1,721,019 research outputs found
Young masculinities and sexual health
No full textThis book examines the complex relationships between young masculinities and sexual health within Southern Africa. It considers how socio-cultural and economic factors shape young men’s experiences of masculinity and the effects on relationship dynamics, gender norms and sexual health.Through thematic chapters covering love, pleasure, social norms, risk, and HIV, the book emphasises the global importance of engaging young men in fostering gender equity and promoting healthier sexual practices. Readers will benefit from a diverse range of methodologies and perspectives that highlight the plurality and fluidity of masculinities, challenging monolithic accounts of young men in the region whilst illustrating the global relevance of understanding local contexts in shaping masculinities. The book provides valuable insights for developing effective sexual health interventions that recognise and embrace 'other' masculinities. Sexual health approaches that resonate with the lived realities of young men can potentially enhance young men’s engagement and participation in promoting healthier relationships and practices.With important insights for theory, policy, and practice, this book will be of interest to researchers across the fields of critical masculinity studies, sexual and reproductive health, gender studies and African studies, as well as policymakers, development practitioners, and activists
Body image and antiretroviral therapy adherence among adolescents and young people living with HIV in Durban, South Africa.
Full text linkDoctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Background: The benefits of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for treating HIV among adolescents
and young people living HIV (AYPLHIV) may be undermined by non-adherence to ART.
Several reasons for non-adherence to ART have been reported among young people including
internalised HIV-related stigma, body image concerns, and depression. Research into how
AYPLHIV experience and make sense of feared or actual body changes is limited, yet these
changes have emotional and psychological implications which may curtail adherence to ART.
This doctoral thesis investigated the relationship between body image and various psychosocial
factors; and explored the perceptions and feelings about body appearance among AYPLHIV
in Durban, South Africa.
Method: A cross sectional, convergent parallel mixed method approach was adopted in which
quantitative and qualitative data were concurrently collected in the same phase of the research
process using non-probability sampling. For the quantitative part of the study, a total of 76
AYPLHIV (15-24 years) were conveniently sampled. Qualitative data were obtained through
a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews with a sub-set of 18 AYPLHIV who were
purposively and conveniently recruited from the quantitative sample. Descriptive statistics,
Pearson Product Moment correlations, and mediational analyses were used to analyse the
quantitative data whereas thematic analysis was used for the qualitative data analysis.
Results: The converging quantitative and qualitative results from this study provide evidence
that body image is a significant issue among AYPLHIV and is differentially associated with
various psychosocial factors. Self-esteem and adherence to ART were indirectly associated
through a two-step path of internalised HIV-related stigma and then body appreciation.
Findings from the qualitative analysis showed physical and psychosocial effects of living with
HIV among young people including weight loss, body dissatisfaction and social withdrawal. Coping mechanisms such as social support networks and physical exercises were highlighted
as important in counteracting the physical and psychosocial effects of negative body image and
living with HIV. Conclusion: The findings from this study suggest that body image concerns are central to the
health and well-being of AYPLHIV as they are related to several psychosocial challenges. The
findings underscore the need for development of multi-pronged interventions to boost body
image
"Sticks and stones" : social dominance, bullying and early adolescent boys.
Full text linkThesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.The study is concerned with the ways early adolescent males understand and experience bullying within a hetero-normative school context. The research focuses on the ways in which bullying occurs, and how it relates to identity development amongst young boys. Key theoretical constructs include multiple masculinities, social dominance theory, and social constructionism. The researcher adopted an ethnographic approach. Constructs were explored through the use of four focus groups and one individual interview with 20 Grade 8 learners at a co-educational high school. Three dominant themes emerged from the discussions. The Embodied Self explores the expression and development of gender identity through the construction of the physical and performative male body. Displaced Masculinities explores the gradual shift in power that young men have experienced in terms of current representations of gender, race and technology. The third theme, Recovering Power, identifies subtle subversion strategies that young males reproduce to recover social power. Bullying is normalised within the school context and is understood as a physical and psychological process that differentiates desirable and undesirable masculinities. Masculinities are actively policed by peers, forcing boys to position themselves against the ideal hegemonic masculinity underpinning feelings of uncertainty and instability. Recommendations include continued opportunities for discussion of gender issues at a formative school level, focused policy development addressing the abuse of communication technologies, and translation of gender research into policy and legislation to recognise the role and responsibilities of men, with the major aim of reducing inequality
A social constructionist study of masculinity and its effects on health seeking behaviours among men who are at risk of cardiovascular disease.
Full text linkMasters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.In a world that has gender constructions, the masculine and the feminine, these gender constructions are used to highlight differences, and from this emerges differences in power that has an important effect on the phenomenon of health (Hollway, 1984). Males, as opposed to females, have lower life expectancies, which has been associated with a higher level of risk behaviours as well as a lower level of health seeking behaviours ( Connell, 1995; Will H Courtenay, 2000; J kahn, 2009). The prevalence of cardiovascular disease is something of concern, as approached by Seedat (2000), which showed the indiscriminate nature of cardiovascular disease amongst males regardless of race. The way in which masculinity is constructed has been seen to emanate from multiple constructions including work roles, and thus the changing work climate is something that, in conjunction with cardiovascular disease, needs to be explored in order to see how, and if, there has been indeed a negative effect (Connell, 1995). The combination of masculinity and cardiovascular diseases is something that needs to be explored in relation to construction. The results of this effect can then be subsequently used to design interventions to either slow down the degradation or seek to create an equilibrium in order to minimise harm
Retrospective reports of parent-adolescent communication about sex education and issues related to sexuality in a sample of female university students.
Full text linkThesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.Aim. The aim of this research was to explore parent-adolescent communication about sex and sexuality among university students.
Background. The rates of HIV/AIDS and pregnancy among adolescents in South Africa are very problematic issues. In the context of children and adolescents' sexual socialization, both Western studies and studies from African countries have found that families, especially parents, are crucial in influencing adolescent attitudes, decision-making and participation in sexual behaviour.
Methods. A qualitative study was conducted using focus groups to examine parent-adolescent sex education among university students.
Findings. Participants reported that parents generally avoided discussions about sex especially fathers, framed sex negatively and highlighted the negative effects of sex such as HIV/AIDS and pregnancy. The reasons participants believed that parents were uncomfortable in discussing sex were due to insufficient knowledge to explain certain aspects of sex, that sex was taboo, that by discussing sex it would be viewed as condoning or encouraging sexual activity.
Conclusion. Parents need to be educated regarding the benefits that comprehensive sex education will have for their children, in the light of the massive problem of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Education on these matters is vital for all young people
Underdogs on top : troubling positions for boys and a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Full text linkAttention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) accounts for one of the largest number of health referrals amongst children. As a mental health diagnosis, it has undergone multiple conceptual revisions over the years, where it is now classed as a neurodevelopmental disorder. ADHD remains a highly controversial subject, sparking debate at the interface of parenting responsibilities, effective schooling practices, predisposing trauma, and the ethics of the medicated child. In the midst of these debates, one of the strongest issues to emerge is the high proportion of boys that are diagnosed with ADHD, as well as the sex and gender divide in symptoms, referral, and treatment choice.
Lack of research involving children, particularly those with disabilities, highlights the limitations of ableist and developmental assumptions. Although there is a growing body of peer-reviewed literature on young people’s experiences of ADHD, these accounts tend toward the descriptive and fail to take account of how young people manage their condition as part of identity-making processes. Given the above, the main objective of the study was to understand how boys who were diagnosed with ADHD understood their illness and managed their condition in a school setting. Educators’ views were also sought to bring an adult perspective to this issue.
The study was guided by feminist post-structural ethnography, located at one public full service school named Riven Primary. Given the in-depth nature of the study, attention was also granted to situated performances of boys across Remedial and Mainstream learning spaces and public or private conversational spaces. Analysis focused on group interactions and private interviews with nine boys aged 9 to 11 years of age, all of whom had previously received a diagnosis of ADHD and medical forms of management. Five of these boys were enrolled in the on-site Remedial Unit, while four boys were based within the Mainstream section of the school. Separate focus group interviews were also held with Remedial and Mainstream educators from the site.
Analysis of the educator and boy accounts reinforce the power and prevalence of the biomedical discourse. Accounts of ADHD stigma was related to observed behaviours and public responses towards diagnosis and medication. Educators’ perceptions of risk and vulnerability associated with ADHD typically intersected with broader social assumptions of childhood, sex, and gender. For this group, three broad storylines emerged (flunk, hunk, or punk), which provide different claims as to the deterministic nature of ADHD and the levels of accountability for the child and the family system.
Medication was a powerful signifier for responsibility and success, among boys and educators alike. It was also symbolic of chronic illness and weakened masculinities. Boys were palpably aware of their ADHD-related social and educational vulnerabilities that rendered them as biologically faulty, underachieving, and unhinged outcasts. However, the label of ADHD or the experience of medication was not taken up by all boys in a one-dimensional manner. Instead, there were tendencies to reinforce, resist and, at times, reframe representations of the unruly ADHD child through resources and strategies that spoke to broader narratives of success, maturity, and heroism. In this regard, the so-called “Underdogs” worked very hard to regain credibility through discourses of shared disadvantage, as well as a passion and determination to succeed through adherence to the ADHD medication.
Boys were also careful not to take up illness positions when it rendered them powerless. Typically, masculine constructs such as sport and future employment were constructed as potentially enabling spaces for ADHD, in efforts to counter responses around illness and dependency on medication.
In general, the study findings resist the notion of ADHD as a singular, universal concept and instead make a cogent argument for the socially situated nature of the diagnosis. The feminist post-structural analytical frame helped to disrupt simplistic constructions of ADHD through making visible the impairments boys experienced at the interface of shifting social identifiers and in different conversational contexts. These situated performances ultimately worked to reframe their disabilities and masculinities in either beneficial or problematic ways.
Engaging in research that involves children with disabilities elevates discourses of risk, stigma, and protection. Working in these contexts makes visible the insecurities that plague research development and clinical practice, while also expanding considerations of what constitutes ethical conduct for adult stakeholders. In closing, recommendations are made for investing in strength-based or resiliency enhancing processes that help boys cope with the stigma associated with ADHD.National Research Foundation (South Africa
"Mirror, mirror on the wall who's the buffest of them all" : traditional masculine role norms and body image discrepancy in Indian school going boys.
Full text linkThesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.This study investigated the relationship between traditional masculine role norms, body image discrepancy, body appearance schemas, and sociocultural attitudes towards appearance in a sample of 495 Indian South African school going boys, between the ages of 13 and 18 years old. The main objective of this research study was to investigate the interrelationships between these variables in terms of how they relate to the experience of body image discrepancy for Indian males in the context of the regulatory norms and practices of traditional masculine ideology. Also examined were the traditional male role norms associated with the boys’ cognitive body appearance schemata. In addition this study attempted to identify the role played by the portrayal of Indian male somatoforms in Indian cinema on the personal and collective evaluation of masculine appearance for a sample of Indian school boys. The variables of interest were measured using the Masculine Role Norms Inventory (MRNI; Levant & Fisher, 1998), Lynch and Zellner’s Body Figure Drawings (1999), Appearance Schemas Inventory (ASI; Cash & Labarge, 1999), and the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale-3 (SATAQ-3; Thompson, van den Berg, Roehrig, Guarda, & Heinberg, 2004). The above constructs were considered in light of biographical questions which pertained to self-worth, the psycho-behavioural implications of pursuing an enhanced appearance, and Indian cinema. The findings of this study showed how a sample of South African Indian boys are defining and refining a localized masculine sense of self within the broader interplays of South African gender relations and masculinities. Analysis revealed the traditional masculine role norms of status-seeking, heterosexism, anti-femininity, and emotional stoicism, shared positive and significant correlations with body image discrepancy. Nontraditional masculine attitudes were similarly associated with body image discrepancy. Moreover it was shown that the influences of sociocultural attitudes towards appearance, and a more substantial investment in body appearance, were key ingredients for participants positioning an athletically muscular and toned male body as their ethnomorphological and masculine ideal. Finally, concerning trends in steroid and supplement use were illustrated as foremost risk behaviours associated with support for a muscularised, traditionally masculine subjective and normative agenda
Adolescents living with HIV and AIDS in Chiredzi district, Zimbabwe: experiences of disclosure, stigma, sexuality and social support to treatment adherence.
Full text linkMasters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.The study explores experiences of disclosure, stigma, sexuality and social support to treatment adherence for HIV positive adolescents in Chiredzi district, Zimbabwe.This qualitative study adopts a multiple interpretive case study methodology to explore the intricacies of living with HIV as an adolescent. Twenty (n=22) adolescents aged between 13 and 19 were recruited to participate in this study while attending social support or when they came to collect their medication. Individual in-depth interviews were carried out asking adolescence about their personal romantic lives, experiences and difficulties they must face while living with HIV/AIDS. Findings revealed that adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV) are confronted with stigma and discrimination while simultaneously grappling with emotional issues such as dealing with disclosure. Consequent to these challenges, adolescents (particularly males) adopt several coping mechanisms to deal with the difficulties and these include (but not limited to) non-disclosure of their seropositive status to their sexual partners thereby risking reinfection and exposing their partners to HIV. Social support was minimal. Non-disclosure of seropositive status contributed to poor adherence to or defaulting HIV medication.
Further, findings further attest to the fact that adolescents refrain from disclosing their HIV status because they want to fit in with their peers and romantic partners. Presumably, this justifies why, while there has been a decline in the number of new HIV infections among all ages, there has been a significant escalation in HIV infection among the adolescent population, amid a high incidence of virological failure. Evidently, statistics will maintain an upward trajectory if proper measures are not implemented. The study concludes that a life-cycle approach to HIV prevention and management is crucial in responding to adolescent HIV/AIDS challenges because risks of HIV infection, the challenges of accessing services and the solutions to these challenges change at different stages of someone’s life. This scenario justifies the adoption and implementation of the principle of biomedical holistic approach in order to find suitable education programmes for the community, health workers and adolescents
An analysis of community based health approaches in the delivery of integrated sexual, reproductive health and HIV services for adolescents with disabilities in Siaya County, Kenya.
Full text linkDoctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.There is evidence of widening health disparities among vulnerable groups and inadequacies
in the public health care system in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), including Kenya. In particular,
adolescents with disabilities (AWDs) confront many challenges in accessing health services.
Their increasing primary care needs and rights in terms of sexual and reproductive health
(SRH) is beyond the capacity of the conventional health system. While the Community Based
Health Care (CBHC) approach has improved basic health services for maternal and child
health as well as HIV and AIDS interventions, its capacity and utility to address the SRH and
HIV interventions required by AWDs is not adequately studied in Kenya. Furthermore,
debates persist on the overall quality of services provided through such primary health care
systems. This study therefore investigated the CBHC approach as an option for improving
AWDs‘ access to and use of Kenya‗s state-run adolescent SRH and HIV services in Siaya
County of rural Kenya. The descriptive qualitative case study design used systems theory that
featured Urie Bronfenbrenner‗s bio-ecological (Person-Process-Contexts-Time) and the
World Health Organisation‘s (WHO‘s) (building blocks) health systems assessment
frameworks as the main models to conceptualize, design, collect, analyze and interpret the
data. Qualitative methods of data collection were used to explore purposively selected CBHC
programs, and included semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, observations,
case narrations and record reviews. The study exposed serious institutional level inadequacies
of the existing CHBC approaches, which were largely mediated by the disabling operating
environment in the county health system. These ranged from poor staffing, inadequate
financing, inadequate family support and community care, and unresponsive policy and
legislation frameworks that lack enforcement mechanisms. Furthermore, the study found
challenges associated with personal attributes including age, gender, type of disability,
schooling and awareness of risks and available community-based services. Sexual and
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gender- based violence against the backdrop of an irresponsive justice system dominated the
plight of AWDs in the county. As a result of analysing these factors, the evidence suggests a
need to address the unique challenges surrounding the multi-dimensional issues that mediate
access to and use of healthcare for adolescents living with disabilities to achieve equitable
access to SRH & HIV services. In particular, the government should foster positive
mechanisms of supporting community- based programs through co- financing with donors to
expand the resource base for effective health services delivery, including SRH and HIV
services for AWDs. Moreover, responsive policies and legal frameworks that were inclusive
in approach to community care for AWDs would need to be clearly enunciated and enforced
by the government and its stakeholders. Lack of data related to AWDs should be addressed to
facilitate effective programming
Analysis of policy for protection of HIV positive adolescent girls against vulnerabilities faced in using contraception in Malawi.
No full textDoctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.There are challenges faced in accessing and using contraception by adolescent girls, but the reality is worse for adolescent girls living with HIV. Thus, it is important to investigate the extent to which current policies in Malawi put into account the vulnerabilities faced by this sub-population. This study therefore sought to answer the following research questions: 1. What are the structural and socio-cultural issues affecting the use of contraception among AGLHIV in Malawi? 2. What policy provisions are in place in Malawi to address the issues/risks faced by AGLHIV during reach and use of contraception? 3. What implementation challenges affect the effectiveness of the available policy provisions? This study was guided by the healthy policy triangle (HPT) framework and it was qualitative in nature, using both secondary and primary data collection methods. The findings include; • Access to contraception by adolescent girls living with HIV is hampered by several structural and socio-cultural issues, mainly; the mode of service provision, supply chain and infrastructural challenges, age restrictions, conditioned access, as well as integration challenges. The socio-cultural issues include; the high momentum for children, male dominance, social labelling, non-disclosure of HIV serostatus to sexual partners, social sensitivity, perpetuation of harmful content, and a general lack of social support, and poor risk perception. • The available provisions include those addressing gender-based violence, discrimination and stigma, community engagement, confidentiality, and emphasis on adolescent girls and young women. However, most of the provisions are broadly stated and gaps exist too. • Effective implementation is affected largely by cascading challenges, lack of sufficient funding, limited political will, low comprehension of policy directives, limited participation of target population, coordination challenges, social resistance, effects of decentralization, low capacity of implementing partners and the slow pace of behaviour change among the targeted population and communities. While the policy environment in Malawi is seemingly favourable, undertones exist around harmonization, and representation of interest groups, mainly PLHIV groups. Policy makers ought not to continue ignoring the importance of formulating HIV-sensitive policies which can give way to social protection programs for the most vulnerable within the society, given the benefits of a healthy youthful population
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