Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / Mental health is one of the most neglected issues among school-going adolescents, with the
result that little is known about aspects of these young people in the South African context.
Given the stressors encountered by adolescents in the South African context specifically,
there is a great need for research into which health-promoting behavioural and coping
strategies adolescents use to buffer the negative consequences of these stressors on their
mental health and overall psychological well-being. The aims of the present study (which is
the first phase of the four-phase study) were twofold: first, to validate (by means of
cognitively testing on 150 school-going adolescents aged 13-19 years, in Grades eight to 11,
from three selected schools within the Cape Metropole) the scales measuring stress (Beck
Depression Inventory-Second Edition – the BDI-II; Beck Anxiety Inventor – BAI; Beck
Hopelessness Scale – BHS), psychological strengths (Multidimensional Scale of Perceived
Social Support – MSPSS; Child and Youth Resilience Measure - CYRM; Rosenberg SelfEsteem Scale – RSES), coping (Coping Strategy Indicator - CSI) and psychological wellbeing (Psychological Well-Being scale - PWB). Such validation, using the English as well as
the Afrikaans- and isiXhosa-translated versions of the measures was done in order to
determine the applicability and usability of these scales within the South African context,
specifically in the study of sibling-bereaved school-going adolescents. Second, the study
aimed to investigate, using structural equation modelling (SEM), the nature of the (both
direct and indirect) relationships between stress, psychological strengths, coping and
psychological well-being, with particular focus on the mediation effects of selected
psychological strengths (that is, resilience, self-esteem and perceived social support) in the
stress-coping relationship with psychological well-being. Lazarus and Folkman’s
Transactional Model of Stress was used as the theoretical framework for this study
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uwc/oai:etd.uwc.ac.za:11394/8631 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | McCaul, Megan Elizabeth |
| Contributors | Somhlaba, Nceba Z |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | University of the Western Cape |
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