South African Journal of Psychology - latest Issue

Mrs L and her 7-year-old daughter arrived in San Diego, United States in November 2017, where she told border officials that they had fled the Congo in fear of their lives. For no apparent reason, and without any opportunity to argue against the decision, the officials took the crying child away from her mother, and placed her thousands of miles away in a facility in Chicago. It took a court application by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to get her back, 4 months after her removal. The court case grew into a class action to assist others, like Mirian G, a mother from Honduras who came to the United States with her 18-month-old son in February 2018. Despite her showing the authorities several documents that proved he was her child, the authorities removed him and it took her 2 months to have him safely returned (Cheng, 2018). These cases were early examples of what was soon to become an avalanche of removals.

In recent months, there has been widespread media attention to parents and children who have been separated as a consequence of Donald Trump’s ‘tough on immigration’ policies. There has been an outcry that more than 2300 children have been separated from their parents and sent to shelters across the United States while their parents are in detention (see The Guardian, 2018). Closer to home, in February of 2018, a truck was found carrying 8 Zimbabwean children between the ages of 2 and 12 into South Africa. The children were travelling to meet their parents in Cape Town when a passer-by heard one of the youngest children crying and alerted the authorities. The children were held separately from their parents for 3 months before they were deported back to Zimbabwe. The truck driver was charged with human trafficking. Commenting on the matter, Lumka Olifant, the spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs, emphasized the negligence of the parents who sent their children across borders under such dangerous conditions (Washinyira, 2018). The parents, on the contrary, emphasized that they wanted to provide a better life for their children and had resorted to smuggling them across the border as they had been unable to obtain passports for them from the Zimbabwean government. The US case in particular has generated much debate about the human rights violations that can and do take place through the restriction of human movement. There are a number of points that are important that have not been adequately discussed. In particular, what has been largely missing from these debates has been the ways in which changes in migration policy making has created these risks for children and families – even in instances where the intention is to protect them. Let me elaborate this using two examples.

Trans and gender diversity (TGD) has become one of the ‘hot topics’ in the academic and contemporary world. The celebrity Caitlyn Jenner made news headlines in 2015 coming out as transgender. Movies, for example, ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ (1999), ‘Transamerica’ (2005), and The Danish Girl (2015), have highlighted the challenges that trans people face within society. Even National Geographic published a special issue in January 2017 called ‘Gender Revolution’. In the past 10 years, there has been an increase in academic research in this field (American Psychological Association [APA], 2015).

With expanding interest in the role of solitude in healthy psychological development during adolescence, there is a need for psychometrically sound solitude measures. The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Motivation for Solitude Scale–Short Form by evaluating its internal consistency, factor structure, and convergent and discriminant validity using a group of South African adolescents (n = 818). Results revealed satisfactory internal consistency for each of the two subscales, as well as good convergent and discriminant validity. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a two-factor higher order model as providing the best fit. The Motivation for Solitude Scale–Short Form seems to be a valid measure of motivation for solitude among South African adolescents and provides an avenue for further research on the role of solitude in adolescent well-being.

The issue of adolescent aggression and violence has received significant attention in the literature. Normative beliefs about the acceptability of aggressive behaviour have been identified as central in influencing aggression. The Normative Beliefs about Aggression Scale was developed to identify cognitive beliefs about the acceptability of aggressive behaviour. The scale has been extensively used in research on child and adolescent aggression and has consistently demonstrated that normative beliefs account for variances in adolescent aggressive behaviour, predict aggression, and mediate the relationship between risk factors and aggression among this population group. Despite extensive use of this scale in other contexts, information is lacking on its psychometric properties. A full analysis of the factor structure of the Normative Beliefs about Aggression Scale has not yet been conducted. This study presents the first test of the factor structure of the full instrument and confirms that the Normative Beliefs about Aggression Scale is a reliable instrument when used in the South African context. The results point to the multidimensional nature of beliefs about aggression and provide an important foundation for future research into correlates of aggressive behaviour in different cultural contexts.

In this article, we review four key historical processes that shape community engagement and that open up spaces for its further development: The long history of tensions and cooperation between those within and outside the ‘ivory tower’, the continuing corporatisation of academic and professional life, the drive for free access to academic publications, and the drive towards decoloniality. We position community engagement as potentially disruptive to the epistemological and political status quo and present ‘four aphorisms’ for critical community engagement: Charity begins at home; it is (not) all about the money; it is all about knowledge; and you need a translator more than an accountant.

Burgeoning research on the well-being of young people in recent years has made it difficult to identify conceptual gaps in the literature. We conducted a review of South African research in this area to better understand the use and measurement of the construct, as well as factors associated with it. The search of multiple databases identified 28 studies published in academic journals between 2000 and 2016. Within this period, studies that referred to well-being and its related subjective components varied significantly in terms of how they defined and operationalised these constructs, resulting in a fragmented body of work. The review highlights the need for a coherent research agenda in this area given the centrality of well-being research in promoting optimal outcomes in young people. Recommendations for strengthening South African research in this area are provided.

Suicide is the leading cause of death among offenders in correctional facilities in many parts of the world. While epidemiological data have described the extent and scope of the problem, no research has documented the experiences and insights of health professionals who are tasked with providing care to suicidal offenders in South African correctional centres. It is within this context that we set out to document the experiences of a group of health professionals working in two correctional facilities in South Africa. We were interested in learning from them about their perceptions of the factors that contribute to suicidal behaviour among offenders and their suggestions for suicide prevention. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with a group of health professionals (N = 10). Data were analysed using thematic analysis and an inductive approach was adopted for coding the data. The participants describe a number of structural and contextual factors which they believe make correctional centres in South Africa unsafe, thus increasing the risk of suicidal behaviour among offenders and hindering suicide prevention efforts within the two correctional centres where data were collected. These factors include high levels of psychopathology, trauma, substance abuse, violence, gangsterism, overcrowding, inadequate mental health care resources, and problems relating to stigma. These findings highlight human rights and mental health issues facing offenders and draw attention to conditions within correctional centres that need attention as part of any national suicide prevention strategy in South Africa.

Bullying is an environmental workplace stressor that has severe implications for the bullied individual and the organisation. Nurses within Southern African hospitals face unique challenges, which can foster an environment within which bullying flourishes. In particular within public hospitals, there are shortages of doctors, equipment, and basic resources, and hospitals are grossly understaffed. This study investigated the effect of workplace bullying on nurses’ sense of well-being, their job satisfaction, and propensity to leave. The effectiveness of social support as a moderator of the impact of bullying was considered. A self-report questionnaire was completed by 102 nurses from a public hospital in Zimbabwe. Moderated multiple regression analyses were conducted on each of the outcomes of bullying. Workplace bullying was found to have a significant impact on the outcomes measured. Higher levels of bullying were associated with lowered job satisfaction and greater propensity to leave. Social support within the sample under study did not influence these outcomes, but did influence mental well-being as a moderator. At low and medium levels of experienced bullying, high levels of support promoted higher well-being than low and medium support. But this was not the case when there was a high level of bullying, where there was no difference in mental well-being as a function of the level of social support.

Working in the police service can be physically and emotionally demanding. Officers use various coping methods to deal with the stressors. The main aim of this study was to investigate which coping responses are used most by police officers in the South African Police Service and to investigate how the prevalence of these coping responses changes over time. A longitudinal approach was used where data were collected at three different points in time. The final sample (n = 120) was used for this study. The results indicate that police officers predominantly use planful problem-solving, positive reappraisal, and confrontive coping to deal with their daily stress. Planful problem-solving and positive reappraisal are seen as adaptive ways of dealing with stress, while the outcomes of confrontive coping are context dependent. The coping responses of seeking social support, escape avoidance, and accepting responsibility were used less frequently. The results indicate that coping styles change over time as police officers accepted significantly less responsibility, made less use of confrontive coping, and relied more on planful problem-solving, positive reappraisal, and escape avoidance. The findings of this study have important implications for the diagnosis and treatment of stress of active police officers. It is recommended that interventions such as emotional competence training be used to reinforce and refresh positive coping strategies to enhance the emotional well-being of police officers.

South African career counselling practices have predominantly been informed by vocational theories and models developed in the United States and Europe. In view of South Africa’s peculiar history and its unique cultural and linguistic environment, the indiscriminate application of Western career models has become increasingly contentious, as the majority of these models fail to account for culture-specific values that influence an individual’s career interests, decision-making, and development. The South African Career Interest Inventory was developed to address this contention, through operationalising John Holland’s vocational personality theory in South Africa. This study adapted and translated the South African Career Interest Inventory into isiXhosa, in the process constructing the first career interest inventory in a South African indigenous language. Subsequently, we investigated the structural validity of the South African Career Interest Inventory, and therefore Holland’s model, on a sample of isiXhosa-speaking secondary school learners (n = 266). The randomisation test of hypothesised order relations, multidimensional scaling, and covariance structure modelling were employed to examine the structural validity of the inventory. The results demonstrated the South African Career Interest Inventory–isiXhosa version to be a reliable and valid measure of vocational interest on an early isiXhosa adolescent sample, suggesting the tenability of Holland’s model in the South African context. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Although self-regulated learning has received much attention over the past decades, research on how teacher education students regulate their own learning has been scarce, particularly in third world countries. In the present study, we examined the structural relationships between motivational beliefs, cognitive learning strategies, and academic performance among teacher education students in Uganda. The sample comprised of 1081 students selected from seven universities. Data were collected using several subscales from the modified Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and were analyzed by structural equation modeling. Cognitive learning strategies fully mediated the relationship between motivational beliefs and academic performance. Motivational beliefs contributed to students’ academic performance mainly through influencing their critical thinking and organizational skills. Therefore, interventions to improve teacher education students’ academic performance should focus not only on boosting their motivation but also on enhancing their use of cognitive learning strategies.

The literature on the utility of self-report instruments in determining caseness for posttraumatic stress disorder in South Africa is sparse. We administered the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–Research Version and the Posttraumatic Stress Scale–Self-report version to a sample of 500 South African community members seeking HIV testing. Of our original sample of 500, 306 (61.2%) reported an index event for posttraumatic stress disorder and 25 (5.0%) met the criteria for this diagnosis. The Posttraumatic Stress Scale– Self-report displayed internal consistency of .95 as measured by Cronbach’s alpha. Using the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as a gold standard, we conducted receiver operating curve analysis among the 306 participants who reported an index traumatic event to determine the extent to which the Posttraumatic Stress Scale–Self-report as a screening instrument successfully discriminated between participants who did and did not meet the diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder. The Posttraumatic Stress Scale–Self-report yielded sensitivity of .76 and specificity of .78, with an area under the curve of .837. Positive and negative predictive values were .24 and .97, respectively. Our findings suggest that the Posttraumatic Stress Scale–Self-report may be effectively used to screen for posttraumatic stress disorder among community samples, including persons seeking HIV testing.

Suicide remains a serious public health problem nationally and globally. Rates of completed suicide in South Africa are reported to be 13.25 per 100,000. Data are needed to assist in the understanding of suicide and to inform evidence-based prevention efforts. This article presents the first known thematic analysis of suicide notes from South Africa. A sample of 24 suicide notes was collected from three independent sites located in Johannesburg and Durban. Thematic analysis yielded 12 themes that showed marked similarity to themes reported in comparable international studies. Two themes – ‘Expressions of love and gratitude’ and ‘Concern for those left behind’ – were found to be unique in relation to the international literature. It is recommended that further research on suicide notes be conducted in South Africa, using a standard coding scheme.

PsySSA is proud to announce the latest addition to its publications - The African Journal of Psychological Assessment (AJOPA) published in conjunction with AOSIS Publishers.

We take great pleasure in announcing the establishment of the African Journal of Career Development (AJCD) (Editor: Kobus Maree), flagship journal of the South African Career Development Association (SACDA) (the journal will be launched officially on March 28 2019). The AJCD is a professional, refereed journal, which encourages the submission of previously unpublished articles on contemporary career development issues in Africa. (For purposes of international standardisation, the term career development is accepted to include vocational guidance, as well as, career education, information, advice, guidance and counselling.) The journal was established and will be published by the AOSIS primarily online as an Open Access publication and under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) Licence. The Journal has succeeded in attracting an elite group of exceptional and well-reputed scholars from around the world who will promote and support the AJCD in the next few years as members of our Editorial Board. During the first four years (until we are indexed by the Department of Higher Education (DHE), we intend not to publish more than 16 articles per year. After a period of four years, page fees will be charged.