3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Social safety nets, HIV/AIDS & orphans and vulnerable children in Quthing, Lesotho: an examination of coping strategies and how communities survive(2008-03-18T11:50:21Z) Huggins, Michael W.Abstract This dissertation explores four key questions within the HIV/AIDS paradigm1 and the impact it is having on orphans and vulnerable children in the district of Quthing, Lesotho. These questions are: What is the status of social safety nets? How are communities surviving with the growing number of orphans and vulnerable children? What might be the early warning signs of community breaking points as a new category of child-headed household emerges? What are the human drivers of the pandemic in terms of behaviour and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS, orphans and vulnerable children, and sex; and in terms of reasons why people are not heeding the warning signs and adopting behaviour change? The findings of the dissertation reveal that communities are overwhelmed with the demands placed on them to support orphans and vulnerable children to the point where culture, traditions, and society at large are showing early warning signs of irreversible strain. Despite the efforts of government, donors, the humanitarian sector and the communities themselves, awareness of HIV/AIDS is not translating into behavioural change and as such the spread of the virus continues unabated among the youngest and most vulnerable groups. 1 The set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline. iiItem 'Suicide Shouldn't Be a Secret" An Assessment of Adolescent Coping Strategies following a Suicide Prevention Program(2006-11-01T09:46:03Z) Senatore, Lucia-RaffaelaThe following study aimed to assess coping strategies in adolescents following a suicide prevention program conducted by the South African Depression and Anxiety Group. The study aimed to assess whether there was a change in coping strategies in adolescents following the suicide prevention program. Suicide ideation was measured using the Positive and Negative Suicide Ideation Scale (PANSI) and Coping Strategies was measured using the Coping Across Situations Questionnaire (CASQ). Data was collected on 74 individuals in Grade 11 (26 males and 48 females). It was found that positive suicide ideation was not significantly different for males and females before the intervention, while females scored higher than males on the negative suicide ideation scale, indicating that females have more thoughts about suicide than males. There was no significant difference between positive and negative suicide ideation scores for both females and males following the suicide prevention program. The results further indicate that Active Coping; Internal Coping and Withdrawal Coping were not significantly different for boys and girls in the pretest, as well as in the post test. A negative relationship appears to exist between post PANSI negative ideation and Active Coping, which means that individuals who use more active coping have fewer thoughts about suicide. Active Coping is strongly related to Internal Coping and moderately related to Withdrawal Coping. Also, Internal coping is moderately related to Withdrawal Coping. The implications are that caregivers and professionals can begin to assess individual adolescent suicide ideation levels through an understanding of the individual’s coping strategy. Further research should be conducted in other socio-economic regions and rural and urban areas could be compared to get a holistic view of coping strategies and suicide ideation levels in South Africa, as a country.