Ph.D. / Aggression during adolescence has a long term effect on the mental health of adolescents. This is a great reason for concern. Although society is intensely aware of the incidences of aggression within South African schools, little research is available regarding this issue. Learners with special educational needs, and specifically learners with cerebral palsy, have been even more neglected in this regard. This study evolves from the field work of the researcher’s M.Ed. dissertation in which the experience of aggression in adolescent boys with cerebral palsy was explored and described. The aim of this study is to develop, describe, implement and evaluate a psycho-educational model as a frame of reference for the facilitation of constructive management of aggression in adolescent boys that live with cerebral palsy. A theory generating research design was used to fulfil this purpose. The development of this model consisted of four steps. Step one consisted of the concept analysis. Facilitation, constructive and management were identified as the central concepts. As part of the concept analysis these concepts were defined and essential and related criteria were discussed. All the concepts and criteria were then summarised in a comprehensive definition. A model case was constructed before the concepts were classified. During the process of classification a heightened self-awareness was identified as the terminus of the process. During step two relationship statements were drawn between the different concepts. These relationship statements as a whole provide substance and structure to the theory. In step three the psycho-educational model as a frame of reference for the facilitation of constructive management of aggression in adolescent boys with cerebral palsy was described. The structure of the model was described in terms of its purpose, assumptions and the context of the model.

M.A. / This research has been undertaken against the background of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) as being one of the major causes of death in South Africa. An indepth literature study made it evident that, despite intervention programs that have been successful in reducing the CHD rate, it still remains a number one killer. This could possibly be attributed to CHD prevention programs that historically have focused on biologically related lifestyle factors, and neglected a very important adjuvant risk factor for CHD, namely Type A behaviour. The aim of this dissertation was to study the viability of changing Type A behaviour in childhood through group sport participation in view of the fact that the Type A behaviour pattern (TABP) already present in childhood, has to date not been addressed as a primary preventative possibility. Group sport was chosen as an intervention by nature of it being co-operative, socially supportive and successful in the improvement of a number of relevant factors. Sport has also been demonstrated to be an appropriate outlet for aggressive impulses apparent in Type A behaviour. Twenty subjects participated in the intervention program that took place over a period of eight weeks. A second group of ten Type A subjects served as a no-treatment control group. The intervention was carried out at a primary school in Johannesburg. The results of the study revealed that Type A behaviour (TAB) was not reduced, save for the impatience component, by participation in group sport. Aggressive potential and anxiety in the Type A child, were also not reduced. It is concluded that the intervention of group sport in the reduction of TAB was not successful, and that future studies should investigate an intervention that is successful for the reduction of the TABP in childhood.

D.Litt.et Phil. (Psychology) / According to Cunningham (1978) there is a fair amount of controversy that surrounds the possible causes of auto-immune diseases. According to him there are two conflicting categories of causes of which psycho-social causes is one and abnormalities of the immune system is the other. Although a substantial amount of studies concerning the relationship between psychological factors and immune functioning have been done, the results have been inconclusive. The reason for this seems to be that there is a vast amount of mediating factors. A further aspect that needs to be taken into account is that psychoneuroimmunological research has focused mainly on adults. Schleifer, Scott, Stein and Keller (1986) is of the opinion that extensive research is required to study the effects of the central nervous system and behaviour during the early development of a person. The study attempted to identify possible psycho-social factors that could contribute to pediatric diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. In order to identify factors that are unique to auto-immune diseases four groups were compared i.e, emotional disorders, behavioral disorders, auto-immune diseases and a "normal" group.

The TAT stories of 38 sexually abused females between the ages of 5 and 18 years and a clinical group of 26 females with no recorded history of abuse were analyzed using the Object Relations and Social Cognitions TAT Scoring System (Westen et al., 1985). Subjects in the sexual abuse group showed significantly lower mean scores on a scale measuring affect-tone of relationship paradigms and on a scale measuring complexity of representations of people. In addition, pathological responses were given significantly more often by sexual abuse victims on the complexity of representations of people scale. Thus, sexually abused children showed more primitive and simple characterizations of people and more negative, punitive affect in their representations. Moreover, these results were independent of age, race, and intelligence. Group differences are discussed in terms of object relations development.

Sexual abuse of children has profound negative effects on psychological development. This study examined the effects of sexual abuse on object relations functioning by using the Mutuality of Autonomy Scale (MAS, Urist, 1977) to score Rorschach protocols of 63 abused children and 60 non-abused clinical controls. The hypothesis that abused children would have less developed object relations than their non-abused counterparts was not supported. Neither was the hypothesis that children who experienced greater severity of sexual abuse would exhibit more malevolent object relations. The hypothesis that mean and modal MAS scores would be highly intercorrelated and interchangeable as research variables was supported. Comparisons of this sample to a normative sample are discussed.

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(1) Problem: Research on internalizing problems in young children is scarce despite evidence that children can have problematic internalizing symptoms as early as preschool years 1-3. In preschoolers, it is difficult to observe internalizing problems directly. While they are not overtly socially disruptive behaviors4, they have negative consequences in their daily lives, can continue in adolescence, and potentially develop into disorders in later years 5-7. Studying internalizing problems in preschoolers is of particular importance in Low- and Middle- Income Countries (LIMC) since there may be a higher prevalence of common risk factors (such as parental psychopathology, violence, and neglect) than in High-Income Countries. According to the World Health Organization, in 2015, Brazil (a LMIC) ranked first in the past-year prevalence of anxiety (9.3%) and fifth in the prevalence of depression (5.8%) 8,9 in people aged 15 years or older. Preschoolers in São Paulo, Brazil, have an estimated six-month prevalence of internalizing problems of 25.4%. There are few estimates in other regions of Brazil, partly due to the lack of validated scales to measure them. In addition, it is unknown if the disparate rates by sex (females have at least twice the rates of males) seen in adolescence and adulthood could be detected at an early age. This dissertation's primary goal is to advance our understanding of internalizing problems in preschoolers in Brazil, a LMIC that is highly affected by psychopathology and associated disability. (2) Methods: First, a systematic literature review on the topic in LMIC was conducted. Second, data from the Preschool Mental Health Survey (the PreK Survey), with a representative sample (n=1,292) of preschoolers aged 4 to 5 years old and their caregivers in the city of Embu das Artes, São Paulo, was used to: (a) do Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) of the internalizing section of a worldwide known assessment tool for problem behaviors in preschoolers (the Child Behavioral Checklist CBCL 1.5-5); and (b) conduct multigroup CFA to examine differences by sex in the structure of internalizing problems. Finally, Generalized Linear Models for complex data were used to assess the risk of internalizing syndromes by parental depression, severe physical or verbal violence, and low-quality time with parents differentially by sex of the preschoolers. (3) Conclusions: From the literature review, a scarcity of research on internalizing problems of preschoolers was found in LMIC. Hence, (a) only a few risk factors, mainly parental psychopathology, have been explored in most LMIC; and (b) the large majority of studies in LMIC in the Americas use the CBCL 1.5-5 or other scales not validated for their study population. From the multigroup CFA, it was concluded that (a) the construct of internalizing problems in the CBCL 1.5-5 is valid in preschool boys and girls in São Paulo, Brazil, and in similar contexts, supporting previous and future studies on the topic; and (b) the main syndromes of internalization are "Anxiety/Depression" and "Emotionally Reactive." From the assessment of risk, it was concluded that (a) the main risk factor for internalizing problems in preschoolers in Brazil is parental depression; (b) externalizing problems are highly correlated with internalizing problems and are the main source of confounding; (c) there were no significant differences by sex in the prevalence of risky exposures, but they were all significantly associated with internalizing problems; (d) there were significant differences by sex in the mean scores of internalizing syndromes, and in the associations of risky exposures and internalizing problems, highlighting the need of a differential approach to primary prevention and treatment in preschool boys and girls.

African American children experience risks due to heightened socio-environmental problems and responding to negative racial messages in their environments. Child Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) is one viable intervention for the development of social emotional competence among African American children to help mediate adverse conditions. I sought to explore the effects of CCPT on the social emotional competencies of African American children utilizing Social Emotional Assets and Resilience Scale-Parent & Teacher (SEARS-P; SEARS-T) reports. Thirty-seven African American participants with a mean age of 6.68 years were recruited from four suburban elementary schools in the southwest U.S. Twenty participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group receiving a mean of 13.3 CCPT sessions over 8 weeks, and 17 participants were assigned to the waitlist control group. Factorial ANOVA results indicated that parents reported statistically and practically significant improvement for children who participated in CCPT in overall social-emotional competencies. Follow-up analysis revealed statistical and practical improvement in children’s empathy, as well as practical improvement in self-regulation/responsibility and social competence. Teacher-reported results indicated practical but non-statistically significant improvement in overall social-emotional competencies for children who participated in CCPT, including statistical and practical improvement in children’s responsibility, as well as practical improvement in self-regulation, social competence, and empathy. Thus, CCPT showed promise as a culturally responsive treatment intervention to improve African American children’s social-emotional competencies

This study examined the perception of parental nurturance, the parental identification, and the sex-role orientation of women who had been sexually abused as children. Its purpose was to explore these aspects of a woman's relationship with her parents and the subsequent sex role development, as it relates to the presence or absence of sexual abuse in the relationship. Eighty women averaging 31 years of age volunteered to participate in the study. The women represented three distinct populations with respect to the question of sexual abuse. The first group reported never having been sexually abused (Nonabused). The second group reported having been sexually abused by their father or stepfather (Father Abused). The third group reported having been sexually abused by someone other than their father or stepfather (Other Abused). As predicted, perceived parental nurturance was significantly lower for members of the Father Abused group than for the remaining two groups. In addition, the Nonabused group reported the highest nurturance scores of the three groups. Contrary to expectation, there was no difference between the parent identification patterns of the three groups. Support was provided for the prediction that women who had been sexually abused by their fathers were more likely to express undifferentiated sex roles than androgynous ones. Women not abused by their fathers were more likely to express androgynous sex roles than undifferentiated ones. Limitations of the study and implications of the results were discussed.