One of the most debated constituents of intimate partner violence pertains to attachment theory. Although, attachment theory can provide a theoretical framework for understanding the linkage between childhood family experiences and subsequent experiences with partner violence, there are controversial perspectives as to whether attachment style is stable from childhood to adulthood (Bowlby, 1973, 1980, 1982) or if attachment style can be formulated directly from adult abusive relationships (Caspi & Elder, 1988; Ricks, 1985). Therefore, the purpose of this research was to explore how attachment style presents in the Battered Woman Syndrome, determine if the battered woman's attachment style is consistent throughout childhood to adulthood or if it is manifested due to intimate partner violence exposure as well as to determine how attachment style is manifested in interpersonal functioning and perceived power and control. The theory of learned helplessness (Seligman, 1975) was used as a conceptual model for understanding why battered women remain in abusive relationships. There were 137 female sample participants who reported a history of domestic violence. Measures administered included the Battered Woman Syndrome Questionnaire (BWSQ, Walker, 1978) that assessed childhood history, interpersonal functioning and power and control and the Revised Adult Attachment Scale (Collins and Read, 1996) that assessed the participant's attachment style. Statistical techniques employed included latent class analysis, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and logistic regression. Results indicated that aversive childhood environment (as measured primarily by childhood battering variables) and involvement in adulthood abusive relationships were significantly related to childhood environment and involvement in adulthood abusive relationships. Across all five adulthood battering episodes there were significant overall effects of attachment style on sexual abuse scores. Results also confirmed the hypotheses that insecurely attached participants were more likely to report more interpersonal functioning difficulties and lower perceived power and control when compared to secure participants. Implications for future research are also presented.

Pubertal timing and relationships with parents and peers have each been linked to substance use in adolescent girls. However, to understand the origin of adolescent substance use in relation to these factors, it is important to focus on combined risk effects. As shown in the systematic review (the first part of this PhD project) only a few studies have tested the relationships between these factors in predicting adolescent substance use The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the main effects of pubertal timing and psycho-social factors (parent-daughter relations and peer deviance) on substance use. A second aim was to examine whether the links between pubertal timing and girl’s substance use are indirect via psycho-social factors (mediation) and whether the links between psycho-social factors and substance use differ across pubertal timing groups (moderation). Girls’ data from the population-based Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) was analysed. Pubertal timing was assessed yearly between ages 8 and 17, parent-daughter relations and peer deviance at age 15, and alcohol, cigarette and cannabis use at age 16. Additionally, analyses controlled for a set of a priori selected confounders. Late maturing girls had lower levels of cannabis use compared to on-time maturing girls. Late maturing girls had fewer alcohol drinking, cannabis using and delinquent friends than early maturing girls and fewer cannabis using friends than ontime maturing girls. Additionally, late maturing girls’ lower levels of alcohol use were partly explained by having fewer cannabis using and delinquent friends. To conclude, in late adolescence, the combined effects of peer deviance and pubertal timing are more influential than the combined effects of parent-daughter relations and pubertal timing, in predicting adolescent substance use. Collectively, the findings indicate the importance of creating targeted prevention programs that are sensitive to developmental stage in relation to the peer group.

This dissertation is the outcome of a 25-month long narrative inquiry-based study on experiences of living with motor neurone disease (MND). MND is an adult onset, incurable, neurodegenerative condition that is characterised by loss of voluntary muscle movement as a result of destruction of motor neurones, leading gradually to partial or complete paralysis and eventually to death. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of people living with MND. Following a narrative inquiry methodology the focus of the study was to explore how specific people live in their local contexts. Data were collected through the use of multiple semi-structured interviews with people with MND and some of their partners. The findings illustrate the unique ways in which people with MND experience the disease and make sense of their life. The seven people who participated in this study were trying to construct a notion of normality in their everyday life, in the midst of what were sometimes perceived as difficult or even abnormal circumstances. Through seeking and trying out different solutions to the challenges they were facing, participants were trying to create a life they could describe as good. The findings highlight the intersubjective nature of illness experiences. For the three couples who participated in the study the experience of being in a long-term relationship was a vital part of who they were, and how they experienced MND. The findings also underline the importance of exploring the experiential knowledge that people living with MND develop through managing the disease and incorporating it in various ways in their daily life. This knowledge can help create a kind of life that people living with MND feel is worth living.

This thesis investigates the cultural politics of a small group of women through their writing and other activities in 1880s London. Focussed on Olive Schreiner, Eleanor Marx and Amy Levy and the connections they had to one another and to other women, such as Henrietta Frances Lord, Clementina Black and Henrietta Müller, it explores key events in their everyday lives, the writings and texts they produced. It analyses a wide selection of textual sources, re-reading these for small details, intertextual connections and points of disjuncture, to allow for different ways of understanding the mechanics of feminist cultural politics as produced and performed by these interconnected women. Small things in texts can be revealing about such women’s everyday lives and connectedly the cultural politics which underpinned their actions, thus contributing to knowledge about how writing was used strategically and imaginatively to challenge, side-step and overcome oppression and inequality, in these years in London and after. Using the term ‘writing’ in a broad sense to include letters and diaries and other archival sources such as newspaper articles, reviews and manuscript drafts, as well as some selected published work and biographies, the thesis is anchored around four event-driven investigations: Olive Schreiner being accosted by a policeman; the first public performance of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House; the writing of a letter mentioning Eleanor Marx; and, the death of Amy Levy. Relatedly, there are discussions concerning working with historical documents, documenting and archiving the past, researching and representing the past in the present. These investigations allow for the operationalization of a research approach framed by ideas concerning micro, small-scale, everyday life and its qualitative aspects, which together contribute to a re-conceptualisation of a ‘sociology of small things.’ Specifically, it is argued that close and small-scale studies of women’s writing, whether undertaken alone or connected to others, sheds light on the importance of relationship dynamics in connection with writing output, on what writing was produced and what role each text played in larger scale political agendas. Concepts such as palimpsest, liminality and bricolage are interrogated with respect to researching and representing the spatial and temporal interconnectedness of the selected authors and textual sources. And contributions are made to contemporary thinking about epistolarity and social networks, focussing on reciprocity, gift-giving and receiving and notions of ‘letterness,’ along with the defining of boundaries, and the value of determining the nature of ties between women. The thesis also argues that the relationships between intimacy and distance, interiority and exteriority, public and private, are frayed with complicated overlaps.

Bakgrund: En av tre kvinnor i europeiska Unionen (EU) har upplevt psykisk misshandel av en partner. sjuksköterskan kan ställas inför flera olika etiska dilemman om våld-i-nära relations-problematik kommer fram i mötet med en misshandlad patient. Syfte: Att beskriva sjuksköterskors strategier och handlingsberedskap i mötet med den misshandlade kvinnan i den psykiatriska vården. Metod: En kvalitativ studie med semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes och analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys med en manifest ansats. Resultat: Åtta sjuksköterskor inom psykiatrin mellan 26-67 år deltog i studien. Självutveckling, tillit, och debriefing var viktiga strategier i mötet med den våld-i-nära-relationsutsatta kvinnan. Självutveckling handlade om behovet av temadagar och vikten av självinsikt. Tillit handlade om att vara närvarande, miljöns och timingens betydelse, samt att våga fråga om våld-i-nära-relation. Debriefing handlade om hur sjuksköterskan hanterade och gick vidare med svaren, och om betydelsen av kollegialt samarbete och egenterapi. Konklusion: Sjuksköterskor använder sig av flera strategier i mötet med den våldsutsatta kvinnan inom psykiatrin, men uttrycker ett behov av vidareutbildning, alltifrån temadagar till längre utbildningar.

Through examining the positionality of Hayashi Fumiko as well as the changing socio-political, economic and historical contexts in which she lived in, I look to better understand how Hayashi navigated through the patriarchal systems of society as a woman writer. This thesis includes a survey of the Meiji, Taisho and Showa periods as well as a comparative analysis of Hayashi's prewar, interwar and post-war works.

Thesis (MCur)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Background: For several decades childbirth educators and midwives have focused on the alleviation or reduction of pain and suffering during the childbirth experience (Brown, Douglas & Flood 2001:1). Nursing professionals who care for labouring women require current, evidence-based knowledge regarding pain management options, including mode of action, benefits, risks and efficacy (Florence & Palmer 2003:238). Objectives: This study examined the effects of non-pharmacological pain relief strategies for pain management during labour. Search methods: The researcher conducted a search between February and May 2010 on PubMed, CINAHL and CENTRAL for randomised controlled trials published from inception to 2010. The Medical Search Headings (MeSH) included non-pharmacological, alternative, pain management, labour, pregnant, complementary, randomised, randomly, midwifery, natural birth, relaxation, breathing, positioning, hypnosis, water birth, acupuncture, aromatherapy. Selection criteria: The studies included reported on pregnant women, primigravida or multigravida, term (37 weeks and more), spontaneous labour (first or second stage) without any complications in previous or current pregnancies. The researcher searched for randomised controlled trials with an intervention and a control group. Due to financial restrictions the researcher assessed studies that were published in English only. Interventions were childbirth education, continuous support, relaxation, breathing techniques, movement and positioning, music, manual healing, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, hypnosis and acupuncture. Data collection and analysis: Meta-analysis was performed using Relative Risks and 95% Confidence Interval for dichotomous outcomes and Weighted mean differences and 95% Confidence Interval for continuous outcomes. Review Manager (RevMan), a statistical software was used. Where meta-analyses were impossible results were presented in narrative form. The outcome measures were a decreased need for pharmacological pain relief, maternal satisfaction with the overall childbirth experience, length of labour (normal or shorter progress), incidence of postnatal depression, incidence of postpartum haemorrhage, an Apgar score of more than seven at five minutes, resuscitation of the neonate and admission to the neonatal intensive care unit. Results: Thirteen (13) eligible RCT’s were included in the systematic review. Four trials involved hydrotherapy (n=585), two trials involved acupuncture (n=480), two trials involved childbirth education (n=6398), one trial involved continuous support (n=2844), one trial involved aromatherapy (n=513), one trial involved maternal positioning (n=2547), one trial involved music, massage and relaxation (n=90) and one trial involved hypnosis (n=82). In the Freeman trial (1986) women in the hypnosis group required less pharmacological pain relief 15/29 compared to women in the control group 20/36. Women in the intervention group also experienced greater satisfaction with the childbirth experience 15/29 (52%) compared to women in the control group 8/36 (23%). The trials of acupuncture showed a decreased need for pharmacological pain management in Skilnand (2002) (n=208) for epidural 11/106 (10%) for the intervention and 27/102 (26.5%) for the control group as well as Pethidine 15/106 (14%) for the intervention and 36/102 (35%) for the control group. In the Borup trial (2009) it was reported that acupuncture during labour reduced the need for pharmacological pain management for the intervention group 185/314 (58.9%) compared to control 124/149 (83.2%) without affecting the birth outcome. The secondary outcome of length of labour (minutes) in the Skilnand trial is significantly in favour of the acupuncture group with a mean value of 212 (SD, 155), compared to the control group with a mean value of 283 (SD, 225) with a p-value of 0.01. Conclusions: Acupuncture may relieve labour pain and also shorten the duration of labour, and women experience greater satisfaction with the childbirth experience. Hypnosis may decrease the need for pharmacological pain relief requirements, and may also increase an overall maternal satisfaction with the childbirth experience. There is insufficient evidence about the benefits of childbirth education, continuous support, aromatherapy, music, massage, movement and positioning, breathing and relaxation. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Agtergrond: Vir talle dekades het die verloskundiges en vroedvroue gefokus op die verligting of vermindering van pyn en lyding gedurende die ervaring van kindergeboorte (Brown, Douglas & Flood 2001:1). Professionele verpleegkundiges wat omsien na vrouens wat kraam het die huidige, bewyslewerende kennis aangaande pynbestuuropsies nodig, insluitende die wyse van optrede, voordele, risiko en effektiwiteit (Florence & Palmer 2003:238). Doelstellings: Hierdie studie het die effekte van nie-farmakologiese pynverligtingstrategieë vir die beheer van pyn gedurende die kraamproses nagevors. Ondersoekmetodes: Die navorser het gedurende Februarie en Mei 2010 ’n ondersoek gedoen na PubMed, CINAHL en CENTRAL vir ewekansigbeheerde proewe gepubliseer vanaf die aanvang tot 2010. Die Mediese Ondersoekhoofde het farmakologiese, alternatiewe, pynbeheer, kraam, swangerskap, komplementêre, ewekansigheid, toevalligheid, verloskunde, natuurlike geboorte, ontspanning, asemhaling, posisionering, hipnose, watergeboorte, akupunktuur en aromaterapie ingesluit. Seleksie kriteria: Die studies het navorsing oor swanger vroue, primigravida of multigravida, tydperk (37 weke en meer), spontane kraam (eerste of tweede stadium) sonder enige komplikasies in vorige of huidige swangerskappe ingesluit. Die navorser het ewekansigbeheerde toetsing met ’n intervensie en ’n kontrole groep ondersoek. As gevolg van finansiële beperkings het die navorser studies wat alleenlik in Engels gepubliseer is, geassesseer. Intervensies soos die opvoeding oor kindergeboorte, deurlopende ondersteuning, ontspanning, asemhalingstegnieke, beweging en posisionering, musiek, handegenesing, aromaterapie, hidroterapie en akupunktuur is bestudeer. Data-insameling en analise: Meta-analise is uitgevoer deur gebruik te maak van Relatiewe Risiko’s en 95% Betroubaarheidsinterval vir tweeledige uitkomste en Gewigdraende gemiddelde afwykings en 95% Betroubaarheidsinterval vir deurlopende resultate. Review Manager (RevMan), ’n statistiese sagteware is gebruik. Waar dit ontmoontlik was om meta-analise uit te voer, was resultate gepresenteer in narratiewe vorm. Die uitkomste meting is ’n afname in die behoefte vir farmakologiese pynverligting, moederskapbevrediging met die algehele geboorteskenkervaring, die duur van die bevalling (normale of korter vordering), gevalle van postnatale depressie, voorkoms van postpartum bloeding , ’n Apgartelling van meer as sewe teen vyf minute, resussitasie van die neonaat en toelating tot die neonatale intensiewe sorgeenheid. Resultate: Dertien (13) geskikte ewekansigbeheerde proewe is ingesluit in die sistematiese oorsig. Vier proewe het hidroterapie (n=585), twee proewe akupunktuur (n=480), twee proewe die opvoeding van kindergeboorte (n=6398), een proef deurlopende ondersteuning (n=2844), een proef aromaterapie (n=513), een proef moederlike posisionering (n=2547), een proef musiek, massering en ontspanning (n=90) en een proef het hipnose (n=82). Die proef vir hipnose het ‘n afname in die behoefte vir farmakologiese pynbeheer met 15/29 vroue in die hipnose groep en 20/36 vroue in die kontrole groep getoon. Vroue in die hipnose groep het ook groter bevrediging gevind met die ervaring van die geboorteskenking met 15/29 (29%) in vergelyking met 8/36 (23%) in die kontrole groep. Die proewe vir akupunktuur het ’n afname in die behoefte vir farmakologiese pynbeheer Skilnand (2002) (n=208), met ‘n gemiddelde waarde van 11/106 (10%) vir epiduraal en 15/106 (14%) vir Pethidien in die intervensie groep en ‘n gemiddelde waarde van 27/106 (26.5%) vir epidural en 36/102 (35%) in die kontrole groep. Borup (2009) (n=384) toon ook ‘n afname in die behoefte van farmakologiese pynbeheer met ‘n waarde van 185/314 (58.9%) in vergelyking met die kontrole groep 124/149 (83.2%). Die sekondêre uitkomste van die duur van die kraamproses (minute) in Skilnand (2002), is noemenswaardig ten gunste van die akupunktuurgroep met ’n gemiddelde waarde van 212 (SA, 155) in die intervensie groep en ’n gemiddelde waarde van 283 (SA, 225) in die kontrole groep met ’n p-waarde van 0.01. Gevolgtrekkings: Akupunktuur mag kraampyn verlig en ook die duur van die kraamproses verkort, vandaar dat vrouens groter bevrediging mag ervaar met die ervaring van geboorteskenk. Hipnose mag die begeerte na farmakologiese pynverligting verminder en sodoende vroue groter ervaring met geboorteskenk mag ervaar. Daar is onvoldoende bewys aangaande die voordele van die opvoeding van kindergeboorte, deurlopende ondersteuning, aromaterapie, musiek, massering, beweging en posisionering, asemhaling en ontspanning.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigated the correlation between sexual beliefs, as well as the interpersonal perception of sexual beliefs within a marriage, and the dyadic adjustment and sexual satisfaction. Participants were 38 couples, married less than 10 years. Each participant completed the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Index of Sexual Satisfaction and the Sexual Irrationality Questionnaire. Each participant was also requested to complete the latter questionnaire as he/she would expect hislher partner to complete it. A significant relationship was found between sexual satisfaction and dyadic adjustment, as well as between spouses' sexual beliefs and their perceptions of their partners' sexual beliefs. No support was found for the hypotheses that the interpersonal perception of sexual beliefs would correlate with either sexual satisfaction or marital adjustment. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie studie is die verband tussen seksuele kognisies, sowel as die interpersoonlike persepsie van seksuele kognisies binne huweliksverband, en huweliksaanpassing en seksuele satisfaksie nagegaan. Deelnemers aan die ondersoek was 38 pare wat korter as 10 jaar getroud was. Hulle het elkeen die Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Index of Sexual Satisfaction en die Sexual Irrationality Questionnaire voltooi. Elke deelnemer moes laasgenoemde vraelys ook voltooi soos hy/sy verwag het sy/haar huweliksmaat dit sou voltooi. 'n Beduidende verband is tussen seksuele satisfaksie en huweliksaanpassing gevind, asook tussen egliede se eie seksuele kognisies en hulle beoordelings van hulle huweliksmaats se seksuele kognisies. Geen ondersteuning kon in die hipotese gevind word aan die interpersoonlike persepsie van seksuele kognisies met óf seksuele satisfaksie óf huweliksaanpassing verband sou hou nie.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper was to review the available literature concerning how low-income women experience their heterosexual relationships. Particular attention was paid to the constructs of social support and intimacy which have both been cited as important variables for coping with stress. It was found that, despite there being more stressors associated with poverty, very little research has been conducted on lowincome women. However, when comparing the available literature, there seem to be important differences between low-income and middle-class women's expectations regarding heterosexual relationships. The literature suggests that for low-income women, heterosexual relationships can often be experienced as an additional source of stress, particularly as traditional gender roles playa greater role in expectations regarding the provision of social support. It therefore seems as though some low-income women, in a bid not to submit to traditional role expectations, choose to stay single and strive for financial independence in order to retain power within heterosexual relationships. The need for intimacy was not clearly articulated by low-income women but a desire for a sexually faithful partner was expressed. Although it seemed as though low-income women did not expect social support or intimacy from their male partners, they did articulate other specific expectations. The literature suggested that low-income women could reliably expect sex and the conception of children. from their heterosexual relationships but that their other expectations were often disappointed. However, heterosexual relationships are considered an important means for low-income women to gain status within the community. Finally, the current review of the literature highlighted the considerable overlap between the constructs of social support and intimacy. In conclusion, further research needs to be conducted (particularly in South Africa) in order to determine how low-income women experience their heterosexual relationships. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie was om 'n oorsig te kry van die beskikbare literatuur oor laeinkomstevroue se ervaring van hulle heteroseksuele verhoudings. Aandag is in die besonder gegee aan die konstrukte van sosiale ondersteuning en intimiteit, wat albei as belangrike veranderlikes tydens die hantering van stres aangedui is. Daar is bevind dat, ondanks die feit dat daar meer stressore is wat met armoede in verband gebring word, baie min navorsing nog oor lae-inkomstevrouegedoen is. Wanneer die beskikbare literatuur egter vergelyk word, lyk dit asof daar belangrike verskille is tussen die verwagtinge wat onderskeidelik laeinkomstevroue en vroue uit die middelklas het ten opsigte van heteroseksuele verhoudinge. Die literatuur voer aan dat lae-inkomstevroue heteroseksuele verhoudings dikwels as 'n addisionele bron van stres beleef, veral aangesien tradisionele geslagsrolle 'n groter rol speel in verwagtinge rondom die verskaffing van sosiale ondersteuning. Dit lyk dus asof sommige lae-inkomstevrouein 'n poging om hulle nie aan tradisionele rolverwagtinge te onderwerp nie, verkies om nie te trou nie, maar om eerder na finansiële onafhanklikheid te streef in 'n poging om die mag in heteroseksueleverhoudings te behou. Die behoefte aan intimiteit is nie duidelik deur lae-inkomstevroue aangedui nie, maar wel 'n behoefte aan 'n enkelvoudige heteroseksuele verhouding. Alhoewel dlt gelyk het asof lae-lokomstevroue nie sosiale ondersteuning of intimiteit van hulle mansvriende verwag het nie, het hulle ander spesifieke verwagtinge genoem. Uit die literatuur wil dit lyk of lae-inkomstevroue met redelike sekerheid seks en die verwekking van kinders van hulle heteroseksuele verhoudings kon verwag, maar dat hulle ander verwagtinge dikwels teleurgestel word. Nogtans word heteroseksuele verhoudings as 'n belangrike manier gesien waarop lae-inkomstevroue status in die gemeenskap kan verkry. Die huidige literatuurstudie belig ook die aansienlike oorvleueling tussen die konstrukte van sosiale ondersteuning en intimiteit. Ten slotte is dit duidelik dat verdere navorsing gedoen moet word (veral in Suid-Afrika) om te bepaal hoe laeinkomstevrouehulle heteroseksueleverhoudings beleef.

The purpose of this thesis is to address the relative effectiveness and usefulness of intersectionality as an elastic concept which can span more than the theoretical arena. To do this, the prevailing social problem of violence against ethnicised women is examined in all its complexities. Intersectionality works on two strategic levels – firstly, the framework recognises that individuals are comprised of numerous identity markers and that these characteristics take on a multiplicative relationship, and secondly, that structural systems of power exist within society to reinforce hierarchical privileges and oppressions that are predicated on identity. This thesis presents intersectionality as a possible way of framing the various interactions of social divisions, and the regimes of inequality which cut-across them, in the context of violence against ethnicised women. This violence is analysed through theoretical, policy and practical responses with particular attention being paid to how the three spheres deal with difference on a variety of analytical levels. A content analysis of New Labour government policy adopts intersectionality as a lens with which to ascertain how valuable this frame is as a methodological tool. Ten interviews with service providers from the violence against women field are conducted in order to gain experiential insight into how identity is seen to shape experience and appropriate responses. This thesis demonstrates that competing perceptions of identity, which are contextually and historically contingent, create a series of specific problems for ethnicised women that are frequently rooted in discourses of marginality, difference and homogeny. Intersectionality is a useful way of creating increased fluidity between theory, policy and practice, and of heightening an understanding of the heterogeneity of women’s experiences. It has much to offer the VAW field in the UK.