African Journals Online
Southern African Journal of Child and Adolescent Mental Health

Volume 14, Number 2, 2002
ABSTRACTS

Finding the HIV Positive Mother Symposium: HIV and its meanings within the mother-infant dyad

Carol Long

Department of Psychology University of the Witwatersrand Private Bag 3 WITS 2050 South Africa

[email protected]

Despite the prevalence of maternal HIV infection, HIV positive mothers have only recently become a focus of psychological-scientific investigation. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, some of the key findings to emerge from this literature will be presented with reference to the key themes of disclosure, incidence of psychiatric symptoms, coping and support and parenting efficacy. The second purpose is to interrogate this research in order to “find” the HIV positive mother. This will be done by examining some of the gaps and points of irrationality in the literature to identify points at which the construction of motherhood either slips in contradictory or nonsensical ways or becomes general and vague. The emergent themes of absence, death, guilt and abnormality will be illustrated with examples from the literature.

THE SUITABILITY OF THE Roberts Apperception Test for Children (RATC), the House-Tree-Person (H-T-P) and Draw-A-Person (D-A-P) SCALES IN THE IDENTIFICATION OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE IN THE INDIAN COMMUNITY: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

A.E. Louw and S. Ramkisson

Department of Psychology University of the Free State Bloemfontein South Africa

[email protected]

Determining whether a child has been sexually abused is both a challenging and daunting task, since errors in this regard could have far-reaching implications. Adding to the dilemma of distinguishing between the abused and non-abused child is the fact that there is no single psychological measuring instrument to aid the forensic evaluator in this task. However, recently there have been attempts to either develop certain measures for specific use in child sexual abuse investigations or to determine the suitability of existing measures in this regard. The aim of this study was to determine the suitability of the Roberts Apperception Test for Children (RATC), the House-Tree-Person (H-T-P) test and the Draw-A-Person (D-A-P) test as measures of sexual abuse assessment in South African children. As there is particularly a lack of information in certain subcultures, this study focused on the Indian community. The research participants included 23 sexually abused girls and 17 non-sexually abused girls mostly from foster homes in KwaZulu-Natal. The results revealed that the two groups differed significantly on the four scales of the H-T-P/D-A-P, whereas there were no differences in the scale scores on the RATC. However, a larger proportion of girls who were sexually abused, gave responses of a sexual nature on the RATC. It was concluded that both these instruments seem to be suitable for inclusion in an assessment battery for sexual abuse investigations in Indian girls. It was also emphasised that none of the instruments can be used in isolation. However, they can provide an indication of possible sexual abuse which must be investigated further.

PSYCHO-SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF NIGERIAN SCHOOL CHILDREN WITH EPILEPSY

O.O. Famuyiwa and O.O. Matti

Department of Psychiatry, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, P.M.B. 12003, Lagos, Nigeria

[email protected]

We conducted a standardised evaluation of mothers reporting on 174 Nigerian school children with epileptic disorders (predominantly of the grand mal type) and brief child interviews. A mean of 20.3% reported psychosocial difficulties across a range of psychological difficulties. Contrary to the findings in the Western literature, there was tendency for more psychosocial difficulties to be encountered by girls than boys. This finding seemed explicable more in terms of socio-cultural sex role expectations and attitudes rather than biological factors. The most common psychosocial difficulties were difficulties associated with school adjustment, interpersonal relationships and medical therapy, and perceived depression. Cost and availability of anti-epileptic drugs was a notable problem, which suggests that relatively inexpensive drugs such as phenobarbital and phenytoin should be prescribed. Family size, frequency of seizures and duration of epilepsy did not significantly influence the psychosocial problems profile of epileptic children as a group. However, first-born epileptics and those with onset of the recurrent seizures prior to their second birthday were at risk of experiencing significant psychological problems. We advocate exploration of psychosocial difficulties in the routine clinical assessment of epileptic children.

BRAIN FAG SYMPTOMS AMONG BLACK SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Karl Peltzer

Health Behaviour Research Unit University of the North Private Bag X1106 Sovenga 0727, South Africa

[email protected]

The study investigated brain fag symptoms in South African university students. A Cultural Orientation Scale, a Student Stress Scale, and a Self Reporting Questionnaire were administered to collect data on socioeconomic background, cultural orientation, stress events, neurotic disorder and brain fag symptoms. The sample consisted of 185 first year social science students from the University of the North, South Africa. The students were 79 (42.7%) male, and 106 (57.3%) female, in the age range of 18 to 32 years (M = 21.4 years, SD = 4.1). Results indicated that 17.7% of the students had often brain fag symptoms of unpleasant sensations (burning, crawling, heat, cold) associated with studying. There was a positive significant relationship between depression and somatic complaints score of the Self Reporting Questionnaire brain fag symptoms indicating a depressive and somatoform syndrome. Sex, cultural orientation, socioeconomic status, and student stress were not associated with brain fag symptoms. The findings are discussed in relation to the nature of brain fag symptoms and associated factors.

THE PREVALENCE OF CHILD ABUSE AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS (Brief Report)

S. N. Madu

University of the North Private Bag X1106 Sovenga 0727, South Africa

[email protected]

This is an investigation into the prevalence of child psychological, physical, emotional, and ritualistic abuse among a sample of university students. A retrospective self-rating questionnaire was completed by 722 University of the North undergraduate students (South Africa) in a classroom setting. The questionnaire addressed the demographic variables of the participants; psychological, physical, and emotional abusive experiences from their parents or adult caretakers before the age of 17 years; and ritualistic abusive experiences before the age of 17 years. The prevalence rates were as follows: 79.1% (N=526) for psychological abused, 16.2% (N=110) for physical abuse, 28.5% (N=194) for emotional abuse, 6.0% (N=37) for ritualistic abuse. The author calls for an awareness campaign in those areas of child abuse and for awareness making of the public about the possible short and long-term effects of such abusive behaviours on children.

STRENGTHENING INFANTS AND CHILDREN: SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVES

Linda M Richter

Child, Youth and Family Development Human Sciences Research Council Private Bag X07 DALBRIDGE 4014
[email protected]

“Is there anything useful to be said, in a post-modern context, about INFANTS, INFANCY and, perhaps least of all, CULTURE? We all seem to agree that there is no “universal” child to be studied and that children can only be understood in their social, temporal, and material localities. Further, as children have become constructed in the arena of identity politics as a minority group with rights, many of which are unfulfilled, we’re bound to recognise that children, like other groups, are not uniform or homogenous. Rather, in the words of Allison James and her colleagues, children are “fractured and faceted in internal diversity” (James, Jenks & Prout, 1998). But such relativism is less troublesome when we talk about children, than when we talk about infants. With regard to infants, it is very difficult not to adopt a variant of universalism in relation to at least some aspects of infancy. About infants, many of us find ourselves in sympathy with Robert LeVine’s view that “child-rearing practices … can vary culturally only within limits established in the distant evolutionary past without inflicting developmental damage on the child” (1977; p. 16).