Article 1: It is estimated that at present there are 4.253 million orphans in South Africa, comprising 23% of
children in this country. In the Free State, 27% of the provinceâs children are orphaned. At the
commencement of this study it was estimated that there were 3.95 million orphans in South
Africa, comprising 21% of children in this country, while 26% of children in the Free State
children were orphaned. From these statistics it is apparent that South Africa is still experiencing
an ever increasing magnitude of orphans, all of whom must be absorbed within the school
system. Despite many developmental risk factors associated with orphan-hood in South Africa, a
study among primary school HIV/AIDS orphans in Mangaung in the Free State, found high
scores of positive development and normal childhood functioning, namely pro-social behaviour
and good classroom peer relations. Data analysis of the raw scores, by means of the Pearson
product moment correlation, established a coefficient of 0.291 on the 1% level of significance
between pro-social behaviour and classroom peer relations in a sample of 234 Sesotho speaking
HIV/AIDS orphans. This outcome is in line with international studies, but is noteworthy within
the South African childhood context of HIV/AIDS and poverty, where the risk factors that
potentially compromise developmental outcomes for HIV/AIDS orphans are rampant and robust.
Article 2: Among the many risk factors to be navigated by HIV/AIDS orphans in South Africa, is the risk
regarding attainment of educational outcomes. In the South African context, orphans are the
demographic group most likely not to complete their education. Yet, there are protective factors
that can help orphans to manage some of the risk factors that they face daily. One such a
protective factor is school connectedness. A study among a sample of 234 primary school
HIV/AIDS orphans, aged 7-11 years, in Mangaung in the Free State, found high scores of school
connectedness among the selected sample of learners. Product term regression analysis of the
data shows that school connectedness plays a moderator role in a previously established
relationship between pro-social behaviour and classroom peer relations among the same sample
of orphaned learners. This study concludes that there is indeed a need to foster and research
school connectedness among orphans and other vulnerable children in South African schools, as
the protective qualities of this construct could counteract some of the risk factors regarding
educational outcomes, not only for HIV/AIDS orphans, but for all children growing up in the
context of adversity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-11222013-135852 |
| Date | 22 November 2013 |
| Creators | De Gouveia, Amanda |
| Contributors | Prof KGF Esterhuyse, Dr RBI Beukes |
| 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-11222013-135852/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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