South African Female Students Research Articles

Personal factors influencing female students' condom use at a higher education institution.

South African female students' consistent condom use is low, possibly due to personal factors, such as knowledge about sexual reproductive health, attitudes towards safe sex, risk perceptions and condom use, self-efficacy. This study aimed to investigate the personal factors that influence condom utilisation among female students. This study was conducted at a higher education institution in the Northern Cape province in South Africa. A quantitative, descriptive survey design was used. Three hundred and eighty five participants were selected using convenience sampling. The research instrument was a self-administered questionnaire, and the data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 28. Almost two-thirds (250, 64.9%) of participants used condoms to prevent pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Although attitudes towards safe sex were generally positive, low risk perceptions were reported. Consistent use of condoms was found in 32.2% (124) of participants, while 45.3% (174) participants used condoms inconsistently or never. A significant finding was that consistent use increased the likelihood of negotiating for a condom with partners by 9.14 times and confidence in putting one on for a partner by 8.05 times. The findings depict average levels of the use of condoms among female students. Prevention efforts should concentrate on educating female students to strengthen condom use and self-efficacy.Contribution:This study, supporting existing literature, suggests that preventative efforts should focus on educating young women about condom use, self-efficacy and encouraging STI conversations with sexual partners.

Adaptation, Resilience, and Secure Attachment States of Mind in Young South African Female Students Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence in Childhood.

Much research details the psychological risks to individuals exposed as children to intimate partner violence (IPV). However, resilience has been a neglected area of study within this population. This article details adaptive responses in six participants exposed to IPV in childhood. Adult attachment interviews (AAI) and follow-up semi-structured interviews analyzed using an interpretive thematic analysis revealed common themes relating to psychological defenses and adaptive strategies. Despite exposure to IPV in childhood, these six women were found to have secure attachment states of mind. Resilience was found not to be necessarily synonymous with the absence of distress. Despite the presence of suffering, it remained strongly associated with adaptive, robust defenses to manage distress and to retain caregiving relationships with parents. These defenses appeared to provide participants with ways to survive their traumatic environments and to remain connected to needed but frightening caregiving figures, and facilitated processing of trauma. Adaptation often entailed using compliance and caregiving responses in childhood in response to role reversal in parent-child relationships, but also the relinquishing of these roles in adulthood. Participants' abilities to coherently acknowledge and discuss their early experiences and retain compassion for their parents seemed linked to their abilities to attain some distance from troubling aspects of their pasts. In doing so, they separated from the unstable relationships of their parents, which fostered transitions to more integrated states of mind.

Perception of risk of HIV and sexual risk behaviours among students in the United States, Turkey and South Africa

The aim of this study was to examine HIV sexual risk behaviours and perception of HIV risk among 1 095 students from the United States of America (US), Turkey and South Africa. Randomly selected students who were enrolled in general education courses completed a structured questionnaire. Results revealed statistically significant differences in specific HIV-related sexual behaviours among students from the three countries and among male and female students in each country. A higher percentage of US and South African students engage in HIV risky sexual behaviours compared with their Turkish counterparts, and a higher percentage of female students in the US and South Africa engage in HIV sexual risk behaviours compared with their male colleagues. A higher proportion of Turkish male students engaged in sexual risk behaviours compared with their female counterparts. The perception of HIV risk was low among US and Turkish students, and high among South African students. There was no agreement between engaging in risky sexual behaviour and self-perception of HIV risk among South African female students, while agreement was poor for US male and female students, Turkish male and female students, and South African male students. The observed optimistic bias needs to be considered in the design and implementation of HIV prevention programmes for these populations.

Predicting the Intention of South African Female Students to Engage in Premarital Sexual Relations: An Application of the Theory of Reasoned Action

The Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) was used to investigate the factors influencing South African female students' decision on whether or not to engage in premarital sexual intercourse. The group of participants consisted of 100 female heterosexual university students who were selected from a larger sample on the basis of sexual inexperience. As anticipated by the theory, both attitudes and subjective norms were found to predict intentions, with attitudes emerging as the stronger predictor. Additional analyses revealed that the hypothesized relationship between attitudes and the cognitive bases, beliefs about the outcome of premarital sexual relations, and the evaluation of these outcomes was supported. However, contrary to the theory, subjective norms were not correlated with motivation to comply with the perceived views of salient referents. The results are discussed in the context of a society in which AIDS is epidemic.

Authoritarianism and Self-Esteem Among White Rhodesian (Zimbabwean) and South African Students

Summary Several months prior to the official renaming of Rhodesia as Zimbabwe, Ray's directiveness scale, which measures authoritarian behavior, and Rosenberg's self-esteem inventory were administered to a sample of 160 white first-year and third-year Rhodesian and South African university students. Respondents ranged in age from 17 years to 23 years. The hypothesis that third-year male students would be more authoritarian than their third-year female counterparts, and that this difference would not exist in the first-year level, was confirmed. The hypothesis that male students would have significantly greater self-esteem than the females was not supported. These findings are accounted for in terms of involvement in the antiterrorist military effort. An unexpected finding was that the Rhodesian females had a significantly lower self-esteem score than the South African female students.