Complex trauma and its relation to hope and hopelessness among young people in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Nothando Ngwenya,Tony Barnett,Candice Groenewald,Janet Seeley

doi:10.1080/17450128.2020.1865593

Abstract

ABSTRACT Informed by an existing hope scale, we explored the roles of hope, happiness, and life satisfaction in adolescent risk behaviours in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, a setting with high HIV prevalence. In 2016 data were collected from two resource-limited communities using in-depth interviews, group discussions and lifeline-drawings with 53 young people (aged 15 to 17 years). Applying both deductive and inductive approaches, thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Young people felt that there was nothing to do in their communities and no way out of their adverse situations. They experienced trauma of loss due to HIV-related deaths, and lack of support and guidance which they wanted if they were to be more hopeful. Continual and extended exposure to adverse experiences such as community violence and economic hardship had a negative impact on young people’s lives and increased participation in risk behaviours. To develop HIV prevention and resilience interventions in such communities, there is a need to take account of the context of young people’s lives. Rather than ignoring the structural causes of the infection, risk factors should be contextualised as a key component of any attempts to change behaviours. Resource and power inequalities should be addressed rather than developing individualised interventions which may inadvertently increase social inequalities.

Highlights

Hope has been identified as a psychological factor that contributes to self-reported health and well-being, improvement in health adjustment, with a positive relationship to quality of life (Billington et al, 2008; Lazarus, 1999; Perveen, 2019; Scioli et al, 2016; Tian et al, 2018)
These words are accurately translated in the isiZulu language, they do not evoke the ‘agency and pathways’ con structs of hope
The adolescents’ narratives revealed three major factors that influenced their constructions of hope: Adverse community contexts (‘No way out’), Family loss (‘Trauma of loss’) and Resiliency practices (‘To have hope, you need gui dance’)

Summary

Introduction

Hope has been identified as a psychological factor that contributes to self-reported health and well-being, improvement in health adjustment, with a positive relationship to quality of life (Billington et al, 2008; Lazarus, 1999; Perveen, 2019; Scioli et al, 2016; Tian et al, 2018). As a framework to understand the important link between individual behaviours and the risk environment, hope shows how the environment regulates an individual’s choices leading to a manifestation of risk behaviours or prevention behaviours (Abler et al, 2017; Bernays et al, 2007). As such it is an important construct to explore when investigating underlying factors related to HIV transmission and in developing structural interventions for HIV prevention in high prevalence settings

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion