School Students In South Africa Research Articles

Race, diversity and pro-social behavior in a segmented society

This paper examines the impact of racial identity on behavior in trust games played by public high school students in South Africa. There is a systematic pattern of distrust towards Black partners, even by Black proposers, partially attributable to mistaken expectations. Non-Black proposers are significantly less likely to engage in a strategic interaction at all when paired with a Black partner, while Black proposers engage in exchange but at lower levels than when paired with non-Blacks. However, greater racial diversity in public schools promotes pro-social behavior towards Black partners.

The association between students' perceptions of a caring teacher and sexual initiation. A study among South African high school students

This paper has the following aims: (i) to explore the extent to which students who received an intervention involving HIV/AIDS and sexuality perceived that their teacher cared for their health and well-being, (ii) to investigate the characteristics of students who reported to have caring teachers and (iii) to document the association between students' perceptions of care and reported onset of sexual activity. Data were obtained from the second follow-up survey of a prospective study carried out among high school students in South Africa (Cape Town and Mankweng). We analyzed data from 3483 students who met the inclusion criteria. Students from the intervention group perceived greater care from teachers than students in the control group. Female students and students from Cape Town perceived having received more care, and their perception of care was associated with the number of lessons received, how often students expressed their opinions in class and how often teachers talked about HIV/AIDS, condoms and abstinence. Students who perceived that their teacher cared for their health and well-being were less likely to initiate sexual intercourse. This is the first paper to demonstrate the salience of the concept of care in studies of school-based HIV/AIDS prevention programs in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Impact of Crossgroup Friendships in South Africa: Affective Mediators and Multigroup Comparisons

Two cross-sectional survey studies among majority-status White and minority-status Coloured high school students in South Africa explored the effects of crossgroup friendships on prejudice, and the affective processes (intergroup anxiety in Study 1, and intergroup anxiety and affective empathy in Study 2) underlying these effects with respect to two target groups for each sample. Crossgroup friendships were negatively associated with negative action tendencies, and positively associated with positive outgroup attitudes and greater perceived outgroup variability for both samples, irrespective of the target group. The importance of intergroup anxiety and affective empathy as mediators of these effects was also confirmed. Multigroup comparisons showed significant differences in the structural models across the two samples in both studies, and confirmed prior findings in the contact literature that contact effects are stronger for majority than minority groups. These findings are the first of their kind within the South African context.

Nicotine dependence common among occasional smokers

♦ Panday S, et al. J Adolesc Health. 2007;40:144 -150[OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3][Web of Science][4] . Adolescents who smoked cigarettes only occasionally still exhibited symptoms of nicotine dependence and withdrawal, according to a survey of 554 high school students in South Africa

Leisure Boredom and Substance Use Among High School Students in South Africa

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of leisure boredom, and investigate the relationship between leisure boredom, substance use and demographic variables among high school students in Cape Town, South Africa. 621 students from 39 high schools selected through a multistage cluster sampling procedure completed a questionnaire which measured substance use and demographic information, and included the Leisure Boredom Scale (LBS). Using generalized estimating equation models, leisure boredom was modeled on the demographic variables, and substance use indicators on leisure boredom. Although no significant association between leisure boredom and substance use was found, girls reported significantly higher leisure boredom than did boys. Also, Black and Colored students reported significantly higher leisure boredom than White students. This finding may be partly attributed to socio-economic status, as race is still a strong indicator for socio-economic status in South Africa. The findings imply that there is a need for leisure education programs for adolescents which are developmentally and socio-culturally appropriate.

Racial stereotypes, stigma and trust in post-apartheid South Africa

This paper examines the impact of racial identity on behaviour in trust games played by high school students in South Africa. There is a systematic pattern of distrust towards Black partners, even by Black proposers, largely attributable to mistaken behavioural stereotypes. However, consistent with notions of racial stigma, White proposers are significantly less likely to engage in a strategic interaction at all when paired with a Black partner, thereby allowing mistaken racial stereotypes to remain entrenched.

HIV/AIDS Knowledge and Sexual Behavior Among Junior Secondary School Students in South Africa

The aim of the study was to assess HIV/AIDS knowledge and sexual behaviour among jun- ior Secondary School students in South Africa using a cross-sectional survey design. The sample con- sisted of 3150 students, with 44.1% were male and 55.9% female students. Their mean age was 15.75 yrs (SD=1.61) ranging from 13 to 24 years chosen from 150 schools in South Africa. Results indicate that 46% of the 16 year-old males and 20% of the 15.5 year-old females had already been sexually ac- tive. At first sex 63.8% of the male and 78.7% of the female students indicated that they had used a condom, but almost half (44%) of those who had had sex before had not used a condom at last sex. One quarter of the students (25.6%) indicated that they had had sex with someone much older than them (above 30 yrs), which was significantly higher among female (31.2%) than male students (22.9%) and significantly higher among non-urban (28.4%) than urban (17.2%) students. Twenty- seven percent of the students reported that they had sex for the exchange of gifts. At an average age of 15.75 years the number of self-reported lifetime sex partners was for more than half of respondents, more than one partner. Further, the study found that knowledge of HIV/AIDS was poor in some areas and more satisfactory in other areas, but generally was not satisfactory enough to sustain adequate HIV/AIDS response in a context of high and widespread HIV/AIDS prevalence. Gender, tendency to use condoms and being sexually active had no significant relationship to levels of knowledge. HIV/AIDS knowledge was significantly higher in urban than in non-urban schools.

The Meaning of ?Self-Starvation? in Impoverished Black Adolescents in South Africa

Recent surveys in South Africa have demonstrated that disordered eating is equally common among black and white female students. Self-report measures have been used in these surveys to establish levels of disordered eating. One study in Tanzania, where a two-stage design was implemented, showed that upon interview the majority of participants did not present with disordered eating. The absence of two-stage studies in South Africa brings into question some of the findings from these surveys. In the present study, we surveyed a sample of black and white high school students in South Africa to establish the prevalence of disordered eating. In the second phase of this study, we attempted to interview those black students from one particular school who scored high on the eating disorder measures. This process proved both challenging and elucidating. While a significant number of young black females endorsed eating disorder symptoms on self-report, interviews with some participants showed that self-starvation and related symptoms had a different meaning from what we would typically expect from someone with an eating disorder. Consequently, this study highlights the need to revisit the methods typically employed in cross-cultural research in eating disorders. Careful consideration of a variety of cultural factors that may alter the meaning of standard measures is called for.

Smokeless Tobacco and Cigarette Use Among Black Secondary School Students in South Africa

This study was conducted in 2001 with the aim of providing data on black South African secondary school students’ tobacco use status, knowledge, and attitudes. The sample included 330 Grade 10 and 382 Grade 12 secondary school pupils chosen at random from six rural secondary schools in one of the regions in the Northern Province of South Africa. Results show a prevalence of 9.1% current smokers among boys and 5% among girls, and 8.4% current snuff users among girls and 3.9% among boys. The mean age of onset to take snuff was 12.5 years and that for smoking cigarettes 14.8 years. Adolescents who reported that some family member or their peers used tobacco were more likely to be users of tobacco. Two-thirds of the current snuff users believed that using snuff was safer than smoking cigarettes. Knowledge was found to be related to attitude but not with tobacco use behavior. Awareness of the adverse effects of such tobacco habits was poor and intervention programs to curb tobacco use is required.

Measurement of risk and protective factors for drug use and anti-social behavior among high school students in South Africa.

The study sought to examine, for South African adolescents: 1) the reliability of sub-scales of the Communities that Care Youth Survey (CTC Youth Survey) of risk and protective factors for drug use and anti-social behavior; and 2) the extent to which tobacco, alcohol and marijuana use can be predicted from community, family, school, and peer-individual factors based on sub-scales of the CTC Youth Survey. On two occasions, 92 male and 31 female, Grade 8 and 11 students completed measures concerning: 1) their past month tobacco, alcohol and marijuana use; and 2) various community, family, school, and peer-individual factors. Cronbach alpha coefficients of sub-scales of the questionnaire ranged between .60 and .94. Kappa values were at least moderate (above .40) on 19 sub-scales, and on the remaining sub-scales observed agreement levels ranged between .49 and .94. Each domain predicted tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use. Multiple logistic regression analyses revealed that alcohol use was most strongly accounted for by the peer domain, tobacco use by the school domain, and marijuana use by the peer and community domains. The findings support use of the CTC Youth Survey, with slight revisions, among South African high school students.

Suitability of published neuropsychological test norms for urban African secondary school students in South Africa

Abstract Variations in neuropsychological test performance as a function of ethnic/cultural group membership, socioeconomic and educational status are widely documented. In South Africa, issues of cultural difference, sociopolitical disadvantage, cognitive and educational limitations, are of particular relevance. Accordingly, this study investigated the performance on a neuropsychological test battery of urban African high school students. A group of 100 Soweto students in Grades 8–12, and a second group of 152 sixth grade Soweto students aged 13–15 years, scored significantly lower on most of the measures than their American counterparts, as reflected in published norms. Results also demonstrated a significant difference in test performance as a function of educational grade. The findings confirmed the need for using norms and approaches which are appropriate to a given population when interpreting and addressing neuropsychological test performance.

Learning to listen: formative research in the development of AIDS education for secondary school students.

AIDS, as a social phenomenon, is highly politicized and is an emotive issue. In South Africa there is considerable disagreement between different sectors and stakeholders involved in school education about what constitutes an appropriate approach to AIDS education. For AIDS education programmes in schools to make cultural sense and to be effective, adequate formative research of the social context and cultural meaning of the salient behaviours needs to be done, and this understanding needs to inform programme development. The school community needs to be involved in the programme design and evaluation. This paper describes some of the formative research undertaken during the development of an AIDS education programme for secondary school students in South Africa. The study was undertaken during 1991 and 1992 in a Cape Town secondary school. A description of three components of the formative research is given. For each, the qualitative research methods used, the difficulties encountered, some of the results, and their value are discussed. Qualitative research methods were able to provide a more holistic understanding of student sexuality and its cultural context. These methods also provided the means with which to develop a partnership with the teachers in the process of developing the AIDS education programme. Furthermore, when this partnership broke down, they provided the means to explore the crisis that emerged around conflicting assumptions and cultural values the researchers and the "researched' held with respect to AIDS education. The generalizability of the study's results and the transferability of the AIDS education programme that was developed are discussed with respect to the exigencies of epidemiology to impact on the public health of large populations, and those of qualitative research methods to generate in-depth understanding in limited contexts.

Effect of instruction using students' prior knowledge and conceptual change strategies on science learning

AbstractOne of the factors affecting students' learning in science is their existing knowledge prior to instruction. The students' prior knowledge provides an indication of the alternative conceptions as well as the scientific conceptions possessed by the students. This study is concerned primarily with students' alternative conceptions and with instructional strategies to effect the learning of scientific conceptions; i.e., to effect conceptual change from alternative to scientific conceptions. The conceptual change model used here suggests conditions under which alternative conceptions can be replaced by or differentiated into scientific conceptions and new conceptions can be integrated with existing conceptions. The instructional strategy and materials were developed for a particular student population, namely, black high school students in South Africa, using their previously identified prior knowledge (conceptions and alternative conceptions) and incorporate the principles for conceptual change. The conceptions involved were mass, volume, and density. An experimental group of students was taught these concepts using the special instructional strategy and materials. A control group was taught the same concepts using a traditional strategy and materials. Pre‐ and posttests were used to assess the conceptual change that occurred in the experimental and control groups. The results showed a significantly larger improvement in the acquisition of scientific conceptions as a result of the instructional strategy and materials which explicitly dealt with student alternative conceptions.

Beliefs regarding the consequences of birth control among black, colored, indian, and white South Africans.

Empyrical research on birth control historically focussed on social and psychological correlates of childrearing. Recent studies by C.A. Insko Zifferblatt and Hendricks suggest future research should concern itself with beliefs rather than attitudes. Beliefs are less polarized than attitudes and may reveal the type of consequences that encourage or interfere with contraceptive practice (e.g. social approval status peer recognition). A study of beliefs among 203 secondary school students in South Africa was undertaken in 1978 using a 47 item questionnaire. The average age was 17.5 years; 103 male to 100 female. The racial composition was 62 whites 45 coloreds 50 Indians and 38 blacks. Beliefs about the consequences of birth control centered on four main factors: 1) facilitates a happy and healthy family life; 2) interferes with fulfilling womans role; 3) enhances the quality of life and 4) poses threat of negative results. Another study by Insko of American whites and blacks showed similar results: birth control facilitates a higher standard of living and interferes with the maternal role. These studies may reflect a trend in developing countries to regarding children as economic liabilities rather than assets.

The Psychological Future of an Oppressed Group

Samples of future autobiographies collected from African high school students in South Africa in 1950, 1956, and 1962 suggest that the tightening of social and political restrictions has produced a relative dedifferentiation of the psychological future and a decline of interest in both community service and individual economic success. Instead, future aspirations take on an increasingly political value oriented tone.