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Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / Background: Food insecurity is a phenomenon affecting many developed countries, among them susceptible to food insecurity are tertiary students. Food insecurity affects the livelihoods of students and is a global problem. This causes doubt and anxiety which affects the educational outcome of students and losing focus on academic excellence. This study focuses on student food security and the role of campus food aid programs at the University of the Western Cape. Food security is an important aspect of people’s lives globally. While food insecurity is a significant challenge experienced by many South Africans nationally. Thus, necessary to shed light on the challenges of food among tertiary institutions and the relevance of food aid programs. Methods: The present study employed a mixed-method which has provided both significant elements of quantitative and qualitative research methods. A comprehensive review of the literature was employed, this includes both academic literature and grey literature on student food insecurity globally, nationally, and at UWC. Primary data and secondary data were collected to answer the research questions. The quantitative element of this study was conducted through an online questionnaire with thirty postgraduate students. While the qualitative element was conducted semi-structured with ten postgraduate students. Results: Students from low socio-economic backgrounds, without funding, covid 19, and expensive food on campus are some of the main causes of food insecurity. Students experiencing food insecurity have lost interest in their academics, performed less than their potential in academic assessments, some have failed the academic year and dropping out before time. The discontinuation of some food aid programs has increased the demand for food and the need for more food initiatives to be established. The role of food aid programs provided positive results in the alleviating of food insecurity during covid 19 and have proven consistency in the provision of food. Conclusion: This study aimed to bring awareness about the existence of food insecurity among postgraduate students. Stakeholders of the university, policymakers, and researchers must take into consideration the various effects of food insecurity and investigate the alleviation strategies. This prevents the increase in dropping out, students repeating the academic year, and getting an improvement in academic excellence and graduation rates

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Sedan början av 1900-talet har de flesta förlossningar skett på sjukhus och antalet hemförlossningar har minskat drastiskt. Idag är hemförlossningar ytterst ovanligt i Sverige och finns ej som ett vårdval trots att kvinnor har rätt till självbestämmande vad gäller sin graviditet och förlossning.  Syftet var att beskriva kvinnors anledningar till att välja hemförlossning.    En litteraturöversikt med ett systematiskt tillvägagångssätt utfördes som metod. Databassökning skedde i databaserna PubMed, CINAHL samt PsycInfo. Artiklarna kvalitetsgranskades och inkluderade artiklar analyserades med integrerad analys.   Studiens resultat mynnade ut i två huvudkategorier. Den första huvudkategorin var “på kvinnans egna villkor” med subkategorierna “egenmakt och kontroll”, “hemmet som en trygg plats”, “tron på den egna kroppen” och “den fysiologiska födseln” samt “val av närvarande personer”. Den andra huvudkategorin var “att undvika negativa upplevelser” med subkategorierna “tidigare negativa erfarenheter” och “viljan att undvika interventioner”.    Slutsatsen var att det finns olika anledningar till att kvinnor väljer hemförlossning där de främsta är att föda på sina egna villkor och önskan att undvika negativa upplevelser. Kvinnor vill ha inflytande över sin förlossning och ha möjlighet att välja personer som ska närvara och stödja kvinnan. Hon vill föda på en trygg och säker plats, hemmet, där hon har större möjlighet till en normal eller fysiologisk förlossning utan onödiga interventioner. För att främja kvinnors självbestämmande bör alternativ till sjukhusförlossning erbjudas. / Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the majority of births have taken place in hospitals, and the number of home births has decreased substantially. Home birth is utterly rare in Sweden, and it is not a publicly funded option for Swedish women, even though women should have the right to independently make decisions about their pregnancy and labor.   The aim of the study was to describe women’s reasons for choosing home birth.  A literature review with a systematic approach was the performed method. Databases used for this purpose were PubMed, CINAHL and PsycInfo. The articles were quality reviewed and analyzed through integrated analysis.    The findings of the study were presented in two main categories with appurtenant subcategories. The first main category was “the woman’s own terms” with subcategories “empowerment and control”, “the home environment is a safe space”, “belief in the body and the physiologic birth” and “choosing present people”. The second main category was “wanting to avoid negative experiences” with subcategories “previous negative experiences” and “wanting to avoid interventions”.  The conclusion was that there are various reasons why women choose home birth where the main reasons were to give birth on their own terms and a desire to avoid negative experiences. Women want to be able to influence their labor and have the opportunity to choose people who will be present and support the woman. She wants to give birth in a safe and secure place, her home, where she has a better chance for a normal and physiological birth without unnecessary interventions. In order to promote women's self-determination, alternatives to hospital birth should be offered.

Background: According to the broaden-and-build model of positive mood, positive emotions are believed to broaden cognition resources and build psychological resiliency, to help incur positive psychological outcomes. Aim: We examined hope as a potential mediator of the association between positive mood and suicide protection (viz., life satisfaction and reasons for living) in adults. We hypothesized that positive mood would be associated with greater suicide protection through broadening hope agency and building hope pathways. Method: A sample of 320 college students completed measures of positive emotions, hope, and suicide protection. Results: Results from bootstrapped mediation testing indicated that hope agency, but not hope pathways, partially or fully mediated the relationship between positive mood and suicide protection. Limitations: It is not clear whether these findings are generalizable to a more diverse adult population. Also, it is not possible to rule out alternative causal models involving positive emotions and suicide protection. Conclusion: These findings provide some promising preliminary evidence for how positive emotions might help build hope agency to foster greater suicide protection in adults.

The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes toward violence and reasons for living in adolescents with high, moderate, and low self-esteem. An attitudes toward violence scale was devised for the purposes of this study. Self-Esteem was assessed using the shortened version of Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (SES). The Brief Reasons for Living in Adolescents (BRFL-A) was utilized to assess adaptive characteristics. The independent variables were gender and self-esteem. The dependent variables were total reasons for living score and attitudes toward violence score. Participants included 138 males and 95 females, ages 11 to 15 years old (M = 13.3) from a Kingsport City Middle School. A packet containing a short demographic questionnaire, Self-Esteem Scale, attitudes Toward Violence Questionnaire, and the Brief Reasons for Living Inventory was administered. A 2 (gender) X 3 (level of self-esteem) Analysis of Variance with unequal cell sizes was used to test for main and interaction effects. The significance level was set at the .05 level. For the dependent variable attitudes toward violence, main effects were found for both gender and self-esteem. For the dependent variable reasons for living, a main effect was found for self-esteem but not for gender. No interaction effects were found. An inverse relationship was found between violence and reasons for living. Significant relationships between some of the subscales of the RFL and the dependent variables were non-hypothesized findings of interest. Maleness and low self-esteem emerged as predictors of more accepting attitudes toward violence. Low self-esteem was significantly related to fewer reasons for living. Implication of findings, limitations of the study, and suggestions for future research were discussed.

This study examined emotional empathy and reasons for living in substance using college students. Participants included 49 males and 120 females, ages 18 to 54 years (M = 21.95) from undergraduate psychology classes. A packet containing a substance abuse scale, a short demographic, Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES), and Reasons for Living Inventory (RFL) was administered. The independent variables were gender and levels of substance use. The dependent variables were reasons for living scores and emotional empathy scores. A 2 (gender) X 3 (level of substance use) Analysis of Variance was used. For empathy, a main effect was found for gender but not for substance use. For RFL, no effects were found. Significant relationships between two demographics and dependent variables were non-hypothesized findings. Being arrested for a crime other than a minor traffic violation was related to low emotional empathy. Suicidal ideation was significantly related to fewer reasons for living.

The government in Maharashtra are trying to rehabilitate the informal settlements in Mumbai through the slum rehabilitation authority and its rehabilitation scheme and we wanted to learn more about how it worked and how it affects living conditions for former residents of an informal settlement and how it can differ from those still living there. This study has a focus on a specific informal settlement in Mumbai, called Gilbert Hill. Through observations and interviews with people living in the area, the research investigates resident’s opinions and experiences. Interviews with officials, involved in the planning of Mumbai were conducted, in order to learn how the interaction between formal and informal structures looks like. The results will be presented in this report and will give an insight of the life in an informal settlement in Mumbai as well as the thoughts and efforts with the rehabilitation of said settings. Our findings have been analysed and discussed in the light of David Harvey’s The right to city, displacement theories, theories about the public private partnership and what it is that makes informal settlements to persist. We have discovered that it is not as easy as to just redevelop an informal settlement according to a uniform plan. Residents have special bonds to the neighbourhood, both between each other and to the place itself. Even though the residents might be viewed as impoverished and underprivileged they still should have a right to form their future as well as their surroundings. They certainly have a will to do so.

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Background: The lack of adherence to drug therapy is a major problem; it can contribute to significant deterioration of disease and increased health-care costs. Improving medication adherence is a big challenge; there is no simple solution to the problem. It is thus essential to improve our knowledge of non-adherence (NA) and its causes. Aims: The aims of the thesis were to study the influence of gender and psychological distress on self-reported, intentional and unintentional non-adherent behaviour, and to investigate the reasons for NA. Methods: A population-based study that included a postal questionnaire was carried out in a cross-section of the general Swedish population (n=7,985, aged 18-84 years). The response rate was 61.1% (n=4,875) and current prescription drug use was reported by 2,802 participants. The questionnaire covered use of prescription drugs, NA to the drug regimens, reasons for NA, economic status, attitudes to drugs, and the presence of somatic or mental problems, and also included the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale questionnaire. Results: The results showed differences in various self-reported non-adherent behaviour patterns and reasons for NA between the genders. In most cases, these remained after controlling for confounders such as socioeconomic factors and attitudes to drugs that are known to differ between women and men. Associations were also found between symptoms of anxiety and/or depression and the presence of intentional or unintentional non-adherent behaviour (with a stronger average association for intentional NA), and between anxiety/depression and some of the reasons given for NA, e.g. adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Conclusions: Although it was not possible to confirm causal relationships, this thesis emphasises the effects of gender and psychological distress on NA. In summary, both gender and anxiety and/or depression influenced non-adherent behaviour and the reasons given for NA. For instance, ADRs seemed to influence the decision not to take the drug as prescribed, especially among women and participants under psychological distress. It is suggested that a deep understanding of the causes of NA and of the impact of gender and psychological distress on the outcomes would help those aiming to improve adherence to prescribed medication.