White South African Students Research Articles

Food consumption, lifestyle patterns, and body mass index of a group of white South African students

AbstractThere is worldwide concern that higher education students are increasingly engaging in unhealthy eating and lifestyle practices. A total of 488 white students participated in a study aimed at investigating the current food consumption and related lifestyle patterns of students at a South African residential university. The respondents’ self‐reported weight and height was used to calculate their body mass index (BMI). Closed and open‐ended questions measured aspects of the respondents’ usual eating patterns and lifestyles. The meal patterns and composition confirmed Western‐orientated food practices, as the majority consumed three meals a day, with in‐between meal snacking, and a different meal pattern over weekends. Respondents’ food intake was further characterized by a low intake of fruit, vegetables, and dairy products and frequent consumption of foods high in fat, sugar, and sodium. Although the majority (66.8%) of the study group were classified as normal weight according to their BMI, when comparing males and females, more males than females were overweight and obese. Only 54% of the males had a normal weight compared to 82% of the females. There was, however, no statistically significant difference (p = 0.149) between how males and females in the different BMI groups felt about their weight. The study also explored the relationships between the respondents’ BMI, gender, food consumption patterns, and type of residence. The features of the food consumption patterns were depicted according to whether breakfast was eaten or not; snacking activity between meals; the consumption of ready‐prepared convenience meals, fast foods; home‐cooked meals; and eating out. There were no statistical significant differences between the BMI categories of males and females regarding their habit to eat breakfast or not; and to snack between meals either during the morning, in the afternoon or after supper. Similarly, no statistical significant differences were noted when relating the BMI categories of the gender groups to the frequency of consumption of ready‐prepared, convenience type meals, fast foods, and home‐cooked meals. However, a statistical significant difference (p‐value 0.006) was found between BMI categories per gender and general frequency of eating out. No statistical differences was noted between BMI categories, gender and place of residence irrespective of the type, whether the student lived with parents, independently in a flat or apartment, or a house with friends or a room, or in a university residence.

Psychological validation of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) in South Africa: Method effects and dimensionality in black African and white university students

The study examined the factor structure and cross-cultural validity of the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES) in a sample of South African students (N = 862; black African = 67%, female = 71.5%). Alternative a priori CFA models (unidimensional, bi-dimensional and unidimensional models comprising either latent method factor or correlated residuals) were evaluated. Results indicated that the RSES in black and white South African university students is represented by a unidimensional model with correlated residuals of negatively and positively phrased items. Findings also suggested method effects on black African students to be significantly associated with negatively worded items compared to white students. Method bias effects appear to show for some RSES items and this may have important implications for the cross-cultural utility of the RSES in South Africa.

The salience of socially engaging and disengaging emotions among Black and White South Africans

This study investigated the experience of disengaging and engaging emotions among Black and White South African university students. In total 351 Black and White students attending a large North Western province university in South Africa (45% Black students, 69% female students, Mage = 21.09, SDage = 3.02) reported on their emotions in general, on the last emotional experience they had at home, and on the last emotional experience they had at university. They rated in each context 55 emotion terms that represented the emotion domain. Participants could either respond in English, Setswana, or Afrikaans. A multidimensional scaling revealed a two-dimensional structure across Blacks and Whites, the three languages, and the three contexts. On the first dimension negative emotions (such as sadness) were opposed to positive emotions (such as joy). On the second dimension disengaging emotions (such as anger and pride) were opposed to engaging emotions (such as guilt and compassion). Thus also in South Africa emotions differ with respect to whether they set a person apart from the social context (disengaging), or whether they link a person to the social context (engaging). Contrary to expectation, Blacks did not report more engaging and less disengaging emotions than Whites. In the university context no differences were observed, while in the home and general context Blacks reported more disengaging and less engaging emotions than Whites. Post hoc explanations are proposed in terms of relative differences in social status, acculturative changes, and the specific experiences of Black and White students in the South-African context.

“Be a Mighty Hard Message”: Toni Morrison’s Beloved and the Exploration of Whiteness in the Post-Apartheid Classroom

In post-apartheid classrooms students sometimes regard systemic racial oppression as distant history. They often note that they “did” apartheid at school. This paper considers how teaching Toni Morrison’s Beloved can prompt a profound self-examination in both black and white South African students. Beloved demands the active participation of the “born free” generation in a deliberate, serious engagement with the traumatic historical past. Furthermore, Morrison’s interrogation of white behavior, white constructions of black people, and the threat of racialized violence that whiteness contains within it, can productively challenge white racial identity. Teaching this novel has provided some insight into the continued articulation of white privilege and aversive racism among white South African students. Some are unnerved, express resistance, or refuse the novel’s inquiry into race. I discuss how I encourage my students to heed Morrison’s call to engage with historical memory so as to move towards a more viable future.

Student wellbeing at a university in post-apartheid South Africa: a comparison with a British university sample using the GP-CORE measure

This article provides GP-CORE norms for a South African university sample, which are compared to published data obtained from a United Kingdom university sample. The measure appears to be both reliable and valid for this multilingual and multicultural South African sample. The profiles of the psychological distress reported by white South African undergraduate students and UK undergraduate students are similar, while black South African students reported higher levels of distress than both their white counterparts and the UK students. It is argued that this is a result of the persistent inequalities entrenched during apartheid. Within the South African sample, undergraduate students reported greater psychological distress than postgraduate students.

An investigation of the social identity model of collective action and the ‘sedative’ effect of intergroup contact among Black and White students in South Africa

Two studies investigated the role of intergroup contact in predicting collective action tendencies along with three key predictors proposed by the social identity model of collective action (SIMCA; Van Zomeren, Postmes, & Spears, 2008). Study 1 (N= 488 Black South African students) tested whether social identity would positively, whereas intergroup contact would negatively predict collective action and support for policies benefiting the ingroup. Study 2 (N= 244 White South African students) predicted whether social identity would positively predict collective action benefiting the ingroup, and intergroup contact would positively predict support for policies to benefit the Black outgroup. Both studies yielded evidence in support of the predictive power of social identity and contact on collective action and policy support. Additionally, Study 1 confirmed that intergroup contact moderated the effects of social identity on relative deprivation, and relative deprivation on collective action. Overall findings support an integration of SIMCA and intergroup contact theory, and provide a fuller understanding of the social psychological processes leading to collective action.

Redeeming Apartheid's Legacy: Collective Guilt, Political Ideology, and Compensation

This paper reports two studies among white South African students on feelings of collective guilt about apartheid and attitudes to affirmative action. Study 1 reports on 21 in‐depth interviews, Study 2 on results from 180 survey questionnaires. Substantial proportions of the participants in both studies displayed feelings of collective guilt. Among participants in both studies who identified strongly with white South Africans, some displayed strong feelings of collective guilt while others displayed no such feelings. Our survey data suggest that political ideology functions as a moderator. Strong feelings of guilt were found among students who identified strongly with white South Africans and defined themselves as liberals. If they defined themselves as conservatives then no feelings of collective guilt were observed. Strong feelings of collective guilt were accompanied by positive attitudes toward affirmative action. The influence of political ideology on attitudes toward affirmative action was mediated by collective guilt.

The survey of personal beliefs: comparison of south african, mexican and american samples

In order to investigate the cross-cultural reliability and independence of subscales of the Survey of Personal Beliefs (SPB) data from 751 undergraduate Psychology students (189 White South African students, 114 Black South African students, 262 Mexican students and 186 American students) were compared. Coefficient alphas for the subscales in all samples were low, ranging from .33 to .76. However, alphas for the total scale across all subgroups were high. A comparison of the rank ordering of alpha coefficients for subscales in the different samples partially supported the cross-cultural reliability of the SPB for White South African and Mexican students, and for Black South African and American students. The similarities across samples regarding intercorrelations and shared variance between subscales also provided some evidence for the possible cross-cultural independence of subscales of the SPB. Comparison of total and mean subscale scores showed no significant differences between males and females within samples. However, a significant effect for culture, with significant between-subject effects for all the subscales as well as for the total score, was found. This may be indicative of real differences in irrational belief styles between the groups or may be a result of the insufficient cross-cultural reliability of the SPB.

Race is nowhere and race is everywhere: narratives from black and white South African university students in post‐apartheid South Africa

This paper examines the life history narratives of a group of 12 black and white male and female undergraduate students at a historically white Afrikaans medium university, now undergoing its own transformation in post‐apartheid South Africa. Conceptualizations of identity and discourse across four elements of context, setting, situated activity and self are employed to examine their accounts. Three framing discourses, comprising the official storyline of a rainbow nation and new higher education policies, the formal storyline of institutional change, and the informal space of relationships and interactions are used to analyse student narratives in terms of how they produce, reproduce and transform race and identity. What emerges is a complicated picture in which identities cannot be simply read off either from the official discourse or from colour and culture as the levels of discourse articulate and collide with a history of racial separateness and context and setting, with particular identity effects. What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this period? And what varieties are coming to prevail? In what ways are they selected and formed, liberated and repressed, made sensitive and blunted? (Mills, 1959, p. 7)

The Irrational Beliefs Inventory: Cross-Cultural Comparisons between South African and Previously Published Dutch and American Samples

The Irrational Beliefs Inventory gives a measure of irrational beliefs, as postulated by Ellis's Rational Emotive Behavior therapy. Given the increasing cross-cultural use of psychometric scales, it is important to assess whether the psychometric properties of the inventory are consistent across cultures. In the present study cross-cultural applicability, in terms of internal consistency and independence of subscales, was investigated for an ad hoc sample of White (n= 100, M age = 21.3 yr., SD=4.0) and Black (n=82, M age=19.8 yr., SD=2.2) undergraduate South African university students. Cronbach coefficients alpha for the subscales and Pearson correlations between subscales for American and Dutch students, as reported by Bridges and Sanderman, were compared with those indices for the South African students. The magnitude and rank order of Cronbach alpha, as well as the correlations between subscales for the three groups showed strong similarities. Values of alpha for the Black South African students were lower in magnitude on all subscales than those for American, Dutch, and White South African samples, but intercorrelations between subscale scores were consistent. Findings in the present study are supportive of the cross-cultural applicability of the Irrational Beliefs Inventory to White South African students but not to South African Black students.

Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy of South African High School Boys and Girls

Social cognitive career theory suggests that males and females may not differ in career decision-making self-efficacy, but this statement requires extension of research to high school samples. The Career Decision-making Self-efficacy Scale-Short Form was administered to white South African high school students in Grades 9 to 11, of whom 368 were boys and 494 girls. No significant sex differences were found, suggesting that career interventions based on social cognitive career theory in high school need not be sex-specific in content.

Female students' views of their Afrikaner identity

Abstract The effects of the fundamental and radical societal changes that have occurred in South Africa since the 1994 elections on the identity formation of female white Afrikaans-speaking students are still unclear at this point in time. Such students find themselves in the peculiar position of being in the world where the role of women is changing globally, while also being confronted with changes that are specifically challenging their previously taken-for-granted roles and identities in South African society. The primary objective of the research reported in this article was to determine how a sample of white Afrikaans-speaking South African students see themselves in a transforming society. To do this, a qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual method of research was used. Focus group interviews were done with a group of fifty white Afrikaans-speaking students. The results clearly indicate that some students felt completely negative about their cultural identities and that a few felt neu...

Social Identity: Comparing White English-Speaking South African Students in 1975 and 1994

White English-speaking South Africans have historically exhibited a weak attachment to South Africa and to their own ethnic group. An explanation for this may be that such social categories have previously brought about a negative social identity, and have thus necessitated a decrease in social category salience. The present study, constituting a repetition and extension of a study by Morse, Mann and Nel (1977), explored the possibility that this situation might be changing as a result of this country's social transformation. It thus investigated whether social identity salience was increasing for this particular group. A questionnaire, based in part upon that used by Morse et al., was administered to 119 English-speaking students from the University of Cape Town and to 67 Afrikaans-speaking students from the University of Stellenbosch. Comparisons were conducted between both these samples, and between the current English sample and that of Morse et al. The interpretative framework underlying the study was that of Social Identity Theory, which was explored as a conceptual basis from which to examine the English-speaking group's social identity. Results indicated that English-speaking subjects experienced greater salience of their national and ethnic identities than was found to be the case in the previous study.

The career development of black and white South African university students

This study investigates the possible influence of gender and culture on the career maturity and study and work role salience of South African students. Responses to the Life Role Inventory and Career Development Questionnaire of 260 first-year university students (137 white, 123 black) were analyzed. Culture was found to have a significant effect on both career maturity and study and work role salience while gender had no significant effect. Results are related to previous findings from international and South African literature. Implications for counselling are discussed.

Psychometric Properties of the Right Wing Authoritarianism Scale in Black and White South African Students

Recently Taylor and Boeyens (1991) showed that the South African Personality Questionnaire has inadequate internal consistency and factorial validity for use in the black population. This paper reports a study supporting their conclusion that scales developed with data from a white sample do not hold together psychometrically or conceptually when used with a black sample. In a sample of white students, Altemeyer's Right Wing Authoritarianism scale, initially developed in Canada, had an acceptable alpha of 0.83, but there was an unacceptable alpha of 0.43 in a black student sample. Item and factor analysis showed that for the black sample there was little structure and that the scale was effectively a set of heterogenous items. This paper presents a detailed discussion of the item and factor analyses and shows how certain items have different connotations for whites and blacks as a result of their different political and cultural histories. Although cultural differences in conservatism can be observed by looking at individual items, a comparison between black and white individuals on the higher order construct of Authoritarianism cannot be made. It is concluded that basic conceptual work based on the phenomenology of the concept being measured needs to precede the psychometric development of scales for use in the black community.

A Longitudinal Study of Career Decidedness among White South African High School Students

A Longitudinal study of the developmental nature of career decidedness and the relation of grade, socioeconomic status, and gender to such decidedness was undertaken on a sample of 214 white South African high school students. The results of the study support a developmental progression toward greater career decidedness for all students except those who progressed from Grades 9 to 11. Socioeconomic status and gender were not significantly related to career decidedness. The implications of these results for future research and for the career education of adolescents are considered.

Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Political Intolerance among Whites in the Future Majority-Rule South Africa

Abstract The anti-Black prejudice, ethnocentric ingroup preference, and affinity for right-wing politics and ideology of White right-wing authoritarians in South Africa suggest that they should be particularly opposed to political intolerance and infringements on civil liberties by a future Black, left-wing, majority rule government. In this study, conducted in August 1992 with 79 White South African students, the Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale (Altemeyer, 1981) showed a strong positive correlation with anti-Black racial prejudice and a negative correlation with anti-White attitudes. However, the RWA scores were negatively associated with support for political tolerance by a new majority-rule government, despite indications that the intolerance would be directed against conservatives opposing the new state. This finding is consistent with a previous finding that right-wing authoritarians were more ready to persecute not only left-wing but also right-wing groups proscribed by governmental authorities, and it suggests that political intolerance, rather than ethnocentrism, ingroup loyalty, or right-wing politics, is fundamental to the authoritarian syndrome.

The Validity of Tomkins's Polarity Scale Among White South Africans

Abstract Tomkins's polarity theory and the Polarity Scale derived from it constitute a promising but relatively neglected approach to researching the relationship between personality and ideology. We investigated the psychometric properties of the Polarity Scale with a sample of White South African students (N = 79). Although adequate reliabilities were obtained for various scorings of the Polarity Scale, and previous research has shown that scores on the scale relate to personality and affective differences, in this study the scale failed to show correlations with political party preference, liberalism/conservatism self-rating, or anti-Black prejudice. Only the Humanist subscale had a significant, though not very strong, correlation with acceptance of parental religion. Scores on the Polarity Scale were also significantly, though weakly, related to right-wing authoritarianism. These findings suggest that items in the Polarity Scale did not relate strongly enough to indicators of ideological orientation t...

Right-Wing Authoritarianism Among White South African Students: Its Measurement and Correlates

Abstract The psychometric properties and correlates of the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (RWA Scale; Altemeyer, 1981) were investigated using a sample of White South African students (N = 217). Traditional measures of authoritarianism have performed particularly badly in such settings. The RWA scale was factorially unidimensional and highly reliable, and correlated powerfully with validity criteria of authoritarianism, such as civil liberties stance, anti-Black prejudice and discrimination, liberalism/conservatism, and acceptance of parental religious beliefs. The particularly strong correlation with anti-Black prejudice contradicted influential previous findings suggesting that this correlation would be very weak in settings where racism was widespread or normative.

Attitudes towards Rape and Rapists: A White, English-Speaking South African Student Sample

A vignette methodology was used to examine the effects of varying a sexual assault offender's ascribed race and class on attributions of responsibility to the victim, sentencing judgements for the offender, and perceptions of the victim. Respondents were 183 young white South African English-speaking students, male and female, domiciled in university residences in 1987 at the University of Cape Town. Measured by sentencing decisions, subjects were significantly more punitive towards an offender described as black, and towards an offender described as working class, than towards an offender described as white. Attitudes towards the victim did not differ significantly across offender conditions. Women attributed feelings of stigmatization to the victim significantly more than men across all offender conditions, while men attributed such feelings significantly less where a white assailant was depicted. The results are discussed within the context of the interaction of race and class prejudice in apartheid society, and in relation to previous literature concerning attitudes towards rape.