Child social development theory has been developed within a strong Euro-American context. This study seeks to understand social development in children in early childhood within southern Mozambique. A preliminary literature review was conducted, which formed the basis of a semi-structured interview schedule. A collective case study sampling method was utilized with all respondents being parents’ of children below the age of six years who were enrolled in the community school. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 mothers in the community of Patrice Lumumbe. The data obtained during this research was translated by a team of cultural guides and interpreters as well as recorded using a Dictaphone. A second literature review was then conducted. The outcome of these interviews was then compared with existing literature and development theory. The research found that developmental milestones noted in the developmental theories of Freud and Erikson is congruent with what parents’ expected of their children within this community. Mothers’ are expected to instinctively know what their children need. Initiative in children is highly valued. Recommendations that emerged included conducting a comparative study in a neighboring community and implementing a study, which focuses specifically on the perceptions of fathers in these communities. / Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

In exploring current responses to crime, particularly youth involvement in gangs, this thesis examines two approaches: Crime Prevention through Social Development (CPSD) and risk-based prevention. The former is associated with the provision of socially-designed measures to address and eliminate the risk factor associated with persistent offending. The latter, however, refers to the implementation of risk management and statistical assessment to manage the risk factor associated with persistent offending. In light of these two approaches, this thesis examines a debate which purported that crime prevention practices has wholly shifted away from an emphasis on CPSD towards risk-based prevention. This thesis also examines the opposing debate which explains that CPSD and risk-based prevention have emerged into a balanced approach. Taking into account 19 youth gang prevention projects in Canada, the above debates are investigated. Drawing from the analysed project, this thesis concludes that, the crime prevention practices of the analyzed projects significantly rely on risk-based prevention. As a result, the approaches of CPSD still exist in rhetoric and in practice however, its influence on crime prevention initiatives is very limited. Hence, current approaches neither reflect a total shift away from CPSD nor a balanced approach.

The role that South Africa has played in international affairs has grown immensely since the first democratic elections that were held in April 2004. The country’s commitments in international affairs are guided by its foreign policy which is based on ensuring an equitable share of global decision-making between the countries of the north and south, and the economic and social development of the African continent. These foreign policy objectives have created a lot of capacity challenges on the South African Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) which is mandated to guide the formulation and implementation of South Africa’s foreign policy. In this study, the South African’s foreign policy objectives and its institutions responsible for implementing its foreign policy are discussed. Furthermore, the challenges that the country’s diplomats encounter in the global context in the implementation of the country’s foreign policy objectives are explored, especially the capacity required to successfully execute their mandate. The Foreign Service Institute (FSI), which is tasked with providing training to public administrators identified for Foreign Service, especially the content of its training programmes are the focus of this study. The data presented in this thesis are mainly derived from interview responses to a questionnaire that was developed for the purpose of this research study. The questionnaire was completed by individuals in the country’s Foreign Service (FS) who attended the FSI training programme and have been assigned to their first posting. Findings of this study indicate that the FSI training programme, in its current format, fall short of achieving its intended objective of equipping South African diplomats with the relevant diplomatic skills that are necessary for the effective and efficient execution of the country’s foreign policy. It is, therefore, recommended that FSI training programme be remodelled to address the actual challenges that the country’s diplomats face and thus emphasise the development of a uniquely South African training programme. This study concludes with recommendations for the DFA action on the future development of a remodelled FSI training programme for the FS, with the aim of enabling the institution to address public administration skills required for the successful implementation of the country’s foreign policy objectives. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

Family conflict is known to have detrimental impacts on the social development of young children. An important issue in counseling parents and the development of intervention for children is the extent to which other family environmental conditions are the path through which conflict impacts children's development. This study examined two maternal parenting behaviors (harsh discipline and warmth) that may alter the impact of interpartner conflict on child social development and behavior in a large (n = 440 girls, n = 451 boys) sample of ethnically diverse, low-income families of preschool children. Interpartner conflict was associated with poorer child social development and behavior problems. This study found that interpartner conflict increased harsh discipline, which resulted in poorer child social development. This study, however, found no evidence that interpartner conflict impacted child development through its impact on maternal warmth in that mothers experiencing conflict did not alter the level of warm parenting practices. These findings suggest that, when encountering families experiencing interpartner conflict, clinicians should not only direct families to interventions to lessen family conflict but also counsel them on the mechanism (harsh discipline) by which children are impacted by the conflict.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Community Work in the Department of Social Work at the University of Zululand, 2010. / Culturally determined gender roles restricted women’s freedom, choice and rights and as such, it is not surprising that women have long been neglected in development. It is only recently that attention was given to women and particularly rural women who are actively engaged in productive labor. At the Beijing plan of action conference in 1995, it was highlighted that though poverty affects men and women, but because of gender role and responsibility women bear a greater burden and it was recommended that: • Polices and programs for women be developed in order to alleviate poverty, with their full participation and respect for cultural diversity. • Mobilization to improve the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs directed at disadvantaged people. Several programs have been developed by the government in order to empower women. This study therefore is aimed at assessing the impact of social development programs on participating women at Amajuba district Municipality in KwaZulu Natal. These programs are developed by women and required their full participation. They are funded by the government for sustainability. The researcher’s respondents were selected from members who are participating. An evaluative research method was utilized as it assesses the implementation and usefulness of social interventions. Higson –Smith (1995:47) stated that evaluation research is aimed at testing interventions, to see how effective they are, and therefore, represents an important means of linking action and research in a constructive manner. Evaluation research can furnish evidence of the usefulness of a program. Findings revealed that women benefited through participation in these programs, as they were also capacitated on activities they were engaged in. They were not successful to generate enough income to sustain their families. Implementation of recommendations made on chapter 6 will develop projects to small businesses so that participants can maintain their families and, contribute to the economy of the country.

For the past thirty years Africa has produced a more noticeably inferior reserve of human capital than other developing regions. This is puzzling because at the inception of independence, the future of Africa looked promising. However, during the 1970s both the political and economic situation in Africa began to deteriorate, and since 1980, the aggregate per capita GDP in sub-Saharan Africa has declined at almost one percent per fiscal year. Thirty-two countries are poorer now than they were twenty years ago, and sub-Saharan Africa is now the lowest-income region in the world despite the fact that during the last two decades Africa has attracted more aid per capita than other developing regions. I hypothesize that focusing primarily on economic growth as the primary means of development has undermined and deterred social development in sub-Saharan Africa. I believe that as foreign investment and debt increase, social development stagnates and even declines. I argue that because of the focus on economics and lack of focus on social and cultural considerations sustained economic growth has been devitalized in sub-Saharan Africa. For this research I employed time-series, cross-sectional regression analysis to test the relative importance of the economic development model on social development in sub-Saharan Africa. My analysis of the forty-eight countries over thirty years gives leverage to the critique of economic growth centered development policies.

Yes / Extractive economies can use the natural resource dividend for infrastructure and sustainable development. However, the reality of achieving this is far more complex than one might expect. This paper aims to present some fresh analysis of data of extractive economies to answer three main questions: a. how are extractive economies performing with regard to providing basic services such as health, education, water and sanitation; b. are there patterns of success; and c. what are the implications for policy and action especially in the context of the proposed sustainable development goals. The first issue of course is to define the category extractive economy. Using a new methodology, this paper focuses on the top 40 oil economies, top 41 gas economies and 56 mineral economies. Because some countries do have all three or two of these three natural resources, the overall dataset is of 91 countries covering both developed and developing economies and in all continents. Data pertaining to years 2002 to 2012 is analysed here. While some results are perhaps as may be expected, there are several disturbing findings as well. Extractive economies are among some of the poorly performing countries on indicators highly relevant to prosed SDGs on poverty, health, water and sanitation, and energy. This highlights the need for a strategic focus and developing appropriate mechanisms to use the natural resource dividend to make lasting transformation of social and economic well-being.

This study tested a mediated-moderator model that was developed to explore whether age of entry into a Head Start Program moderated the relationship between maternal depressive symptomology and child cognitive and social outcome. In addition, the mediating role of maternal social support was examined. The study sample included 43 low-income mothers and their pre-school aged children who were enrolled in a large Head Start program in Southwest Virginia. Maternal depressive symptomology was measured using the CES-D and perceived social support was measured using the Perceived Social Support Scale (PSS). Child cognitive data included scores on two working memory tasks and the PPVT. Child social outcomes were assessed using the Social Skills Scale and the Classroom Conduct Scale developed for use with Head Start Populations. Results of the study did not support a moderating role for age of entry to Head Start. Level of maternal education was found to predict both child working memory skill and receptive language ability, and high levels of maternal depressive symptomology were found to predict child social skills. In addition, exploratory analyses were conducted to examine gender differences in the relations between variables when girls and boys were analyzed separately. A significant interaction effect was found for gender and maternal education in predicting preschool receptive language ability. Preliminary data suggests that boys may be more highly impacted by maternal factors than are girls. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed. / Ph. D.

Inhibitory Control (IC), a vital facet of childhood development, involves the ability to suppress a dominant response, as well as the ability to suppress irrelevant thoughts and behaviors. This ability emerges during the first year of life and develops rapidly during the preschool years. A variety of tasks have been developed to measure IC in this age group and, recently, research has demonstrated important differences in task performance according to various distinctions among these tasks. One under-researched distinction is that of whether an IC task requires the child to give a verbal or a motoric response. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine, in 4-year-old children, the differences and similarities among IC tasks requiring either a verbal or a motoric response. Differences were explored with respect to the contributions to verbal and motoric IC performance of language, intelligence, temperament, and frontal encephalography, as well as with respect to social and school readiness outcomes. IC was best described by a two-component model, distinguishing verbal and motoric IC. Both baseline and task electrophysiology contributed to task performance in the verbal Yes-No task as well as the motoric IC composite. Language and intelligence, too, were associated with both verbal and motoric IC, although nonverbal intelligence was less strongly correlated with verbal IC than it was with motoric IC. All laboratory measures of IC related to parent report of children’s IC as well as to other parent-reported temperament scales and factors. Children’s verbal and motoric IC were associated, too, with children’s social development, surprisingly showing the most consistent associations with social inhibition. Asocial behavior positively correlated more strongly with motoric IC than with verbal IC. Children’s laboratory IC positively correlated with their school readiness, even when controlling for their intelligence although children’s emergent literacy more positively related to their motoric, rather than verbal, IC. An interaction of intelligence and IC contributed to social variables, but not to school readiness. This research supports the important distinction between verbal and motoric IC, and demonstrates the utility of including an array of measures of both in early childhood research. / Ph. D.

No / A breakthrough theory that tools and technology are the real drivers of human evolution. Although humans are one of the great apes, along with chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, we are remarkably different from them. Unlike our cousins who subsist on raw food, spend their days and nights outdoors, and wear a thick coat of hair, humans are entirely dependent on artificial things, such as clothing, shelter, and the use of tools, and would die in nature without them. Yet, despite our status as the weakest ape, we are the masters of this planet. Given these inherent deficits, how did humans come out on top?