International and national studies indicate that exposure to traumatic events, substance use and abuse are considered important psychosocial issues among adolescents. It is therefore critical to investigate the risk and protective factors that may contribute to the development of this behavioural problem. The main purpose of this study was to determine whether coping could serve as a predictor for the exposure to traumatic events and substance abuse, while the role of ethnicity and gender was also investigated. To exposure to traumatic events and substance abuse into context, the extent of exposure to traumatic events and substance use among adolescents in the Free State was determined. A non-experimental research design, consisting of both correlational and criterion group components, was followed. The initial sample consisted of 496 grade 8 learners. Since only white and black adolescents are being investigated, the final sample consisted of 414 adolescents. The measuring instruments utilised were a self-compiled biographical questionnaire, a shortened form of the Exposure to Traumatic Events Scale (Exposure to Traumatic Events Scale)(McCallin, 1992), Millerâs (1985) Adolescent SASSI-A2 Questionnaire (Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory) and the Revised-Coping Schema Inventory (Coping Schemas Inventory) (Peacock, Reker & Wong, 2006).
Statistically significant difference were found between the two ethnic groups in the use of situational coping strategies, meaning formation coping, as well as the use of religion as a coping strategy. It was further indicated that the use of coping strategies do not play a role in the connection with exposure to traumatic events and substance abuse. With regard to ethnic differences, white and black adolescents differed significantly in the prevalence of substance abuse, where black adolescents reported a much higher incidence. The use and abuse of alcohol had a especially high incidence, where just over half of the adolescents reported that they had used substances previously. Free State adolescents were found to experience high percentages of exposure to traumatic events. The most common traumatic event to which adolescents are exposed to, is the death of a loved one due to an accident, murder or suicide. Regarding ethnicity, black adolescents generally are the most affected in the different dimensions of exposure to traumatic events. Based on the results, it is suggested that intervention programmes focus on the development of emotionally regulating characteristics of the adolescent. Further research can investigate specific exposure to traumatic events. This research can provide important information that can be used to limit the effects of trauma exposure on adolescents.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-07182013-085322 |
| Date | 18 July 2013 |
| Creators | van Niekerk, Zandri |
| Contributors | Dr HS van den Berg, Dr P Naidoo |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-07182013-085322/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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