The purpose of the current study was to examine delinquent pre-adolecents. It was hypothesized that both predictor variable [exposure to community violence (number of events; preception of events) and stressful life events (number of events)] would impact delinquent behavior (violent thoughts, violent behaviors, and promiscuity).

school learnersChild-headed household is a phenomenon that is growing in South Africa. As such, it is imperative to uncover the realities of children in this situation. This study explores and describes the schooling experiences of secondary school learners from child-headed households. This qualitative study included a sample of 20 grade 10 and 11 learners from four secondary schools. Data were collected through structured interviews and document analysis. The Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyze the data. The findings suggest that secondary school learners from child-headed households live in poverty and encounter experiences such as absenteeism, psychological trauma, gender-based discrimination, lack of adequate food and scholastic materials, drug abuse and teenage pregnancy. These experiences impact negatively on their schooling. The study recommends that learners from child-headed households should get more care and support from educators and other stakeholders. / Science and Technology Education / M.A. (Socio-Education)

[Truncated abstract] Early psychosocial stress is conjectured to place individuals on a developmental trajectory leading to earlier pubertal maturation, earlier initiation of sexual activity and earlier reproduction than those with less early psychosocial stress. This may have an adaptive function to minimise the chances of lineage extinction, which is more likely in environments of high risk and uncertainty. Previous studies have examined the relationship between early psychosocial stress and life history stages (e.g., age at puberty, age at first sex and age at first birth). However, these studies are limited in that they either examined only a few early psychosocial stressors, examined psychosocial stress relatively late in individuals' lives and/or were restricted to women. Thus, the first aim of the present thesis was to examine these findings in both genders using a measure of early psychosocial stress comprised of 24 categories of retrospectively assessed stressors (e.g., sexual abuse, physical abuse, parental divorce, rated quality of family life) during the first 7 years of life. It was hypothesised that individuals with high, as opposed to low, levels of early psychosocial stress would pass through life history stages earlier. The second aim was to examine how early psychosocial stress affects characteristics associated with life history traits, such as individuals? length, number and type of heterosexual relationships, number of sex partners, adult attachment styles, number of pregnancy terminations, and attitudes and behaviours towards contraceptive use. High levels of early psychosocial stress were predicted to be associated with characteristics reflecting a quantitative, as opposed to a qualitative, reproductive approach (e.g., more sex partners, more short-term relationships, insecure attachment styles). The third aim was to examine how early psychosocial stress is related to mate choice because numerous studies have identified what traits individuals' desire in a mate but not whether early psychosocial stress affects these choices. ... Early psychosocial stress generally had no effects on age at first sex, age at first birth, the number of pregnancy terminations, and mate choices. On the other hand, individuals with high, as opposed to low, levels of early psychosocial stress were more likely to be insecurely attached, had more short-term sexual relationships (men only), had more extra-pair copulations, were more likely to be divorced/separated, had a greater lifetime number of sex partners (men only), and had lower self-rated frequencies of contraception use. Overall, some of these findings are consistent with life history theory, which suggests that individuals with high levels of early psychosocial stress (i.e., those living in environments of high risk and uncertainty) should reach biological maturation earlier, engage in behaviours that facilitate earlier and more frequent reproduction to minimise the chances of lineage extinction. Implications for public health, limitations of the present study and future directions are also discussed.

school learnersChild-headed household is a phenomenon that is growing in South Africa. As such, it is imperative to uncover the realities of children in this situation. This study explores and describes the schooling experiences of secondary school learners from child-headed households. This qualitative study included a sample of 20 grade 10 and 11 learners from four secondary schools. Data were collected through structured interviews and document analysis. The Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyze the data. The findings suggest that secondary school learners from child-headed households live in poverty and encounter experiences such as absenteeism, psychological trauma, gender-based discrimination, lack of adequate food and scholastic materials, drug abuse and teenage pregnancy. These experiences impact negatively on their schooling. The study recommends that learners from child-headed households should get more care and support from educators and other stakeholders. / Science and Technology Education / M.A. (Socio-Education)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a new anxiety prevention program, the Parent Resilience Program. The program is a cognitive-behavioral based prevention program designed to reduce the risk of anxiety in young children, specifically by reducing parent stress and teaching coping skills. The sample consisted of the parents and/or caregivers of 12 preschool-aged children. Parents attended eight weekly sessions of a psychologist-led intervention. Significant reductions were observed related to the impact of shyness on the child’s quality of life as well as parental anxiety and stress, both of which are risk factors for developing an anxiety disorder. In line with this, trends toward reduction were also seen in child anxiety symptoms and behavioral inhibition. These preliminary results suggest that the Parent Resilience Program may be effective at reducing the risk factors associated with the development of anxiety disorders.

This thesis compares the different trauma received at the three major hiding places for Jewish children in Belgium during the Holocaust: Christian establishments, private families, and Jewish orphanages. Jewish children hidden at Christian establishments received mainly religious trauma and nutritional, sanitary, and medical neglect. Hiding with private families caused separation trauma and extreme hiding situations. Children staying at Jewish orphanages lived with a continuous fear of being deported, because these institutions were under constant supervision of the German occupiers. No Jewish child survived their hiding experience without receiving some major trauma that would affect them for the rest of their life. This thesis is based on video interviews at Shoah Visual History Foundation and Blum Archives, as well as autobiographies published by hidden children.

MA (Psychology) / Department of Psychology / See the attached abstract below

Objetivo general: determinar si existe relación entre el estrés cotidiano infantil y el clima social escolar en estudiantes de cuarto y quinto grado de primaria de un colegio privado de Lima Metropolitana. Objetivo específico: comparar ambas variables según sexo. Método: La muestra estuvo conformada por 127 niños entre 8 y 12 años de edad (M=10.15; DE = 0.79), el 59.1% son mujeres y el 40.9% son varones. Se aplicó la Escala de Estrés Cotidiano Infantil (Flores, 2017) y el Cuestionario para Evaluar el Clima Social del Centro Escolar (Trianes, Blanca, De la Morena, Infante & Raya, 2006), se evidenció adecuada validez y confiabilidad para los puntajes de ambas pruebas. Resultados: Se establece relación inversa débil, con un tamaño del efecto mínimo, entre el estrés cotidiano infantil y el clima social escolar en ambas dimensiones (referente al centro y al profesorado). Además, se encontraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas en ambas dimensiones del clima social escolar según sexo, siendo las mujeres quienes presentan puntajes más elevados. Conclusiones: Existe correlación negativa entre el clima social escolar y el estrés cotidiano infantil y diferencias en clima social escolar cuanto a género. / The main objective of this research is to establish the relationship between daily childhood stress and school social climate among fourth and fifth grade students from a private school in Lima. As a specific objective, comparisons in both variables according to gender were established. Method: The sample consisted of 127 children between the ages of 8 and 12 (M=10.15; SD = 0.78); 59.1% of them female and 40.9% male. The Everyday Stress Scale for Children (Flores, 2017) and the Questionnaire for Evaluating the Social Climate of the School (Trianes, Blanca, De la Morena, Infante & Raya, 2006) were applied, adequate validity and reliability were evidenced for the scores of both instruments. Results: A weak inverse relationship is established, with a minimum effect size, between children's daily stress and the school social climate in both dimensions (referring to the center and the teachers). In addition, statistically significant differences were found in both dimensions of the school social climate according to sex, with women having the highest scores. Conclusions: There is a negative correlation between the school social climate and children's daily stress and differences in the school social climate in terms of gender. / Tesis

Text in Afrikaans / Practical research has shown that children experiencing learning restraints may suffer from high stress levels. These children encounter difficulty adapting to normal scholastic challenges and their performance often appear marginalised. The objective of this study is to explore the phenomenon of stress experienced by three eleven year old learners with learning restraints in the intermediate phase. The literature study on this topic has shown that learning restraints not only affect a child scholastically, but in his entire being. Based on this understanding, learning restraints may cause stress due to habitual underachievement in the learning environment. These learners might not necessarily have extremely poor cognitive abilities, but perceive themselves as incompetent or "dumb". In the empirical study, projection techniques were mainly utilised to determine stress levels experienced by learning restrained learners, from their internal frame of reference. From these findings, certain recommendations are proposed for psychotherapy. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counseling)

In die konteks van hierdie studie word daar deurlopend van die manlike vorm gebruik gemaak om na die kleuter te verwys, ten einde 'n lomp stelwyse te voorkom. Die vroulike vorm sou ook daarmee veronderstel en ingesluit kon word. Die vroulike vorm word gebruik wanneer daar na die moeder verwys word. / Merkbare verandering word soms in die kleuter se gedrag, emosies en verhoudings na die geboorte van `n baba waargeneem. Die doel van die kwalitatiewe studie was om die moeder se persepsie, belewenis en hantering van hierdie aanpassingsprobleme van die kleuter te verken. Semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude is met nege moeders gevoer. Uit die studie het dit duidelik geword dat onkunde ten opsigte van die ontwikkelingsfase van die kleuter, asook die aanpassingsprobleme aanleiding tot foutiewe persepsies by die moeder gegee het. Hierdie foutiewe persepsies het `n negatiewe invloed op die moeder se belewenis en hantering van die aanpassingsprobleme gehad. Die navorser het tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat moeders betrek moet word vir ouerleiding wanneer aanpassingsprobleme by die kleuter aangemeld word. Verskeie aanbevelings wat van waarde kan wees tydens ouerleiding aan moeders van kleuters is deur die navorser gemaak. / The birth of a sibling often results in a toddler displaying changes in behaviour, emotions and relationships. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the mother's perception, experiences, as well as coping strategies of the toddler's adaptation problems, following the birth of a sibling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine mothers. The study revealed that the mother's lack of knowledge and understanding of the developmental phase of the toddler, as well as the adaptation problems, manifested in misconceptions. These misconceptions affected her experiences of the adaptation problems, as well as how she managed it. The researcher concluded that mothers should be referred for parental guidance when adaptation problems are reported. Various recommendations to be used within parental guidance have been made. / Social Work / M.Diac. (Spelterapie-Rigting)