School of Human and Community Development (ETDs)

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Browsing School of Human and Community Development (ETDs) by Department "Department of Clinical Psychology"

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    African Primary School Teachers’ Perceptions of their Role in Identification, Referral, and Intervention Relating to Mental Health Care for Learners
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) Abrahams, Caylen; Coetzee, Bronwynè; Eagle, Gillian
    Untreated mental health conditions can negatively impact a child’s development and future. Early identification, and management of mental health problems (MHPs) is therefore important for children. This research study aimed to understand and explore teachers’ experiences and perceptions in relation to the identification and provision of mental health aid for primary school learners. The study entailed interviewing 23 primary school teachers from a school in the Western Cape, South Africa located in a low-income community. Semi-structured individual interviews were designed to explore teachers’ experiences and views was recorded and transcribed. The data generated from the interviews was analysed by means of thematic analysis using the computer aided programme, ATLAS.ti v 8. The findings indicated that although teachers struggled to make use of diagnostic terms to describe mental health conditions in their learners, they were able to identify symptoms and behaviours that they associated with poor mental health and to consider possible contributing factors. Acting out and aggressive type behaviours were more easily identified as problematic than behaviours that were less overt. Teachers described frequent experiences of compromised learner mental health, even in the young population with whom they interacted. Teachers saw their role as circumscribed in intervening in relation to MHPs, describing multiple barriers in this regard, including a lack of mental health training, time constraints, large classroom sizes, and academic and pedagogical demands. For this reason, although many teachers were willing to receive additional training and play a more prominent role in mental health aid, their preference was to refer learners and to make use of their school-based mental health services (SBMHS). Teachers noted the efficacy of the SBMHS in aiding their learners but also offered some critical observations about the scale of delivery of services and optimal interfacing between teachers and mental health aid providers.
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    Social Constructions of Criminal Victimisation and Traumatic Stress Responses in Relation to Male Victims and Gender
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017) Gqweta, Ntokozo; Eagle, Gillian
    Literature findings suggest that there are differences in male and female trauma exposure patterns (Norris & Slone, 2013). With this background in mind the aim of the study was to analyse the kinds of discursive patterns and themes that are prominent in conversing about male and female victims of crime related trauma and about their responses to being traumatised in this way. This aim was achieved through exploring the contributions of gender related attributions to constructions of victims of crime by university students in response to scenarios presented to them. The element of particular interest in this study was the gendering of victimisation and trauma related responses, focusing especially on male victims. The participants were first year psychology students and data was collected using focus groups in which participants were asked to comment on a vignette describing a fellow student’s victimisation by mugging and their subsequent trauma related responses. Four focus groups were conducted in two of which the victim was portrayed as female and in two of which as male. The discussions from the four groups were transcribed and subject to a thematic analysis and discursive reading of the material focusing particularly on gender related material. Seven core themes emerged which were referred to as: 1) Victim blame, 2) Legitimacy of trauma reactions; 3) Desensitisation, minimising of the nature of the event and related assessment of the responses 4) Victimisation as an identity position, 5) Evaluation of the role of social support and help-seeking, 6) Gender related constructions of victimisation and traumatisation, and 7) Evidence for contestation of gender stereotypes. The participants tended to construct both the male and female victim’s traumatic experience as resulting from irresponsibility, naivety and ignorance. Furthermore, the victim’s traumatic reactions were typed as either normal or abnormal, with intense and more enduring traumatic reactions being considered abnormal and dispositional. The perception of violence and crime as ubiquitous and uncontrollable within the South African context contributed to an underplaying of the significance of the victim’s experiences. There was some indication that perceptions of the victim’s identification with the victim role contributed to an emphasis on the need for self-reliance, control and circumscribed help-seeking in relation to peers. Although there was a degree of difference in response to the gender of the hypothetical victim these differences were less marked than might have been anticipated. While rather critical evaluations of trauma responses were made in respect of both male and female victims, male victims received more censorial responses in general. It was evident that male victims of crime were viewed and constructed somewhat differently from their female counterparts and that reference to patriarchy, gender socialisation, and stereotypic masculinity appeared to play a critical role in the construction of male victims. These findings have implications for the provision of support, care, sympathy and understanding of crime and violence victims generally, and male victims in particular. .