South African Journal of Psychology

Lead is a toxic heavy metal that is associated with lowered intelligence quotient scores, behavioural problems, and physical health impairments in children. Current consensus is that there is no safe level of child lead exposure and that even low doses of lead can have negative effects. Several reviews conducted in South Africa have revealed the sources and potential risk factors associated with child lead poisoning. However, no South African reviews have focused on the quality of studies focusing on child lead poisoning and psychological outcomes (intelligence, cognitive, and behavioural outcomes). This study reviews epidemiological studies of child lead poisoning with a particular focus on the association between child lead poisoning and psychological outcomes in South Africa over a 30-year time span (1986–2016). The review pays particular attention to study design, measurement, sampling, and confounding variables. Nine studies that measured child lead poisoning were included in the review. Just two of the nine studies (one cross-sectional and one follow-up) measured psychological outcomes and neither study adequately adjusted for confounding. In all studies, sampling was purposive and lead exposure indicators were suited to short-term acute exposure. There is, therefore, insufficient evidence to determine the magnitude of the association between child lead poisoning and psychological outcomes in South Africa. More rigorous epidemiological studies are needed to strengthen the evidence base. The article also highlights opportunities for psychological research in intervention studies and studies that are framed by an environmental justice agenda.

This article explores the possible effects of group-based life design-related counselling on the sense of self of female adolescent peer supporters. Convenience and purposive sampling were used to select 24 participants at a private school (mean age = 16.5 years; standard deviation = 6.4 months). A parallel interactive mixed-method design, embedded in an intervention framework, was used to gather data. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare pre- and post-test scores obtained on the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale and the Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents. Strong evidence of change was found on the Control scale (Career Adapt-Abilities Scale) and on the scales of Mastery, Self-efficacy, and Comfort (Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents). The results suggest that group-based intervention programmes, when based on self-construction and life design principles, could serve as a viable intervention process for adolescent girls during their discovery of a unique sense of self. Future research should focus on the question of sustainability of the newly gained sense of self due to participation in the life design-related programme.

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition, measures cognitive processing, includes non-verbal sub-tests, and is increasingly used in low- and middle-income countries. While the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition, has been validated in the United States, a psychometric evaluation has not been conducted in Southern Africa. This study aims to establish the reliability and validity of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition, among a sample of 376 primary school-aged children in rural South Africa (7–11 years). We examined Cronbach’s alpha and conducted a confirmatory factor analysis. The battery showed good reliability (mental processing index [α = .78]), and the originally validated structure of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition, was maintained (χ² = 16.30, p = .432). Mean scores were low on the Planning sub-scale. On the Simultaneous sub-scale, the mean score was higher for the supplementary sub-test Block Counting versus the core sub-test Triangles. With translation and the inclusion of supplementary sub-tests, the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition, is an appropriate assessment to use in this context (150/150).

Emerging adults are an important group not only because their opinions and knowledge will determine future attitudes but also because of the emergence of mental health problems during young adulthood. In order to provide relevant support, academics, health care providers as well as policy makers need to be more cognisant of how emerging adults make meaning of their psycho-social developmental context. The objective of the study was to explore how a cohort of 150 university students made meaning of emotional well-being and mental illness, the causes of mental health problems, the negative connotations associated with mental ill health, help-seeking behaviours, and how culture was used as a lens through which mental well-being was understood. The main findings indicate that students struggle to fully understand these concepts mainly because it is shrouded in mystery and complexity and not engaged with freely because of stigma and stereotypical attitudes, and while culture provides a lens to understand the causes and interventions, emerging adults often adopt a level of scepticism and are beginning to vacillate between tradition and modernity. Emerging adults face many barriers to accessing health care services including limited knowledge and stigma related to services, lack of confidentiality, fear of mistreatment, location of facilities, and the high cost of services. Universities and government should actively engage with research evidence to inform policies and programmes to improve the health and well-being of emerging adults.

Gender has a profound effect on the sexual risk preventive intentions and behaviour of young people. However, little is known about the role of gender on condom use negotiation among adolescents in Ghana. This study explored gender differences in condom use negotiation among school-going adolescents in Ghana. Participants (n = 684) completed self-report measures based on attitudes towards condom use, subjective norms regarding condom use, perceived behavioural control over condom use, intentions to use condoms, and on actual condom use behaviour. Results revealed statistically significant differences in condom use by gender. Specifically, attitudes towards condom use were more favourable among male students than they were among female students. Male students perceived slightly greater control over condom use than did female students. Moreover, male students reported slightly more condom-protected sexual behaviour than did female students. These results highlight the usefulness of designing gender-specific sexual risk reduction programmes among high school adolescents in Ghana.

The objective of this study was to establish the factors that hinder men from actively participating in the early socio-education development of their children. An exploratory sequential design and semistructured interviews were used to engage 25 purposively sampled fathers who live in communities within the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. Qualitative data were analysed through analytic induction and grounded theorising and presented descriptively. Coleman’s social capital theory provided the theoretical lenses that enabled an understanding of men’s crises that impacted the rationale for the nature of the interventions suggested in this article. Findings indicate that participants experienced extreme crises that impeded their ability to genuinely participate in early socio-education development of their children. Fathers reported experiencing huge crises, some of which appeared self-imposed. The social system that immensely stereotypes men appeared to further deepen their crises, which resulted in their inability to contribute to children’s socio-education development. Most current explanatory models on men’s participatory experiences in children’s early social development are largely deficient, derogatory, and recriminatory. The author suggests that such interpretive models may be counterproductive. If fathers are to genuinely contribute to children’s socio-education development, father-specific support programmes must be put in place. Some helpful interventions have been suggested.

This cross-sectional study purposively sampled (n = 191) church ministers from all nine South African Provinces to investigate the relationship between psychological capital, work outcomes, and well-being among the church ministers in South Africa. A psychological capital questionnaire, the Minnesota satisfaction questionnaire, organisational commitment scale, orientation to happiness scale, satisfaction with life scale, and general health questionnaire were used to collect data. The results revealed that overall psychological capital not only had a positive relationship with job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and well-being but was also predictive of the mentioned constructs. Findings from this study encourage organisations in general, and church ministry in particular, to enhance individuals’ level of psychological capacities for institutional and individual growth and thriving.

The aim of this study was to validate the English version of the Basic Psychological Needs Scale with subscales Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness in a South African student sample. The participants were a nonprobability sample of 322 students from a South African university. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the scale’s factorial validity. Neither a one-factor nor a three-factor model fitted the original 21-item scale. After problematic items were removed, a 17-item Basic Psychological Needs Scale with a negatively worded method effect fitted the data best, but the fit was inadequate. Although the 17-item scale exhibited good convergent and discriminant validity, the internal consistency reliability remained low. The Basic Psychological Needs Scale had limited application in a South African student sample as a domain-general measure of basic psychological need satisfaction. Questions are raised regarding the extent to which the scale taps the construct under study in the current sample.

‘Transracial’ adoption and fostering offer fertile ground for exploring how constructions of race can operate. This qualitative study engaged in a discourse analysis of interviews with 17 South African mothers identifying as White who have adopted and who foster transracially. Focus was placed on how they talk about race through their discussions of mothering. Findings highlight how race is constructed largely in an ambivalent manner and how aversive racism can coexist with intentionally devoted mothering. Some mothers in this study, however, do assume a consciously reflexive stance in their deconstruction of race.

The future success of South Africa’s unique democracy depends on the development of harmonious race relations. Understanding the factors underlying the country’s interracial attitudes is, consequently, important. Social identity theory suggests that Black African attitudes towards White people are connected to their evaluations of South Africa’s other racial minorities. This thesis seems counterintuitive given that White people are associated with a long history of political, economic, and social oppression in the collective memory of many Black African communities. Nationally representative data from the South African Social Attitudes Survey were used to validate the thesis that Black Africans’ evaluations of White people correlated with their assessments of other racial groups. Pairwise correlation analysis was employed to test the article’s hypothesis. The results presented in this article showed that Black Africans’ evaluations towards the White minority correlated with their evaluations of other racial minorities in South Africa. Multivariate analysis, specifically a standard (ordinary least squares) linear regression, was used to confirm the bivariate analysis. Black Africans’ attitudes towards White people were strongly correlated with attitudes towards the country’s two other major racial minorities. This finding held even controlling for contact with White people as well as a range of socio-economic characteristics. The outcomes of this article invite closer examination of the factors that underlie the generality of outgroup evaluations among South Africa’s Black African majority.

South Africa’s Children’s Act 38 of 2005 requires health professionals to determine whether a child possesses ‘sufficient maturity’ and ‘mental capacity’ to make decisions about themselves in relation to surgery, treatment, and HIV testing. Similarly, the National Health Act 61 of 2003 requires a child to be ‘capable of understanding’ to provide informed consent in research. However, neither the Children’s Act nor the National Health Act defines these terms. Moreover, there is no common definition of ‘sufficient maturity’ among healthcare professionals in South Africa. Appreciating how foreign law interprets ‘mental capacity’ and how different healthcare professionals evaluate ‘maturity’ could prove illuminative in respect to how these terms could be interpreted by health professionals in South Africa, and elsewhere.

The aim of this study was to establish the levels of well-being of South African psychologists by implementing a mixed method research design. Positive psychology was used as framework as psychosocial well-being is a core concept in this exciting subdiscipline in psychology. In the quantitative part of the study, participants (n = 279) completed questionnaires consisting of four standardised measures of well-being (The Mental Health Continuum Short Form, The Wagnild Resilience Scale, Meaningfulness in Life Questionnaire and Affectometer 2). Descriptive statistics, reliability indexes and construct validity were established and frequencies were determined for the constructs flourishing and languishing. In the qualitative part, unstructured interviews were conducted with 14 participants. Thematic analysis was utilised for data analysis. Data were synthesised by identifying areas represented in both data sets and by comparing or contrasting the results. The majority of the participants (93.9%) experienced flourishing and 6.1% experienced languishing. The qualitative data analysis resulted in the identification of four themes namely, work content and work context, relational functioning, self-care practices and personal resources. Based on deductive analysis, meaning, resilience and positive affect were found to contribute positively to the participants’ high levels of well-being. South African psychologists’ well-being may be the result of possessing strong competencies that sustain their well-being. High scores were also found for presence of meaning, resilience and positive affect. It is recommended that identified competencies and contests as depicted in the qualitative research ought to guide intentional efforts towards sustainable well-being.