampling: Purposive sampling methods were employed to select four occupational therapists (at least one from each unit) and ten parents (at least three from each unit, with at least two who attended poorly and one that attended regularly). Analysis: Thematic analysis was used to interpret the data. The data was coded and categorised according to themes that emerged during data analysis. Results: The results of this study revealed that the factors that impact the utilisation of the OT service at the three OT units is complex. Factors that influenced the utilisation of the OT services in this study were related to the OT service such as staff attitude, relationship between the occupational therapist and the mothers as well as their child, communication between the mother and the occupational therapist, treatment progress, parent involvement in the OT programme and access to the OT service. Other factors such as the mothers' perception of the severity of the child's health condition, family support, work factors and family support were important factors related to the mother. The findings also revealed that environmental factors namely stigma, discrimination and travelling to the OT units impacted utilisation of the OT service. The participants made recommendations on how to improve the service. Conclusion: This study describes the complexity of what impacted the utilisation of the OT services and how closely interlinked these different factors are. It is evident from the findings of this study that a comprehensive, client centred approach is required to properly deal with the factors that negatively impact the utilisation of this service. Recommendations: A multi-faceted approach is required. Important issues to address are the shortage of occupational therapists across the levels of health care in the Western Cape Province; improving on the client centred approach in OT intervention programmes; advancing advocacy against stigma and discrimination against children with disabilities; and making public transport more accessible to children and their mothers.

The objective of this study is to investigate the trends in relative contribution each selected factor makes to the chance of a child’s death over time in South Africa for children born 5 years preceding 1997 and 5 years preceding 2002. Attention was paid to the role played by socio-economic factors, biological and maternal factors, environmental factors, nutrient deficiency factors and health seeking behaviour factors. The study investigates whether the association of a specific factor to under-5 mortality persist over time. Data from the 1997 October Household Survey and the 2002 General Household Survey were used. Births that occurred in the five years preceding each survey were analysed in relation to the survival of the child and socio-economic factors, biological and maternal factors, environmental factors, nutrient deficiency factors and health seeking behaviour factors. Logistic regression was used to determine the relative contribution of each factor for the two periods under review. Under-5 mortality was significantly associated with eight factors during 1993-1997 period namely; mother’s education, mother’s place of residence, sex, birth order, birth interval, mother’s age at the time of delivery of the subject child, nutrient deficiency and place of delivery. However, during the 1998-2002 period only five factors were significantly associated with under-5 mortality. These were mother’s education, sex, birth interval, type of dwelling and place of delivery. This suggests changing patterns in factors associated with under-5 mortality between the two birth cohorts: 1993-1997 and the 1998-2002 birth cohorts. / Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Sociology / unrestricted

In light of collated research linking temperament traits and executive performance, the aim of this study is to explore, in a large non-clinical sample, the differences in executive performance profiles among participants with different intensities of the trait Novelty Seeking (NS). A further aim is to establish which facets of NS contribute to these differences. The NS temperament dimension and its subscales were operationalised as scores on the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), which is based on the psychobiological theory of personality. The University of Pennsylvania Computerised Neuropsychological Test Battery (PennCNP) of executive functioning (EF) and abstract reasoning was used to measure participants’ neuropsychological EF. The total sample of participants (n= 461) was divided into high NS (n= 216) and low NS (n= 245) groups to investigate any significant differences between them. Further analysis was then conducted in order to analyse the relationship between the NS scale, the four subscales (Exploratory Excitability, Impulsiveness, Extravagance, and Disorderliness), and performance in executive tasks. The findings of this study indicated significant differences between groups with different intensities of NS, with the high NS group functioning notably better in performance and reaction time. Furthermore, this study showed that facets of NS, such as impulsiveness was a significant contributor to EF performance outcomes. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Psychology / unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to delineate variables which relate to reported willingness to seek treatment for menstrual-related distress, and to assess treatment preferences in a population of women often tapped for menstrual research that of college students. Of the 198 volunteers included in the study, 71 stated that they were willing to seek some form of treatment for menstrual-related distress, and 127 stated that they were not willing to do so. The Adjective Checklist (ACL), Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire (MAQ), and Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ), along with a personal data sheet were administered to subjects. In addition, they were asked to read three paragraph-long descriptions of self-administered, medical, and behavioral treatments for menstrual-related distress and to indicate their preference for each.

In the 21st century, the mobility of world population has posed greater challenges to healthcare practitioners, since they are facing an increasingly diverse patient population from all over the world. At the same time, patients also find it difficult to access and utilize quality health care services in a culturally diverse context. This study examines the role of culture in Chinese international students’ health-seeking behaviours in Canada. The study explores any barriers/perceived barriers that Chinese international students may confront when accessing health care which can prevent them from obtaining quality health care services in Canada. To this end, an intercultural health communication model was employed as a theoretical framework, and semi-structured interviews were used as a data collection tool. While contributing to existing literature on health communication and culture, this study also hopes to contribute to providing Canadian universities and institutions important information regarding Chinese international students’ access to and utilization of health care services with the hope of enhancing the quality of ethnic health care and promoting better health outcomes.