Women are more at risk of experiencing violence involving people at home or close acquaintances, than from virtual strangers and outsiders. Domestic violence affects as many as one in two women in South Africa. Most women may keep secret abusive relationships and this might reside in a deep-seated fear of further abuse or as be frowned upon by a community that endorses social taboos which prohibit speaking about or even implying the reality of incidents of domestic violence. This phenomenological study investigates the actual experiences of women staying in physically abusive relationships. In this study a qualitative approach, involving thorough research, are presentation has been adopted in order to discuss, in a meaningful manner, the suffering of women who have experienced physically abusive relationships. The participants in the study include eight women who have been involved and suffered physically abusive relationship and these, living in Pretoria and suburbs, comprise an age category ranging from between twenty five to fifty. Data gathered and utilised has been accumulated by means of semi-structured open ended interviews. Hermeneutic phenomenological analysis was used to analyse and come to a conclusion regarding the data obtainable. The findings of the study have highlighted the role played by power and control, gender inequality and patriarchy experienced by women involved in these intimate relationships. The study further revealed the complexities surrounding the reasons and motives contributing to women staying in and suffering physically abusive relationships / Psychology / M. A. (Psychology: Research consultation)

Despite the large number of children and siblings who are exposed to domestic violence, relatively few studies have examined sibling influences on the psychosocial effects of exposure to domestic violence. The aim of this study was to explore the opinions of experienced child and family clinicians on whether, and how, the presence of siblings moderates children’s experiences of domestic violence and any subsequent effects on their development and wellbeing. This study employed an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to analyse interviews with five clinicians. Analysis of the interviews revealed six superordinate themes; one sibling taking on a protective and parental role; polarisation of sibling relationships; factors influencing sibling relationships; the impact on the sibling taking on a parenting or protective role; impact on the sibling being protected; and the importance of individual family context. Overall, the findings from the interviews with the clinicians suggest that in families where children are exposed to domestic violence one child tends to take on a parental role and also attempts to protect their siblings from the violence. These results also emphasise the importance of formulation in understanding the influence of sibling relationships on the psychosocial effects of domestic violence, as there are many different factors which need to be considered. Some implications for clinical practice are discussed and potential future research directions are outlined.

The tertiary education environment has become known for its stressful working conditions. Factors such as high work demands (i.e. work overload, excessive time demands and work pressure) and insufficient resources (i.e. limited developmental possibilities, poor performance feedback, lack of support, etc.) all contribute to these stressful circumstances. As a result, these circumstances can cause employees to experience negative interferences between their work and nonwork roles. In addition, employees do not have adequate time to invest in their nonwork domains, hence nonwork roles are neglected (such as being a parent, being a spouse, spending time on domestic activities and spending time on religious/spiritual activities). To decrease these negative interferences, it is important for employees to recover from strains that were activated at work. The objectives of this study were to determine 1) which demands and resources significantly predicted work-nonwork interference among employees working in a tertiary education institution; and 2) which recovery strategies were significant in dealing with high levels of work-nonwork interference caused by high demands and a lack of resources. A random sample of 366 married parents was taken from a tertiary education institution in the North-West Province. A list was obtained of all the married parents of the institution. All of these employees were given the choice to participate in the research. A measuring battery measuring job demands (i.e. work pressure, emotional demands and cognitive demands), job resources (i.e. autonomy, social support and developmental possibilities), work-nonwork interference (i.e. work-parent, work-spouse, work-domestic and work-religion/spirituality) and recovery strategies (psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery and control) respectively was utilised in this study. Descriptive and inferential statistics, Cronbach alpha coefficients, Pearson product-moment correlations and stepwise multiple regression, using the enter method, were used to analyse the data. The results indicate that work pressure and emotional demands significantly predict interference between all four nonwork roles. Additionally, autonomy and developmental possibilities significantly predicted work-parent and work-religion/spirituality interference respectively. Furthermore, all of the recovery strategies decreased specific worknonwork interference. Psychological detachment decreased the interference between the workspouse relationship and the work-religion/spirituality relationship. Relaxation predicted the decrease of interference between the following relationships: work-parent, work-spouse, and work-domestic. Mastery and control only significantly predicted the decrease of interference between the work-parent relationship and between the work-domestic activities respectively. Various recommendations were made for tertiary education institutions as well as for future research. Tertiary education institutions should manage high job demands by examining employees’ workload and job descriptions. Managers could possibly diminish work pressure and emotional demands by means of courses/workshops pertaining to self-management, time and organisational skills, emotional intelligence and/or coping with emotions. Tertiary education institutions should also focus on supporting employees who experience work-nonwork interferences and manage it effectively. In addition, the awareness of recovery and various recovery strategies should be promoted. Recommendations for future research include expanding the research to other occupational groups, longitudinal research designs, obtaining various opinions and perspectives of individuals also involved in the work-nonwork dyad and the study of the positive interaction between the work and nonwork roles. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2010.

In all the Black communities, women’s rights have always been taken for granted. Women have always been subordinate to the patriarchal system. The denial of domestic violence against rural women has its origin in the age long patriarchal society, deeply rooted in culture and tradition. The main aim of the patriarchal society is the control of women by men. The idea of protecting women abuse is not really new. It is a necessary component of long established and internationally recognized human rights. This includes the right to equality and freedom, liberty and personal security. The recognition could be traced to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 (UDHR). However, women’s rights remain unrealized and are continuously violated despite the fact that these rights are well expressed in many international documents and national laws. The study examined the factors that conduce towards domestic violence against rural women in the Kwa Zulu Natal Province of South Africa. In this regard, the reasons why they support culture and traditional practices that are detrimental to their health were also explored. The small isolated area of Umzimkhulu was used. In-depth face to face interviews were employed to elicit information from the respondents and brief notes were written down to collect the data. The findings revealed that women are not aware of their human rights. This ignorance and negative attitude is influenced by the dependency of women to men, supremacy of the patriarchal system and the dominance of culture. Most disturbing is that these women don’t seem to see anything wrong with the situation. It is evidently clear therefore that women empowerment, through education, will not only affect women’s autonomy but will also increase their worth and make them understand the impact of traditional practices that they support. All these will have implications for policy and legislative interventions.

The problem with which this study is concerned is that of determining the optimal transfer of property from a decedent to his surviving spouse. A secondary problem addressed is whether equity between common law states and community property states in the application of the estate tax provisions has been achieved through the allowance of the marital deduction. From this analysis decision criteria were developed to aid taxpayers and their advisors in determining optimal property transfers to a surviving spouse. Conclusions of the study were the following: (1) The primary concern when formulating an estate plan should be to determine whether any property should be transferred to the surviving spouse. The literature has stressed qualifying transfers for the marital deduction while giving minimal consideration to the wisdom of doing so. This study indicates that in a majority of estates optimal results are obtained by making no transfers to the surviving spouse. (2) Relative after-tax rates of return of the surviving spouse and other beneficiaries are the most important factors in determining optimal transfers to the spouse. This again conflicts with the literature which has emphasized relative estate sizes as the dominant factor. (3) Rates of inflation have minimal influence in determining the size of the optimal transfer. (4) Citizens of common law states are generally favored as opposed to citizens of community property states in the application of the estate tax laws. Citizens of these states have more flexibility in. planning transfers to beneficiaries and may generally do so at a lower tax cost through use of the marital deduction.

No description available.

Assortative Mating, the tendency for mate selection to occur on the basis of similar traits, plays an essential role in understanding the genetic variation on academic achievements and intelligence (IQ). It is an important mechanism explaining spousal concordance. We used principal component analysis (PCA) for spousal correlation. There is a significant positive correlation between spouses by the new variable PC1 (correlation coefficient=0.515, p<0.0001). We further research the genetic factor that affects IQ by using the same data. We performed a low density genome-wide association (GWA) analysis with a family-based association test to identify genetic variants that associated with intelligence as measured by WAIS full-score IQ (FSIQ). NTM at 11q25 (rs411280, p=0.000764) and NR3C2 at 4q31.23 (rs3846329, p=0.000675) were 2 novel genes that haven't been associated with IQ from other studies. This study may serve as a resource for replication in other populations and a foundation for future investigations.

This study aims to examine how employees from protected shelters perceive that abused women on partner visas have experienced the leaving process and thereafter understand the possible impacts a person’s migration background can have. The study is based on five qualitative interviews with six employees from different protective shelters in Sweden, where results were analyzed through thematic analysis and based on intersectional theory. Results in this study show that oppressive norms and cultural traditions forces the women to remain in the relationship, and that being new in Sweden makes it more difficult for them to leave their spouses. The immigration legislation disadvantages these women, as the fear of deportation increases the risk of these women staying longer in abusive relationships with the protection rule being applied very restrictively setting requirements for evidence that are difficult to achieve. The decision to leave is often based on the women having been exposed to severe physical abuse that has required the authorities to intervene, the fear of harm to or losing children, and/or that the women have been supported and given information by outside sources.

No description available.