Despite the ongoing investments in programs to increase sexual health awareness among young adults globally, many youths remain vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Two-thirds of all STDs occur among youths engaging in high-risk sexual behaviors, which put young adults at higher risk of STDs and can result in serious consequences including infertility. Additionally, the social consequences of STD affect families and communities. While a need exists for increased public awareness of STDs among young adults, extant intervention and prevention activities should be informed by a cultural perspective, including the integration of community and government roles. The purpose of this social ecological study was to investigate the perceptions of STDs and the potential factors responsible for the increased frequency of STDs based on the lived experiences of 20 young adults with STDs in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Through a qualitative approach using a phenomenological research design, this study employed semi-structured interviews, and the resultant data were analyzed and coded. The findings indicated that college-aged students increasingly engaged in sexually risky behavior with multiple sexual partners for financial gain and power. Additionally, while institutions promoted abstinence as an effective strategy to reduce STD infections, the findings indicated a strong relationship between the phenomenon and individual interconnectedness with the larger society. Because the sexual behavior of young adults in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, is influenced at multiple ecological levels, effective and sustaining culturally appropriate STD interventions must involve the larger society including young adults in all stages of intervention development and implementation.

Literature reveals that reproductive coercion is a major contributor to unwanted pregnancy and a factor that influences the choice to terminate pregnancy in many adolescents. Adolescents represent a population vulnerable to a number of physical and psychological problems. Purpose The overall aim of this thesis was to develop a model of self-forgiveness for women who terminated pregnancy in adolescence. Objectives The study objectives are aligned according to the phases of the study as follows: Phase 1: Desk review Explore what is already known about the topic and identify gaps. Phase 2: Lived experiences of participants about TOP Explore the lived experiences of participants who terminated pregnancy in adolescence. Phase 3: Development of a model Develop a model of self-forgiveness for women who terminated pregnancy in adolescence. The social-ecological model (Bronfenbrenner 1992), through which individuals are understood to influence and be influenced by people, organisations, institutions, societal norms, rules and beliefs with whom they interact, was followed. The model offered a holistic framework for exploring interrelationships related to TOP Methodology A qualitative approach based on Heidegger (1962) interpretive phenomenological approach was used. The study was conducted at a Health Care Centre in Tshwane Municipality, Gauteng Province, South Africa. The population consisted of women, 20-35 years old, who terminated pregnancy in adolescence. A purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to recruit 30 participants who had terminated pregnancy in adolescence. An interview guide was used to solicit information from participants. Audiotaped interviews were held at the time, date and place agreed by participants. Colaizzi’s (1978) approach of data analysis was used. Results Five major themes emerged, with 17 sub-themes as transgressing one of nature’s strongest instincts: the mother’s protection of her young; unplanned pregnancy; intra-and interpersonal relationships; experience of caring by health care professionals and a need for counselling. A model of self-forgiveness for women who did TOP in adolescence, based on the components of self-condemnation and self-blame, cultural and spiritual, as well as reproductive coercion, was developed. Conclusion Participants carried the burden of shame and guilt of having terminated pregnancy in adolescence. The influence of culture and religion were the major contributing factors to women failing to forgive themselves after termination of pregnancy. A model of self-forgiveness is needed to allow those who terminated pregnancy in adolescence to move on with their life. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

Abstract in English, Xhosa and Afrikaans / The victimization of women and children represents one of the public health problems deserving urgent attention in Ethiopia, making the prevention of rape in all its forms a matter of vital importance. The purpose of the study was mainly to describe the extent of rape prevention interventions in Addis Ababa and examine efforts to assist rape survivors based on the perceptions of professionals working for organizations operating in this context. The study had a further purpose of identifying difficulties faced by government institutions and making suitable recommendations for the improvement of rape prevention interventions and programs in the future. A qualitative descriptive research approach was adopted mainly involving in-depth interviews for primary data collection. The study involved 14 research participants purposively selected from five government institutions. The study findings indicated Gandhi Memorial Hospital to be the only institution in Ethiopia implementing an integrated rape prevention intervention. Efforts were directed largely at secondary prevention, with little attention being paid to primary prevention. Recommendations included tackling the multiple factors influencing rape at different levels of the social-ecological model simultaneously through the implementation, strengthening, and intensification of well-designed, comprehensive rape prevention interventions and programs. / Ukuxhatshazwa kwabafazi nabantwana e-Ethiopia kufana nenye yeengxaki zempilo kwaye kudinga ukuthathelwa ingqalelo ngokungxamisekileyo. Oku kwenza ukuba ukuthintela ukudlwengulwa ngazo zonke iindlela kube ngumbandela obaluleke kakhulu. Injongo yesi sifundo ibikukucacisa iindlela zokuthintela ukudlwengulwa eAddis Ababa, nokuvavanya imizamo yokunceda abo bakhe badlwengulwa, ngokokubona kwabo basebenzela amaqumrhu aququzelela lo msebenzi. Enye injongo yesi sifundo ibikukuchonga ubunzima obufunyanwa ngamaziko aseburhulumenteni ajongene neli candelo ukuze kunikwe iingcebiso zokuphucula amacebo neenkqubo zokuthintela ukudlwengulwa. Kuqhutywe uhlobo lophando lomgangatho nolucacisayo, apho kuqokelelwe iinkcukacha zolwazi ngokwenza udliwano ndlebe olunzulu. Kusetyenzwe nabathathi nxaxheba abali-14 abakhethwe ngobuchule kumaziko aseburhulumenteni ama-5. Okufunyaniswe sesi sifundo kubonakalise ukuba isibhedlele esiyiGandhi Memorial siso sodwa esinenkqubo elungelelaniswe kakuhle yokuthintela ukudlwengulwa. Imigudu yokhukhusela ijoliswe ekuncedeni kwiziqhamo zodlwengulo nasekufundiseni ngodlwengulo (secondary prevention) hayi kudlwengulo ngqo (primary prevention). Amacebiso esifundo aquka ukulwa neemeko eziphembelela udlwengulo olwenzeka kumazinga ahlukeneyo oluntu, ngaxeshanye nokuqinisa ukusetyenziswa kweenkqubo eziqulunqwe kakuhle zokuthintela udlwengulo. / Die viktimisering van vroue en kinders is een van talle kwessies in die openbare gesondheid van Ethiopië wat dringend aandag vereis, aangesien die voorkoming van verkragting in enige vorm van die allergrootste belang is. Die doel van hierdie studie was om die omvang te bepaal van intervensies om verkragting in Addis Abeba te voorkom, en om die hulp wat aan verkragtingslagoffers verleen word, te ondersoek op grond van die belewenisse van beroepslui wat in hierdie verband vir organisasies werk. Hierdie studie het dit verder ten doel gehad om die probleme aan te toon waarmee staatsinstellings in hierdie opsig te kampe het, en om beter intervensies en programme vir die voorkoming van verkragting aan te beveel. ʼn Kwalitatiewe en deskriptiewe navorsingsbenadering is gevolg. Dit het omvattende onderhoude behels waartydens primêre data versamel is. Altesame 14 deelnemers by vyf staatsinstellings is vir hierdie doel gekies. Volgens die bevindings is die Gandhi Gedenkhospitaal die enigste instelling in Ethiopië wat ʼn geïntegreerde program vir die voorkoming van verkragting ingestel het. Sekondêre voorkoming geniet voorrang, terwyl primêre voorkoming min aandag geniet. Daar word aanbeveel dat tegelykertyd werk gemaak word van die veelvuldige faktore wat verkragting op verskillende vlakke van die sosiaal-ekologiese model beïnvloed. Dit moet gedoen word deur deeglik ontwerpte, omvattende intervensies en programme om verkragting te voorkom in werking te stel, uit te bou en te verskerp. / Sociology / M.A. (Sociology)

There is an increasing concern for the impact of humans on the environment. Traditionally, ecological models consider human influence as a constant or linearly varying parameter, whereas socioeconomic models and frameworks tend to oversimplify the ecological system. But tackling complex environmental challenges faced by our societies requires interdisciplinary approaches due to the intricate feedbacks between the socioeconomic and ecological systems involved. Thus, models of social-ecological systems couple an ecological system with a socioeconomic system to investigate their interaction in the integrated dynamical system. We define this coupling formally and apply the social-ecological approach to three ecological cases. Indeed, we focus on eutrophication in shallow freshwater lakes, which is a well-known system showing bistability between a clear water state and a turbid polluted state. We also study a model accounting for an aquifer (water stock) and a model accounting for a biotic population exhibiting bistability through an Allee effect. The socioeconomic dynamics is driven by the incentive that agents feel to act in a desirable or undesirable way. This incentive can be represented by a difference in utility, or in payoff, between two strategies that each agent can adopt: agents can cooperate and act in an environment-friendly way, or they can defect and act in an ecologically undesirable way. The agents' motivation includes such factors as the economic cost of their choice, the concern they feel for the environment and conformism to the collective attitude of the human group. Thus, the incentive to cooperate responds to the state of the ecological system and to the agents' collective opinion, and this response can be linear, nonlinear and monotonic, or non-monotonic. When investigating the mathematical form of this response, we find that monotonic non-linear responses may result in additional equilibria, cycles and basins of attraction compared to the linear case. Non-monotonic responses, such as resignation effects, may produce much more complicated nullclines such as a closed nullcline and weaken our ability to anticipate the dynamics of a social-ecological system. Regarding the modelling of the socioeconomic subsystem, the replicator dynamics and the logit best-response dynamics are widely used mathematical formulations from evolutionary game theory. There seems to be little awareness about the impact of choosing one or the other. The replicator dynamics assumes that the socioeconomic subsystem is stationary when all agents adopt the same behaviour, whereas the best-response dynamics assumes that this situation is not stationary. The replicator dynamics has formal game theoretical foundations, whereas best-response dynamics comes from psychology. Recent experiments found that the best-response dynamics explains empirical data better. We find that the two dynamics can produce a different number of equilibria as well as differences in their stability. The replicator dynamics is a limit case of the logit best-response dynamics when agents have an infinite rationality. We show that even generic social-ecological models can show multistability. In many cases, multistability allows for counterintuitive equilibria to emerge, where ecological desirability and socioeconomic desirability are not correlated. This makes generic management recommendations difficult to find and several policies with and without socioeconomic impact should be considered. Even in cases where there is a unique equilibrium, it can lose stability and give rise to sustained oscillations. We can interpret these oscillations in a way similar to the cycles found in classical predator-prey systems. In the lake pollution social-ecological model for instance, the agents' defection increases the lake pollution, which makes agents feel concerned and convince the majority to cooperate. Then, the ecological concern decreases because the lake is not polluted and the incentive to cooperate plummets, so that it becomes more advantageous for the agents to defect again. We show that the oscillations obtained when using the replicator dynamics tend to produce a make-or-break dynamics, where a random perturbation could shift the system to either full cooperation or full defection depending on its timing along the cycle. Management measures may shift the location of the social-ecological system at equilibrium, but also make attractors appear or disappear in the phase plane or change the resilience of stable steady states. The resilience of equilibria relates to basins of attraction and is especially important in the face of potential regime shifts. Sources of uncertainty that should be taken into account for the management of social-ecological systems include multistability and the possibility of counterintuitive equilibria, the wide range of possible policy measures with or without socioeconomic interventions, and the behaviour of human collectives involved, which may be described by different dynamics. Yet, uncertainty coming from the collective behaviour of agents is mitigated if they do not give up or rely on the other agents' efforts, which allows modelling to better inform decision makers.

Text in English / Even though the prevalence of HIV has declined, South Africa continues to have a large number of people who are infected with HIV. Most communities still have to deal with the effects of HIV and AIDS on orphans and vulnerable children. One way of mitigating the effects of HIV and AIDS is strengthening families and communities to provide stable care to orphans. However, most families do not have the capacity to provide sufficient care to orphans hence the need for external support from the community and civil society organisations, in this instance provided through the loveLife goGogetter programme. The findings proved that the goGogetters relied on the support they received through the relationships and networks established in the community to enable them to provide effective service to orphans. The study demonstrated the importance of community networks in providing for the basic needs of orphans. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)

Even though the prevalence of HIV has declined, South Africa continues to have a large number of people who are infected with HIV. Most communities still have to deal with the effects of HIV and AIDS on orphans and vulnerable children. One way of mitigating the effects of HIV and AIDS is strengthening families and communities to provide stable care to orphans. However, most families do not have the capacity to provide sufficient care to orphans hence the need for external support from the community and civil society organisations, in this instance provided through the loveLife goGogetter programme. The findings proved that the goGogetters relied on the support they received through the relationships and networks established in the community to enable them to provide effective service to orphans. The study demonstrated the importance of community networks in providing for the basic needs of orphans. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)