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D.Ed. / The frequency and intensity of aggression that has become an everyday reality to an increasing number of adolescents who perpetrate it, witness it or become its victims necessitates research of the phenomenon in context so that measures may be put in place to curb it or prevent it from occurring in the first place. Despite current legislation to protect the rights and safety of pupils, reports in literature on aggression in South African schools illustrate the ways in which aggression continues to have a detrimental impact on adolescents in secondary schools. Hence, the first research aim of this study, conducted within a psychoeducational framework, was to explore how adolescents experience aggression in an urban public secondary school in the Johannesburg South school district in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Based on the findings the second aim of the research study was to develop, implement and evaluate a psycho-educational programme for the constructive management of aggression that adolescents experienced in that context in order to facilitate improvements in their mental health. A mixed methods research design with an explorative, descriptive, explanatory and contextual focus was followed. The qualitative phase of the mixed methods design not only provided richer insight and understanding into the complex phenomenon of aggression in secondary schools but also served to provide a foundation for the quantitative stage of the study. The four criteria of truth-value, applicability, consistency and neutrality, identified by Guba to ensure trustworthiness in research, were applied. Ethical measures were strictly adhered to and included maintaining the confidentiality of the data and respecting the privacy, anonymity and the voluntary participation of the participants. Informed consent to conduct the research was obtained from the necessary authorities and from the research participants. The study was conducted in four phases as prescribed by programme development, implementation and evaluation. In phase one, the situation analysis phase, data was collected using phenomenological interviews and field notes which were verified by means of a literature control. The data generated from this phase was analysed using Tesch’s open coding method of analysing descriptive data. Three themes were identified that encapsulate the adolescents’ experience of aggression. The themes identified that adolescents are aware of their diverse experiences of aggression, that they experience aggression as an internal or external point of control in their lives and that they experience aggression as a barrier to healthy interpersonal relationships. The data was used in phase two as a basis to develop a psycho-educational programme aimed at teaching adolescent pupils the skills to manage the aggression they experience in secondary school in a constructive manner. Phase three saw the implementation of the psycho-educational programme. In phase four the researcher used an experimental research design to evaluate the efficacy of the programme. The results were analysed using rigorous statistical techniques. The narrative comments made by the participants to evaluate each workshop session were used to provide a qualitative evaluation of the programme process. The positive results obtained from both the qualitative and the quantitative evaluations of the psycho-educational programme suggest that it may be applied successfully to facilitate the constructive management of aggression that adolescents experience in the secondary school environment and in life so that they can attain mental health and actualise their full potential for a positive future.

D.Ed. / The aim of this research was to develop a psycho-educational programme for grade eleven teachers to effectively, without the use of violence, manage aggression demonstrated by grade eleven boys. The aim is for teachers to support and assist the boys to channel their aggression positively. The grade eleven teachers are faced with the huge challenge to manage aggression exhibited by the boys in their classes. Therefore this study is mainly focused on the impact of aggression on the teachers' effectiveness.

M.A. / All children especially adolescents need to feel socially and emotionally supported in every part of their lives for them to have psychosocial well being. This well being includes many different aspects such as physical, material, psychological, and social aspects. Researchers agree that adolescent stage has many challenges of growing up; they need supportive ways of coping and developing. As they grow, high school learners need friendships with same age peers and to be members of formal cultural institutions including educational, play, social and/ or religious groups. The school as an environment where children spend most part of their time needs to have formal and informal support systems that may serve as a tool in ensuring that learner’ copes with the emotional challenges experienced in this stage for optimal social and learning experience. The purpose of this study was to answer research questions on what contributes to the perceptions of adequate social support in a school environment. Which social support systems contribute most to the perceptions of adequate social support? What role does the teacher play in providing social support at school? Would the services of school social worker contribute in anyway to how learners perceive school environment? The concept of social support was described as a key concept of measurement by means of literature study. A questionnaire was designed and utilized to collect data on perceptions regarding social support in the school environment. Data was then analysed to determine whether formal support systems would promote the development of social networks in the community. It became clear from the research findings that high school learners have emotional challenges that needs the attention of a professional person which are non existent in Vosloorus high schools. It was also discovered that learners are unable share their problems in school as the environment is not conducive for them to do so. It also became evident that learners tend to depend on social networks for support in the absence of busy parents. Although the learners felt physically supported, they are lacking emotional and mental wellbeing. The main recommendation of the study is that social support for learners should be supported and mainstreamed in the curriculum to reach majority of learners with emotional, physical, psychological and social needs.

Magister Artium (Child and Family Studies) - MA(CFS) / In South Africa when learners are in Grade 11 near the end of their school life, the new, but also difficult, transition into adult life now begins. This critical period of development brings forth an array of new challenges: exercising free will, being independent, an increased focus of self, and the decision on what path is to be taken after school. With these challenges comes the act of motivation to acquire the particular goals and aspirations of Grade 11 learners. The question posed was therefore what exactly motivates the South African Grade 11 learner, and why are they motivated to set and aspire to certain goals? The study investigated the basic psychological needs of Grade 11 learners at secondary schools in the Western Cape, along with its relation to the identification of the goals and aspirations of these learners. The study was quantitative in nature. Grade 11 learners currently enrolled for the 2012 academic year, attending secondary schools in the Metro North Western Cape Education District, were invited to participate in the study. This study investigated the influence of basic psychological needs on goals and aspiration pursuits. The sample consisted of 264 Grade 11 learners and data was collected through the administration of a questionnaire compiled through the combination of two scales: The Aspiration Index, and the Basic Measure of Psychological Needs Scale. The data was analyzed through regression analysis. The results of the study suggest that the satisfaction of needs was found to be a significant predictor of both intrinsic as well as extrinsic goal pursuits. The findings further provide an understanding of how basic psychological needs influence the identification of goals and aspirations of Grade 11 Learners. Recommendations are provided for further research in the field of adolescent basic psychological needs and its influences on the identification of goals and aspirations.

Cyberbullying can be defined as the wilful and repeated harm inflicted upon others through the medium of electronic text (Patchin, 2002). Typically, cyberbullying involves sending harassing or threatening e-mails and instant messages, posting derogatory comments of someone on a website, or physically threatening or intimidating someone online. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between adolescents’ experience with cyberbullying and their level of self-esteem. There is a considerable amount of support, which has been accrued over the years, alluding to the fact that incidents involving bullying have damaging consequences upon adolescent development. One such correlation that has earned a considerable amount of interest is the consequence of bullying on selfesteem. Self-esteem can be defined as a favourable or unfavourable attitude toward the self. The current research study employed an exploratory, descriptive quantitative research design. Quantitative research focuses on using empirical data with findings based on certainty. Results are accumulated through formal measurements using prearranged instruments and analysed through the use of statistical measures. Research consisted of the completion of a biographical questionnaire which provided data on the demographics of the sample. The cyber bully/victim questionnaire provided information about the prevalence of cyberbullying behaviours among the participants. James Battle’s Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory was utilised to measure the construct of self-esteem. Participants were selected by means of non-probability sampling and comprised of a sample of grade seven learners enrolled at a primary school in George, Western Cape. Quantitativedata, obtained from the self-report questionnaires, were analysed through the use of descriptive statistics, ANOVA statistics and a Pearson R correlation coefficient. One key finding revealed that over fifty percent (51.40%) of the grade 7 participants had been involved in cyberbullying behaviours. No significant relationship was found to exist between cyberbullying and selfesteem in the grade 7 sample. Self-esteem scores did not vary significantly among the cyberbullies, cybervictims, cyberbully-victims and bystanders in the sample.

This essay reports on findings drawn from a larger study which seeks to discover the ways in which persons between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one years attempt to cope with their situation in the period of transition between childhood and adulthood. The emphasis centres on three matters which are sources of conflict for youth: the striving for independence, the management of sexuality, and the desire for achievement. These conflict areas are considered in their relation to the structure and function of the youth culture, the structured complex of patterns of behaviour adhered to by youth, and their relevance for the process of identity formation. It was expected that the ways of coping with these problems of youth would differ according to the socio-economic position of the respondents. Data for the study was collected first, by means of a questionnaire administered to students in the introductory sociology course of this university. This allowed the selection of a sample of persons exhibiting the necessary characteristics of age, and socio-economic status which was calculated on the basis of the education and income of their parents. Each of the respondents grouped according to these criteria into four categories for each sex was interviewed and given a sentence completion test. Thirty-eight persons instead of the hoped for forty-five in each of eight categories—fulfilled the requirements. We found that all the respondents experience conflicts with regard to the three designated areas. In their striving for independence the conflict centred on their attempts to reconcile their need for independence from parental authority with a complementary need for dependence on their parents. In their attempts to manage sexuality they are striving to satisfy their desires and their consciences, and to gain social approval all at once. Under achievement they are trying to preserve their independence, utilize their capabilities, and obtain security simultaneously. Their general response to these conflicts is characterised as a "quiet rebellion". This involves the expression of independence in ways which satisfy the cultural dictates concerning children's obedience to parents and ensures social approval for "standing on their own feet", although this latter subtly subverts parental authority. It is further manifested in their moral individualism which lays the onus of the decision concerning right conduct on the individual, and in their proposed ritualistic participation in the public sphere with a concomitant innovation in the private realm. The centrality of the problem of independence reveals that these three conflicts are aspects of the search for identity involving at once the struggle to relate themselves to the environment in a new way and reluctance to abandon the old relation. The data suggests that it is not socio-economic status, but the character of the parent-child-relations in which they are embedded which differentiates their response to their situation. Furthermore, their behaviour is characterised by realism, a tendency to assess their social environment critically and not to yield to irresponsibility and romantic idealisation. It is therefore suggested, on the basis of the important similarities and differences between their behaviour and that of the youth culture, that the latter can be differentiated into sub-cultures corresponding to the early, middle and late adolescent age-levels. The more dramatic features of the youth culture would be confined to the two earlier levels, whereas at the third level there is greater orientation to the patterns of adult culture, with maintenance of such youth culture patterns as independence strivings and the dating complex which are adaptive for functioning in the adult world. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

As a short-term psychiatric centre, Crease Clinic was designed for the treatment of adults. In common with many other adult mental institutions in North America, however, it has increasingly been asked to assume responsibility for the care of adolescents, because of the lack of more appropriate resources for young people. Conscious of the fact that the younger patients need a type of treatment different from that of adults, the Clinic has, at various times, tried to introduce modifications within its main psychiatric programme for the benefit of this age-group. Nevertheless, adolescent patients have continued to pose problems to both the hospital and community, and there are serious questions on both sides as to what legitimate achievements can be expected from their treatment in the Clinic. Accordingly, this study surveys the problems and needs of a selected group of adolescent patients, namely, those suffering from behaviour disorders. In the light of dynamic knowledge of their personality structures, it seeks to evaluate the degree to which the Clinic is meeting the needs, and the directions in which its programme might be strengthened or modified. The group of adolescents, those thirteen to nineteen years of age who were admitted to Crease Clinic in the period 1956 - 1958, numbers forty-four in all. Information derived from the clinical records covers the problems they presented, their family backgrounds, and their living circumstances at the time of admission. The clinical treatment programme is examined in its basic aspects of: (1) "milieu" and activity programmes; (2) psychotherapy and somatic therapies; (3) participation of parents; (4) the role of social service. Data were obtained on this portion of the study from the files of the sample group of patients, from interviews with staff members, and from the writer's personal experience as a social worker in Crease Clinic. The main conclusion reached is that there is a clear need for a specific unit for the treatment of adolescents, whether it be attached to the mental hospital, or established separately within the community. The treatment currently available within the Clinic for these young patients is not adequate to meet their needs; some of the primary deficits appear to be: (1) the limit upon the period of residence in the Clinic; (2) insufficient structuring and coordination of the various therapeutic programmes, and (3) the lack of individually planned treatment related to each patient's particular needs and problems. There is evidence that Crease Clinic can offer this type of patient limited service as an emergency resource for suicidal or assaultive youngsters, as a diagnostic resource for those needing immediate assessment or a period of observation, and as a treatment unit for the minimally-disturbed adolescent whose "acting-out" seems to stem from current situational stresses. However, to effect permanent treatment gains for this group of disturbed adolescents, an appropriately-staffed In-patient resource, designed specifically to meet their needs, is essential. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

The purpose of the present study is an assessment of the personal and social adjustment of older foster children and the extent to which the present foster home program in rural British Columbia has facilitated meeting these personal and social needs. The group examined, thirty-one in number, were all adolescents in the care of the superintendent of child welfare for British Columbia who reached eighteen years during this year, and who were, or had recently been, legal wards of the Superintendent placed in foster homes throughout the province. The analysis undertaken involved compilation, of available factual data on the family background, including cultural and racial factors, marital status of the parents and reasons for the breakdown of the child’s natural family. The placement experience of the children themselves includes examination of the ages of the children at the time they entered foster care, the number of foster home placements each child underwent, the intelligence, educational and employment as well as health factors. Against this factual picture of the group as a whole, assessment of personal and social maturity on three levels was made against four descriptive criteria of adjustment. The latter included (a) the adolescent's feelings of his own worth and value as a person, (b) the ways in which he was able to handle the realities of his immediate environment, (c) his capacity to withstand the frustrations of his daily living, and finally, (d) the capacity which he evidenced in forming relationships with those around him. The findings of the study indicate foster home care was a meaningful and constructive experience for a majority of the adolescents studies, all of whom had strong feelings of inferiority and lack of personal worth at the time they entered foster care. It was also found that often these feelings persisted into latter adolescence and hampered their growth toward responsible adulthood. A lack of successful adjustment was observed in a minority of cases, expecially for children admitted in early adolescence as a result of delinquent behaviour. The study adds further point to the need for extensive research on the effectiveness of foster care in meeting the needs of foster children of all ages. Comparison with a related study conducted by A.L. Langdale in 1951, suggests similar findings in the meaning which a foster care experience holds for the older adolescent, and the necessity of an intensive exploration of ways in which the minority who have not benefitted by foster care may be assisted to a more positive personal and social adjustment in adult life. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study of resistance of the adolescent to casework services was undertaken in an effort to determine if any relationship existed between the resistance shown and the emancipatory efforts and psychosexual conflicts of this age. Thirty adolescents showing resistance throughout their casework contact at the Child Guidance Clinic of Vancouver were used in this connection. These thirty adolescents showed four main patterns of resistance. The majority of 50%, showed progressive resistance over their contact with the agency. The next largest group of 20% showed swings in resistance; generally manifesting more resistance initially and terminally than in the exploratory period of casework. The third group of 16 2/3% showed consistent participation or resistance throughout their clinic contact and evidenced little movement during this time. The last group of 13 1/3%, were decreasingly resistant as casework proceeded and appeared to be the group who externalized and worked through their initial resistance most successfully. Of the thirty adolescents who were diagnosed as in need of intensive casework treatment; only four continued treatment at the clinic. Three other youngsters were referred elsewhere for help; and 23 ceased treatment of any kind as a direct result of their resistance. This resistance seemed intimately connected with the adolescent stage of development. Emancipatory efforts, interfered with treatment in 60% of the cases. Oedipal attachments to parents complicated the treatment relationship in 30% of the cases; and inability to relate precluded use of treatment in 10% of this group. The fact that these adolescents all came from homes in which parent-child difficulties predominated meant that the normal solution of adolescent problems were hindered. It leads us to believe that resistance to casework is an almost inevitable consequence of such distorted family settings. To cope with such resistance implies that we must first of all be alert to resistances, which may be overt or latent, in our first contact with the adolescent client. Use of the peer group in treatment settings needs to be explored further. Increased integration of community resources is vital if full use is to be made of existing sources of help by the adolescent in need of assistance. Also, new resources; such as a residential treatment center; professionally led parent education groups, etc., must be established to reach the difficult group of clients. More attention must be given, also, to the caseworker dealing with these resistant clients; if her own anxiety in the face of the client's withdrawal is not to increase such tendencies in the adolescent. A follow-up study of the results of casework help to such resistant adolescents needs to be done if we are to know the value of spending our time with these difficult clients. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate