Young South Africans Research Articles

Male circumcision perceptions among HIV vaccine trial participants in Soweto: Qualitative study

Background: Male circumcision has health benefits and cultural significance in South Africa and elsewhere. We sought to understand perceptions about male circumcision among participants enrolled in a preventive human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine efficacy trial in South Africa.Methods: We conducted a qualitative study with 28 consenting people aged 18–35 years old who self-reported that they were not living with HIV and who were participating in the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) 702 vaccine efficacy trial in Soweto. Using a semi-structured guide, we facilitated four focus group discussions (FGDs) stratified by age, gender and sexual orientation. Focus group discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, translated into English and thematically analysed.Results: Four main themes emerged: (1) accurate knowledge about what male circumcision is, with some participants stating that it partially reduces acquisition of HIV and sexually transmitted infections; (2) emerging distrust of cultural circumcision because of perceived lack of transparency and adverse events; (3) misperceptions that circumcision boosted masculinity and (4) the influenced of parents, family and female partners in circumcision decision-making.Conclusion: Young South African HIV vaccine trial participants accurately understand the HIV prevention benefits of male circumcision, but uptake decisions are embedded within a context informed by culture, sexuality, masculinity norms and values and the influence of women.Contribution: In this study, we showed that young South Africans participating in HIV vaccine trials instead embed their circumcision uptake decisions within a context informed by culture, sexuality and masculinity norms and values and influence of women.

Food insecurity and unemployment as mediators of the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and psychological well-being in young South Africans with HIV

BackgroundPoor psychological well-being, including depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem, is both prevalent among young South Africans living with HIV and associated with poor HIV clinical outcomes. By impacting food insecurity and employment, the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced psychological well-being in this population. This analysis sought to examine whether food insecurity and unemployment mediated the relationship between study cohort (pre- versus during-pandemic) and psychological well-being in our sample of young South Africans living with HIV.MethodsThis was a secondary analysis comparing baseline data from two cohorts of young South Africans ages 18–24 from the Cape Town and East London metro areas who tested positive for HIV at clinics (or mobile clinics) either before or during the COVID-19 pandemic. Baseline sociodemographic, economic, and psychological outcomes were analyzed through a series of bivariate logistic regression and mediation analyses. All data were analyzed in 2023 and 2024.ResultsReported food anxiety, insufficient food quality, and insufficient food quantity were lower in the cohort recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic than those recruited before the pandemic (p < 0.001). Higher levels of food insecurity predicted higher depressive and anxiety symptoms and lower self-esteem. Food anxiety, insufficient food quality, and insufficient food quantity, but not unemployment, mediated the relationship between study cohort and depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and self-esteem.ConclusionFood insecurity may have decreased amongst our sample of young people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings build on our understanding of how the psychological well-being of young people living with HIV was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and may lend support to interventions targeting food insecurity to improve psychological well-being in this population.

Amazwi Amasha: New Approaches to Sustainable Poetry Teaching and Learning

At many South African schools poetry is considered to be a “problem genre”, with both teachers and learners viewing it as “difficult” and as a genre that lowers schools’ pass rates in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) (Matric) examination. For this reason, schools tend to shy away from prescribing poetry at the Further Education and Training (FET) level (that is, in Grades 10-12). This article argues that the poems that are prescribed for English First Additional Language (EFAL) classes are difficult for learners to relate to because of having been written in contexts that are temporally and geographically distant from the learners’ life-worlds. In addition, many learners may not understand the particular variety of English that is used in canonical poetry. A new teaching anthology, entitled Amazwi Amasha (New Voices), containing South African post-1994 poetry, is in the process of being compiled to address the problem of learners’ alienation from their prescribed poems. This anthology forms the topic of this article. The theory and methodology underpinning the selection of poems and the design of learning activities to accompany each poem are described, along with the selection of themes that are relevant to young South Africans. The argument concludes that a more multimodal, interactive approach to teaching and learning poetry can help tap into the resources of this capacious and fascinating genre.

The COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity, and psychosocial well-being in young South Africans newly diagnosed with HIV: a mediation analysis.

Poor psychological well-being, including depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem, is both prevalent among young South Africans living with HIV and associated with poor HIV clinical outcomes. By impacting food insecurity and employment, the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced psychological well-being in this population. This analysis sought to examine whether food insecurity and unemployment mediated the relationship between study cohort (pre- versus during-pandemic) and psychological well-being in our sample of young South Africans living with HIV. This was a secondary analysis comparing baseline data from two cohorts of young South Africans ages 18-24 from the Cape Town and East London metro areas who tested positive for HIV at clinics (or mobile clinics) either before or during the COVID-19 pandemic. Baseline sociodemographic, economic, and psychological outcomes were analyzed through a series of bivariate logistic regression and mediation analyses. All data were analyzed in 2023 and 2024. Reported food anxiety, insufficient food quality, and insufficient food quantity were lower in the cohort recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic than those recruited before the pandemic (p<0.001). Higher levels of food insecurity predicted higher depressive and anxiety symptoms and lower self-esteem. Food anxiety, insufficient food quality, and insufficient food quality, but not unemployment, mediated the relationship between study cohort and depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and self-esteem. Food insecurity may have decreased amongst our sample of young people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings build on our understanding of how the psychological well-being of young people living with HIV was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and may lend support to interventions targeting food insecurity to improve psychological well-being in this population.

Using Holocaust Education as a “Bridge” to Learning about Apartheid in a South African History Classroom: The Development of “Interpretive Frames” through Comparative Histories

Abstract The Grade 9 South African history curriculum teaches the history of the Holocaust as an introduction to the study of apartheid. Students are taught how racial identities are constructed, codified into law, and weaponized for the purposes of discrimination and genocide. They are taught that racialized discrimination can happen anywhere—not only in South Africa—and that we must be vigilant lest it happens again. Curriculum developers—supported by international literature (e.g., UNESCO publications)—believe that learning about the Holocaust will act as a “bridge” to learning about apartheid.1 By teaching young South Africans difficult history that is emotionally, geographically, and temporally removed from their own country, educators believed that students will be better prepared to study the complex history of apartheid. Yet what is the impact of this comparative approach?2 The author’s ten-month ethnographic study explores how Grade 9 students in one majority-White history classroom in Cape Town learned about the Holocaust and apartheid. Developing Epstein’s idea of an “interpretive frame,”3 this empirical study contributes to ongoing debates on whether and how genocides and other atrocities can be meaningfully compared in the history classroom.4 Furthermore, it questions whether using Holocaust education as a “bridge”5 to domestic injustices and persecution will significantly improve historical understanding, tolerance, and moral reasoning.

‘Morphing between the margins’: how youth make a living across multiple spaces in South Africa and beyond

ABSTRACT Young South Africans regularly generate livelihoods on the move, as they morph across a mainstream economic field and two translocal sub-fields. While a field implies sets of relations operating under common conditions, translocal sub-fields are local spaces of exchange and practice, where resources are utilised, in a relationship with other linked spaces. In South Africa, the mainstream economic field largely consists of an urban labour market with some good jobs and unskilled labour. Alongside it a rural sub-field consists of farm and off-farm activities, reciprocal exchange and state grants. Finally, on the outskirts of urban areas a township sub-field consists of young people hustling resources in the informal sector. After describing how mobile young South Africans make a living across these spaces, I show how this case is both similar and different to other post-colonial contexts with substantial informal economic sectors like India and Brazil. In these places, youth strive to make a living by accumulating resources as they move across spaces that include, but transcend, the labour market. A particular form of mobile, global South youth livelihood generation occurs across the mainstream capitalist economy and informal urban and rural contexts, where economic relations remain largely embedded in social life.

The Covid-19 resilience journey of vulnerable young South Africans

Resilience, the ability to adapt well to adversity, is a critical factor in the well-being and success of young individuals. This study explored the multifaceted nature of resilience among South African youth challenged by COVID-related stressors and structural disadvantage. Specifically, this paper reports a follow-up qualitative leg of a sequential mixed-method design. Thirty-eight young adults (average age 24), all of whom reported high risk exposure but low depression symptoms, took part in semi-structured interviews to learn more about their resilience journey. Qualitative content analysis was employed to identify prominent themes. The study’s findings emphasize the dynamic nature of youth resilience, with individuals being buoyed by social network support (especially family); personal agency, structural support, and resource combinations. The qualitative findings contribute to the growing attention to the need for comprehensive policies and programs that recognize and enhance multisystemic sources of support, enabling young individuals to navigate challenges and thrive in their transition into adulthood.

IDF23-0505 Sympathetic hyperactivity in Insulin resistance and acute stress cardiovascular hemodynamics in young South Africans

IDF23-0505 Sympathetic hyperactivity in Insulin resistance and acute stress cardiovascular hemodynamics in young South Africans

Reaching Out from Lockdown: A Writing Group for Young Black South Africans.

Reaching Out from Lockdown: A Writing Group for Young Black South Africans.

Who wants a reparative future? Social mobility beliefs, and young South African’s narrative positioning within the historic moral community

This paper explores how young South Africans think about the need for a reparative future through a consideration of their relationship to South Africa’s historic moral community. By historic moral community I draw on MacIntyre (2007), Sandel (2009), and Shotwell’s (2016) work to refer to the network of those from whom we inherit, and to whom we owe, an obligation – past, present, and future. This paper draws on data from a ten-month classroom ethnography in Cape Town. The ethnography looked at four Grade 9 history classrooms in four racially distinct schools and included multiple interviews with between four and six students from each class (n = 20) over the course of the year. Data collection focussed on how the legacies of apartheid were taught, and how students learned to use history to make sense of their personal circumstances and contemporary society. It also explored students’ narratives regarding their own social mobility trajectories, how they perceived the effects of apartheid on their own lives, and attitudes regarding the need for reparative action in light of apartheid. The data demonstrated not only the diversity of attitudes towards reparative futures that exist among South African youth, but also suggests that young people who narrate their life trajectories as being intertwined with South Africa’s historic moral community both advocate for collective responsibility for past injustice, and feel a sense of agency over their future social mobility.

Spectre and Speculation: Haunting and Uncanniness in Soweto, Under the Apricot Tree by Niq Mhlongo

Niq Mhlongo's collection of short stories, Soweto, Under the Apricot Tree (2018), does not perhaps immediately present itself as speculative fiction. The collection, however, gives the supernatural world of African indigenous knowledge as much weight in shaping characters' lives and experiences as it does contemporary socio-political realities. It troubles established genre distinctions in that it can be seen as a work simultaneously belonging to magical realism, social realism, and horror. This article contends that it is precisely owing to the work's use of supernatural and uncanny aspects that this collection can be viewed as a form of social or sociological realism, which aims at depicting the peculiar contemporary and subjective (sur)realities of many young black South Africans. It is faithful to the contradictory worlds of tradition and globalisation that many South Africans straddle, as well as to the spectres of colonialism and Apartheid, that impinge on the present in both material and immaterial forms. In many ways the collection stages the difficulty of decolonisation and the subjective spectres and doppeigängers that such a process unleashes. This paper will make use of the work of Sigmund Freud, Avery F. Gordon, Eve Tuck and C. Ree to explore instances of haunting and the uncanny in Mhlongo's collection.

Unleashing the potential of chaos: How music therapists and young people can engage chaos as a resource in short-term music therapy groups

ABSTRACT Introduction Many music therapists propose that chaos, such as destructiveness and disintegration, could thwart music therapy group processes and should be minimised or resolved. From a paradoxical approach, however, chaos is understood as a transformative complement to ordered, formative music therapy experiences. The research in this paper explored how music therapists and adolescents could engage with chaos as a resource in music therapy groups. Method From a paradoxical approach, the music therapist--researcher facilitated two short-term group music therapy processes with nine young South Africans from under-resourced and often violent communities, referred for committing offences. The researcher utilised crystallisation, including constructivist grounded theory, participatory action research, and abduction, to analyse how group members could engage with chaotic group experiences. Findings, constructed through a cyclical process of data collection, analysis, and inclusion of group feedback, are presented in a matrix. Results The matrix shows how groups could utilise chaos to explore multiple possibilities for responding to challenges. They expressed themselves courageously and played unconventional group roles through their musicking and participation. They juggled paradoxical tensions between observational and active, integrative and disintegrative, engagement styles. This supported their transformation in the group, and potentially within the chaotic South African context. Discussion Music therapists can use the matrix to support adolescents in music therapy groups to engage with chaos as a transformative resource. They can accompany young people through offering holding, resources and collaborative support. When it is safe, music therapists may allow or encourage chaos that empowers adolescents to cope with challenges independently.

Contents of a transformative developmental social work curriculum

ABSTRACT South Africa is recognized as the most unequal society in the world. In the National Development Plan 2030 in 2012 the South African government has called on social workers to participate in transformation by addressing inequality. A pursuit of social justice highlights the need for a social work curriculum that is transformative in nature and cultivates an anti-colonial Global South approach. Transformative developmental social work based on social development theory is a modality of choice when it comes to practicing social work in Global South countries. It empowers social workers to contribute to social justice in societies that are plagued by inequality. Although South Africa has incorporated developmental social work into its social welfare policies, a knowledge gap still exists that hampers social workers in bridging the gap between theoretical training and practicing in Global South countries. It is, therefore, necessary for South Africa to develop social development training, and practice which answers to its own socio-political, cultural, and economic environment. To reach this objective, a curriculum is crucial in which social justice, human rights, and equality are pursued. The aim of the study was to develop a curriculum for undergraduate social work training in transformative developmental social work to enable social workers to contribute to social justice. A multi-method and multi-phased study approach were used for the purpose of curriculum and programme development. In phase one, a scoping review was done about current social development teaching in the Global South. During phase two, a quantitative cross-sectional study with newly graduated social workers was done. They completed the Social Justice Scales of Torres-Harding et al. Phase three was a qualitative descriptive study with young South Africans that were used to describe their experience of social justice in South Africa. These phases were used to gather information to guide the process of curriculum development. Curriculum contents were then verified using the Delphi Technique by social work teaching experts. The research study produced a curriculum for transformative developmental social work training for undergraduate social work students.

Black women’s bodies as sacrificial lambs at the altar

The youth in South Africa are subject to unemployment and the pressure to fit into society. The unemployment rate in South Africa is high; therefore, some find themselves desperate for employment and often find themselves hoping and praying for a miracle; hence, the number of churches in South Africa is increasing. People go to church to be prayed for by ministers in a hope to better their lives and that of their families. Some of these young South Africans became victims of sexual harassment, rape and gender-based violence (GBV) at the hands of their pastors. The aim of this article was to challenge the church in identifying ways to break the cycle of perpetrators among pastors and help find the role pastoral counsellors can play regarding both victims and offenders to prevent history from repeating itself. Domestic violence and abuse in South Africa have been investigated by various disciplines. One of the most difficult realities for the church is the existence of clergy who abuse their female congregants. The article will create an awareness of violence against black women at the temple of black churches which is vindicated by Christian faith as miracle and healing. The violence against black women at the temple of the churches is patriarchal violence as male clergy sacrifice them in the name of faith using the bible. Some scholars of Black theology of liberation (BTL) argue that Elmina Castle had a chapel where women trading took place. Elmina Castle had a dungeon that kept black women who were waiting to be sold to a trade master. This article also exposed patriarchal violence that has been engraved on black women using the Bible by male clergy and connected Elmina Castle to Bishops Israel Makamu and Stephen Bafana Zondo to see the position of black women in these temples. Black theology of liberation was used to expose oppression of black women, by black men, in black churches.Contribution: This article aimed to challenge pastoral care givers to remain ethical during pastoral care and counselling to those in need, especially young women. This study was a literature review study.

Abstract P331: Higher Allostatic Load Score is Associated With Early Cardiovascular Risk in Young South Africans. The AfricanPREDICT Study

Background: The Allostatic load score (ALS) is a composite score that measures the cumulative physiological burden of sustained exposure to stress and biological dysregulation. ALS has markers capture risk in 4 domains (neuro-endocrine, metabolic, cardiovascular, and immunological). Higher ALS in adults predict cardiovascular disease (CVD), but it is unknown whether ALS is associated with CVD risk in youth and young adults (YA), and whether the risk and association would differ at such an early age. Aims: In youth and YA we compared 1) the total ALS; 2) the cardiovascular profile according to high and low ALS; and 3) the association of ALS with markers of CVD. Methods: Participants in the African PRospective study on the Early Detection and Identification of Cardiovascular disease and HyperTension (AfricanPREDICT) were 587 youth&lt;24years (48% Male, 21±2 years) and 579 YA≥24years (49% Male, 27±2 years) were evaluated. The ALS was calculated from fasting biomarkers using the upper quartile population distribution of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), cortisol, interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (hsCRP), BMI, systolic-BP, diastolic-BP, and lower quartile of HDL-cholesterol. The upper quartile of ALS in the whole population was defined as high ALS. Retinal vessel analyses, pulse wave velocity, and echocardiography were obtained and associations with ALS determined by regression analyses adjusted for sex, ethnicity, cotinine, gamma-glutamyl-transferase (GGT) and physical activity. Results: ALS median range was 1-8, and a high ALS of &gt;3 was observed in 35% of youth, and 47% YA. In youth with high ALS, ALS associated with narrower retinal arteries (Adj R 2 :0.16, β-coefficient, -1.73, (95%CI), -2.95, -0.94), P =0.052), greater pulse wave velocity (Adj R 2 :0.56, 0.75 (0.48, 1.98), P =0.021), increased left ventricular mass index (Adj R 2 :0.61, 2.21 (0.43, 8.46) P =0.048), lower left ventricular function (global longitudinal strain) (Adj R 2 :0.37, -0.45 (-1.06, -0.06) P =0.015). Similarly, in YA with high ALS, ALS associated with narrower retinal arteries (Adj R 2 :0.43, -4.54 (-6.58, -2.50), P &lt;0.001), greater pulse wave velocity (Adj R 2 :0.44, 0.62 (0.09, 1.17), P =0.043), increased left ventricular mass index (Adj R 2 :0.53, 2.62 (1.52, 5.76) P =0.032), lower diastolic function (E/A ratio) (Adj R 2 :0.27, -0.11 (-0.18, -0.04) P =0.002). Conclusion: Youth and YA with high ALS had a more adverse CVD risk profile and greater association with markers of cardiovascular aging compared to their low ALS counterparts. ALS and allostatic dysregulation should be evaluated in youth and YA, when assessing current and future cardiovascular risk.

A review of Teaching and Learning for Change: Education and Sustainability in South Africa Edited by Ingrid Schudel, Zintle Songqwaru, Sirkka Tshiningayamwe and Heila Lotz-Sisitka

Achieving environmental education within the current South African school system feels akin to putting eggs into a beer crate. But such is the difficulty, delicacy and discomfort of the project of system change we are struggling within, to remake and reimagine our relationships in and with the world. South African environmental educators and researchers have been involved in this task over the past 40 years. As the book Teaching and Learning for Change: Education and sustainability in South Africa shows, the school system is animportant place to start, as a meeting point of knowledge and learning and as a site in which young South Africans spend much of their time. This book not only tells a story of efforts towards realising environmental learning within the school system over the last 10 years of the Fundisa (learning) for Change Programme but it distills the significant lessons for the context of environmental education practice, going forward.

Reading young adult South Africans’ reading of national television news

This article introduces a theoretical perspective on young adults’ television news-viewing choicesgrounded in the synthesis of reception aesthetics, socialisation theory and qualitative researchmethodology. It argues that this theoretical framework allows for a deeper contextual reading of thereader-text relationship and for the argument that, despite post-apartheid social transformation,young adult South Africans’ readings of locally produced television news texts are still ideologicallysituated sociocultural imports traceable to their differential class, race and gender positions in thecountry’s social structure. Evidence produced through focus-group interviews is used to supportthe position of the introduced theoretical framework.

Understanding the complex relationship between multidimensional poverty and depressive symptoms among young South Africans: A cross-sectional study

BackgroundWe use the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) to explore how different dimensions of poverty more directly linked to young people are associated with depressive symptoms among South African youth. MethodsData came from the 2017 wave of the nationally-representative National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) in South Africa. We focused on a sample of 15–24-year-olds whose depressive symptoms were assessed using an adapted version of the 10-item Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. We examine how individual dimensions and indicators of the MPI relate to depression, in comparison to more conventional measures, including household income, subjective social standing, overcrowding and personal assets. Cross-sectional analyses were adjusted for clustering to account for sampling design. ResultsThe MPI index was not associated with probable depression (OR = 1.02, 95 % CI 0.81–1.29). Only lack of access to the labour market emerged as a key individual dimension associated with probable depression (OR = 5.29, 95 % CI 1.70–16.47), a relationship driven by an increased odds for those not in employment, education or training. Lack of household assets, living in an informal dwelling and lower perceived social standing were also associated with increased odds for depression. No gender differences were noted. LimitationsThe study is cross-sectional and not suitable to examine the causal nature of the association between multidimensional poverty and depression. ConclusionsPoverty dimensions that measure youth's access to employment or training have a strong association with depression. Further research is needed to assess whether improved access to employment or training contributes to improving mental health among young South Africans.

The nature of inconsistencies in two measures of risk preferences in a sample of young African South Africans

The nature of inconsistencies in two measures of risk preferences in a sample of young African South Africans

Early-onset malignant solid tumours in young adult South Africans - an audit based on histopathological records of patients seen at the three academic hospitals in Johannesburg

BACKGROUND: Malignant tumours in adolescents and young adults (AYA) are referred to as early-onset cancers. This study analysed the histopathological profile of malignant solid tumours in AYA. METHODS: Records of patients who had confirmed malignant solid tumours were retrieved. Data collected included the treating hospital, year of presentation, age and histological diagnosis. The commonly diagnosed malignant tumours in AYA were compared with tumours in older adults. A p-value below 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: A total of 61 828 records were retrieved and 29 974 were excluded. Additionally, 10 55 post-excision results from AYA were excluded. Of the remaining 30 799 records, 13.1% (4 032/30 799) were diagnosed in AYA, of which 18.2% (734/4 032) were in-situ lesions. Overall, 11% (3 298/30 065) of invasive tumours were from the AYA. The majority, 81.1% (3 269/4 032), of invasive and non-invasive malignant tumours in AYA were from females. Breast and cervical cancer constituted 29.2% (962/3 298) and 23.2% (766/3 298) of diagnosed cancers in AYA, respectively. Ten (0.3%) cases of prostate and 0.4% (12/3 298) of lung cancers were reported in AYA. CONCLUSION: Eleven per cent of invasive malignancies were diagnosed in AYA and 81% involved females. Cancers of the breast, cervix, skin, and colon were the top four most common tumours in AYA. The burden of breast and colorectal cancer was higher in AYA than in older adults. Prostate cancer is rare in AYA and lung cancer was not among the top 10 malignant tumours in our setting. Over 11% of primary malignant tumours of the anus, breast, cervix, colon, conjunctiva, liver and rectum were diagnosed in AYA.