In the holistic development of the young child, optimal gross motor development has an important influence on optimal physical, perceptual, cognitive, language, affective-social and normative (behavioural) development (Kapp, 1991; Gallahue & Ozmun, 1998), and is therefore considered to be essential in the preschool years. The goal of this dissertation was to present the results of much-needed recent research on gross motor development of a group of children living in an urban area in South Africa, by 1) determining the current levels of gross motor development, 2) assessing the prevalence of and the influence of overweight and obesity on gross motor development, 3) establishing the relationship between overweight and obesity, gross motor development and gender, 4) determining the relationship between quantitative and qualitative assessment results of the one leg balance, and 5) investigating the occurrence of gender differences in gross motor development, in a group of 3-6 year old children living in Potchefstroom. These aims were addressed by structuring the dissertation in eight chapters, Chapter 1 constituting the introduction and statement of the problem, Chapter 2 a review of relevant literature, Chapters 3 to 7 constituting 5 research articles addressing the specific aims of the study, and Chapter 8 including the summary, conclusions and recommendations. For each of the 5 research articles, the participants were 3-6 year old children (N = 514) who lived in Potchefstroom and had been enrolled in the movement development program (MDP) presented by movement developmentalists of the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (P.U. for C.H.E.). Descriptive statistics (Chapter 3-7), practical significance based on effect sizes (Chapter 4 and 5), 2 way frequency tables and Pearson Chi-square as well as the Phi for two-way tables (Chapter 6), and t-values, degrees of difference and p-values (Chapter 7) were used. The current levels of gross motor development of preschool children in Potchefstroom (Chapter 3) were determined by testing a total of 462 3-6 year old children (215 males and 247 females) on 8 gross motor tasks, and comparing the results to norms and criteria as found in the literature. The 3, 4 and 5 year olds compared favourably to their counterparts in all the tests except for balance walk and catching, standing long jump in the 4 year olds and throwing in the 5 year old group. The 6 year old group scored lower than the norms and criteria in all the tests except for standing long jump, indicating alarming implications for school readiness. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 examined the prevalence of and the differences in the quantitative and qualitative execution of four gross motor tasks (standing long jump, hopping, one leg balance and catching) between groups of overweight and obese (0) and nonobese (NO) boys, and girls, respectively. In the male study, 17 0-participants and 49 NO-participants were compared, while 13 0-participants and 54 NO-participants were used in the female study. Differences of practical significance (medium or large effects) in favour of nonobese groups were found in all the quantitative and qualitative tests among the male participants, while similar differences were found in only the quantitative tests for the one leg balance and all the qualitative tests among the female participants. A prevalence of overweight and obesity of 16.35% was found among the boys and 11.81% among the girls. The results indicated that 0-children of the ages 3-6 years generally compare poorly to NO-children in relation to gross motor proficiency. In Chapter 6, the one leg balance ability of 514 subjects was quantitatively and qualitatively assessed using valid norms and criteria found in literature. A positive relationship of statistical significance (p :S 0.05) was established between the quantitative and qualitative scores of the one leg balance in every age group. A relatively large percentage (44.10%) of 3 year olds scored well above the average level for their age in both types of assessment, indicating that the norms and criteria used might not be appropriate for 3 year olds. Relatively large percentages (25.27% - 27.47%) of the 6 year olds scored below the average level for 5 year olds in the qualitative assessment, suggesting developmental balance delays or disorders. These findings indicate that a quantitative and qualitative assessment should be combined to assure a more accurate assessment. The results of Chapter 7, involving 221 male and 243 female participants, showed significant gender differences in hopping and balancing on the right leg in favour of the females in the 3 year old group, and in the standing long jump and throwing for distance in favour of the males in the 5 and 6 year old groups, indicating that separate norms should be used for the different genders when assessing standing long jump and throwing for distance in 5 and 6 year olds. In the light of the findings of these studies, recommendations presented in Chapter 8 for the assessment and structuring of a programme for the optimal development of gross motor skills in preschool children, living in urban areas in South Africa, include that: 1) special attention should be given to the optimal development of gross motor skills of 6 year olds in a structured gross motor development programme, 2) obesity should be addressed even in the preschool years, and activities for the specific skills shown to be related to overweight and obesity (balance skills and catching in boys and girls and standing long jump in boys) should also be specifically emphasized in these children, 3) both a quantitative and a qualitative assessment should be used specifically in the one leg balance assessment and is recommended for other fundamental motor assessments, and 4) separate norms should be used for the assessment of the standing long jump and throwing for distance in 5 and 6 year olds, and more emphasis should be placed on ball skills in girls, and co-ordination skills of boys in the structuring of a movement development programme. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Human Movement Science))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2002

Bakgrund: I Sverige drabbas varje år cirka 30 000 personer av stroke och en tredjedel av dem får tydliga funktionsnedsättningar. Även livet för familj och andra närstående till den drabbade kan påverkas. Problem: Tidigare forskning visar att sjuksköterskor kan ha svårt att ta del av patienters upplevelser när de drabbats av funktionsnedsättning efter en stroke. Detta är något som kan påverka sjuksköterskans vårdande. Syfte: Att beskriva de drabbades upplevelser av att leva med funktionsnedsättning efter en stroke. Metod: En kvalitativ litteraturstudie av vårdvetenskapliga artiklar med Evans beskrivande syntes som analysmetod. Resultat: Upplevelser som kom fram delades in i tre stora teman och var kopplade till den förändrade kroppen, det förändrade jaget och den förändrade framtiden. Underteman var kopplade till kontroll och avsaknad av kontroll av kroppen, ett nytt jag och en ny roll, förlust av självständighet samt återhämtning och positiva tankar om framtiden. Slutsats: Att leva med funktionsnedsättning efter en stroke är något som påverkar den drabbade både kroppsligt, själsligt och andligt och det blir en omställning till ett nytt liv. Sjuksköterskan bör bli medveten om dessa upplevelser för att göra vården för dessa patienter så bra som möjligt. / Background: In Sweden aproximately 30 000 people suffers a stroke every year and a third of the victims are also affected by disabilty. The life of families and relatives of the victim is also affected. Problem: Previous research shows that nurses may find it difficult to take part of patients’ experiences when they are affected by disabilty after a stroke. This may be something that can affect the nursing care. Aim: To describe the victims’ experiences of living with disabilty after a stroke. Method: A qualitative literature review based on scientific articles with a descriptive synthesis by Evans as the method of analysis. Result: The experiences that came upp were divided into three different themes which were linked to the changed body, the changed self and the changed future. The subthemes were linked to the control and the lack of control of the body, a new self and a new role, loss of independence, recovery and positive thoughts about the future. Conclusion: Living with disabilities after a stroke is something that affects the victim both physically, mentally and spiritually and it will be a life changing event. Nurses should be aware of these experiences to make the nursing care as good as possible.

The international community has followed up its 2001 invasion of Afghanistan with a complex multi-faceted peacebuilding project. However, informed observers believe the Western-led mission in Afghanistan has failed to address the inherent peacebuilding needs of Afghanistan and has hindered the formation of a locally experienced sustainable peace. In response, emerging peacebuilding theory and rhetoric has pointed to an urgent need for revised peacebuilding paradigms and strategies that hold local (Afghan) ownership of peacebuilding activities as a central concern. This research project utilised a qualitative grounded theory methodology to explore perceptions of Afghan ownership of peacebuilding activities in Afghanistan. Research data was gathered in early 2011 through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 63 local and international peacebuilding leaders in two Afghan urban centres. The participants included persons from the United Nations, the Afghan and foreign governments, local and international NGOs, a broad range of civil society groups, international donors, and the international military forces. Analysis of the interview narratives revealed several dilemmas on the journey towards increased Afghan ownership of peacebuilding. First, participants believed that the international community is performing important roles in Afghanistan, but is struggling to ensure Afghan ownership of peacebuilding activities. Second, international and Afghan peacebuilding actors have struggled to define who should be owning peacebuilding in at least two respects: (1) civil society or government; and (2) traditional- informal or democratic-formal institutions. Third, grassroots populations and Afghan civil society felt virtually no ownership of upper-level peace processes, and described a distinct lack of locally owned grassroots-level peace process activities. And fourth, inappropriate external forces and processes, the militarisation and politicisation of peacebuilding activities, local aid dependency, and inadequate local control over peacebuilding coordination have hindered the international-domestic inter-relationship in Afghanistan. However, the dilemmas of local ownership do not need to be viewed as unworkable barriers but can be re-conceptualised as holding constructive potential in designing sustainable peacebuilding solutions. To this end, this research study proposed the creation of a locally owned, broadly participatory, and strategic dispute resolution system that might transform international-local relations and forge the necessary space in which the transition to local authority and ownership might occur.

A qualitative phenomenological study using van Manen’s human science method was conducted to gain insight into the lived experience of patients and their family members transitioning through one hundred days post haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Three families between zero and five years post HSCT were recruited from a bone marrow transplant unit in central Canada. Multiple in-depth open-ended interviews and field notes were employed to arrive at a detailed description of the lived experience of patients and family members. Awakening from the cocoon emerged as the main essence of patient’s and family members’ experiences, supported by three themes: the disruptions, the chrysalis, and new beginnings. The results from this study provide evidence that the families viewed the HSCT in a positive perspective and highlight the importance of supporting families throughout the acute phase of transplantation.

Archivists have made considerable efforts in recent decades to address the challenge of making archival records more useful. They have attracted new researchers by using various methods: from launching books and exhibits, handing out brochures, and sending press releases, to hosting lectures and, more recently in the digital age, launching websites and blogs, digitizing records, and posting archival records on websites like Flickr. However, these methods amount to a scattered approach that seeks out a variety of new users -- often in the wider society -- while the majority of potential users, often connected to an archives’ own sponsoring institution, still too rarely take advantage of the archives at their doorstep. These people may have never used an archives and likely think they do not need to do so. This thesis addresses the issue of how, in effect, to create users of archives among this group by a more direct approach to them than the typically scattered and more general one. The study of such efforts by archives is the study of archival public programming. Although current public programming efforts at university archives do bring in new users from the campus community, a more targeted approach might address this concern by attracting far more of them. Particularly on university campuses most students, faculty, support staff, retired professors, and administration do not make use of and may even be unaware of the campus archives. Archives on university campuses are repeatedly challenged to prove their usefulness in order to warrant continued funding from campus administration. I argue that this thesis offers university archivists (and other archivists) a tool with which to work to raise statistics of new users in order to satisfy university administrative metrics for sustainability. This thesis will test this approach through a case study of eleven University of Manitoba Faculty of Arts professors who have not used archives much or at all. Academics are often looking for new sources for their research. By understanding the usefulness of archives to their work, they may discover a vast new source of information in a variety of local, national, and foreign repositories and become more comfortable in navigating archives. The thesis will also discuss any weaknesses discovered in the testing of the approach and suggest improvements. In addition, it will discuss how such an approach might be phased in to archival work at a university archives such as the University of Manitoba's Archives & Special Collections as a feature of day-to-day work, rather than a one-time exercise.

School counsellors are individuals with specialized training in social-emotional support for children and adolescents. In fact, school counsellors are the front-line school personnel who recognize and respond to various student mental health concerns. Despite the important role of school counsellors, there is little research that explores the experiences and perceptions of school counsellors who support students with mental health concerns. Using a phenomenological qualitative approach, this study is based on a set of interviews conducted with four school counsellors who work with students ranging from kindergarten to grade 12. School counsellors were interviewed individually and asked about their views, experiences, approaches, outcomes, and challenges in relation to supporting students with mental health concerns. Data analysis explored the lived experience and essential themes of school counsellors working as mental health professionals.

The application of personality assessment techniques for clinical and personnel decisions has always been a major activity for psychologists all over the world. In South Africa personality assessment tools are often used for purposes of selection, placement, determination of job satisfaction and development. Psychological testing in South Africa was originally initiated with white test-takers in mind, and currently none of the available personality questionnaires used in South Africa have been found to provide a reliable and valid picture of personality for all cultural (language) groups. Since 1994 South Africa has had a new constitution and there are stronger demands for the cultural appropriateness of psychological tests. In this study, the implicit perspectives of personality of Sesotho-speaking South Africans are being determined in order to develop a more culturally fair personality assessment tool for South Africans. A qualitative research design was used with an interview as data-gathering instrument. A Sesotho-speaking fieldworker was recruited to interview 120 Sesotho-speaking South Africans from the Free State Province. The study population was purposely drawn from different sections of the Sesotho-speaking population. A total of 4873 Sesotho-speaker personality descriptors were obtained from the participants and then translated into English. Content analysis was used to analyse, interpret and reduce these descriptors to a total of 94 personality characteristics, which highlights the most important perspectives of personality for Sesotho-speaking individuals. The personality characteristics were divided into seven categories, namely sociability, interpersonal relatedness, emotionality, meanness, conscientiousness, dominance and other. The majority of the characteristics are representative of communalism or the collective consciousness in African communities. Sesotho-speaking persons are socially active and are sympathetic, caring and tolerant towards others, they are willing to become involved in the feelings, problems and welfare of others. The findings of this study were compared to the Five Factor Model and evidence were found for the extraversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism and agreeableness factors, but not for the openness to experience factor. In comparison with the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory support were found for 17 of the 22 personality scales. Characteristics such as admonitory, resourcefulness, religion, humour, fair, judgemental and discriminating can be seen as characteristics indigenous to the Sesotho culture. Limitations in the research are identified and recommendations for future research are made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

This research explores the meaning that older persons ascribe to the friendships in which they engage. Previous research mostly focuses on the strain that the older population places on the self-reliant community. The older person is faced by many challenges, such as sickness, loss of social and emotional support and death. Friendships serve as a support for physical and emotional needs which could not always be addressed by the family. The aim of this research is to explore the type of friendships in which older persons prefer to engage and the meanings they assign to it. A qualitative study was identified as the most appropriate method and focus groups and personal interviews were used as methods of data collection. Data was analysed by means of thematic content analysis. Findings indicated that different types of friendships exist and that different meanings were attached to friendships. Meaning in friendships is promoted by trustworthy friends who are able to form a deepened level of connection through the support and the compassion they are able to give each other. The experience of connection in friendships is furthermore enhanced through mobility, proximity and technology that facilitate better emotional as well as physical support for the older individual. Informal friendships with younger people ensure that older people are more mobile and are able to maintain their friendships. It is also a great source of support in cases where family members are not able to provide support, due to whatever reason. Further exploration of the value of friendships is recommended, so as to plan more specific intervention strategies. Some insights have already been gathered in this study concerning the way in which mobility, proximity and modern technology can make it possible to sustain a friendship. Further studies could explore ways to empower older people through providing better mobility, proximity and the use of modem technology. Such studies may also explore the needs which an old age home fulfils, such as improving the residents' access to one another, for mutual support. Proximity might be a solution for the immobility experienced in the older community, and when older people are taught to use modern technology they will be enabled to maintain their friendships better. / Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Objective: A neglected issue in literature on nutrition and HIV/AIDS is how other health professionals view their role in that arm. The purpose of this study was to understand professional nurses' perception regarding their ability to render effective nutritional care to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Design: A qualitative approach was used. Twenty-three, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses (mean age 38) working in eight (five rural and three urban) Wellness clinics within public hospitals providing antiretroviral therapy (ART) in North West Province, South Africa. Brief structured demographic questionnaires were also administered. All interviews and focus group discussions were recorded for transcription and open-coding. NVivo was used for open coding, whilst descriptive statistics were done using SPSS for windows (version 14, SPSS Inc., Chicago. IL). A research team of professionals and researchers collaboratively analysed data for emerging themes. Results: All the hospitals that participated had at most three nurses, having at least one professional nurse working in the Wellness clinic for PLWHA. More than half of the participants interviewed were diploma holders, eight (35%) were degree holders and three (13%) had certificates in nursing. Five main themes (previously guided by the interview questions) emerged during the analysis of data and these portrayed participants' perceptions regarding their ability to render effective nutritional care to PLWHA. The themes were 1) challenges faced by nurses dealing with PLWHA on a daily basis, 2) concerns of PLWHA, 3) nurses’ perception on the importance of nutrition in HIV/AIDS care, 4) nurses’ perceived ability to deal with nutritional issues in HIV/AIDS, 5) the role of traditional healers, traditional medicine in HIV/AIDS. Thirty five percent of participants mentioned poor socio-economic status of PLWHA as a barrier to the participants to talk about good nutrition to people that are food insecure. Furthermore, 13% of participants indicated that they are constantly facing the dilemma of PLWHA mixing traditional medicines and ART. Participants perceived the following skills to be important in the area of nutrition and HIV/AIDS: communication, listening and knowledge. Although knowledge could be debated as it is not a skill per se, the participants believed that on needs to acquire nutrition knowledge first and then improve on the communication and listening skills with more exposure and training. Ten (41%) of the participants interviewed rated themselves as average, 11 (48%) participants as good whilst only 4%, representing one participant, felt they were very good at giving out nutrition education. Sixty one percent of participants said they would require more knowledge, whilst 39% said they would need to acquire communication and listening skills for them to be able to render effective nutritional cart to PLWHA. In this study, participants perceived nutritional care to PLWHA as their responsibility and that lack of knowledge was influencing their inability to offer this service effectively. All the participants indicated a need for collaboration with nutrition professionals, ill-service training us well as exposure to clear communication channels for nutrition and HIV/AIDS information. Participants were concerned with the lack of policy implementation regarding nutrition and policy documents. Of the 23 participants interviewed, only two (9%) confirmed having seen and rend the South African Guidelines on Nutritional Care for People Living with TB, HIV/AIDS and other Chronic Debilitating Conditions. Conclusion: All participants interviewed believed that nutrition knowledge in the area of HIV/AIDS can be improved if poor people who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS are food secure. Concerning practice, it is recommended that nutrition and HIV/AIDS as a topic be introduced in both undergraduate mid postgraduate training for nurses. The lack of policy implementation, level of qualification and years spent in the nursing profession may have influenced participants' perception regarding their ability, as well as confidence, to render nutritional care to PLWHA. Possible interventions to improve policy implementation could be the development of user-friendly information, education and communication materials for health institutions as these may serve as constant reminders to health care service providers. It was found that participants' perceptions regarding their ability to render effective nutritional care to PLWHA was affected by a complex number of factors which emerged as themes that need to be addressed. Participants' experience suggests that more research and inquiries are needed into traditional medicines and traditional healing, as the issue of ARVs and traditional medicine is becoming a public health dilemma, riot only to the nurses, but to every stakeholder involved in the field of HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, a need exists for nurse-specific outreach, collaboratively done by nutrition professionals and other stakeholders. This work thus provides a foundation for further exploring ways to improve the ability of other health care workers such as nurses in the nutritional care of PLWHA which will ultimately improve the quality of life of PLWHA. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Nutrition))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

Existing authors (Reichert, 1998; Watson 2009) have described the unique positive impact of Animal Assisted Therapy in Counseling (AAT-C) on the client’s perception of the therapeutic alliance as well as the professional counselor’s ability to build positive alliances quickly. When implemented with appropriate education and training, AAT-C can positively impact the therapeutic experience of a diverse range of clients across a wide variety of settings (Chandler, 2012; Fine, 2004). AAT-C requires a specialized set of skills and competencies that allows professional counselors to incorporate specially trained animals into the counseling process to influence the therapeutic process in ways that are beyond the scope of traditional counselor-client helping relationships (Stewart & Chang, 2013). However, there is currently no definition of counseling-specific competencies to guide practitioners in this specialty area. To address this gap, the presenters conducted an investigation using the Grounded Theory Method (Charmaz, 2006; Guba & Lincoln, 1989) to address the following research question: What knowledge, skills, and attitudes are required of competent practitioners of AAT-C? Based on the themes and subthemes that emerged from the data, the authors constructed a theoretical framework which represents competencies in AAT-C. Using this theoretical framework, the authors uncovered a total of nine essential competency areas for professional counselors utilizing AAT-C. They are divided into three domains in accordance with the competency framework that includes Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes (Myers & Sweeny, 1990).