Risky Business: South African youths and HIV/AIDS prevention

Behavior change is the only available means of curtailing new HIV infections in South Africa. This study investigated the relationship between sexual risk taking and attitudes to AIDS precautions. The participants were about 25% white, about 30% colored/mixed blood and 45% black in their second year in polytechnics (413 females and 402 males). Participants responded to the 40-item HIV-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. Data indicated that young women showed more positive attitudes to AIDS precautions than young men (reflecting in part the stereotypic negative attitudes of young men toward condoms). In general, most males and females were found to have less knowledge about HIV transmission and less favorable attitudes toward safe sex behavior than their counterparts in the west. Also young men with more partners expressed more fatalistic attitudes toward AIDS. The possibility that a finergrained multivariate analysis of attitudes to AIDS and safe-sex behaviour is something that needs to be taken seriously in future research, however.     

Influences on South African women's career and traditional goals

Interview data on encouragement and discouragement for achievement-related behaviour were obtained from two groups: career women (n=100), and traditional women (n=100). Following the 20 minutes interview periods, the participants described their achievement-related experiences on 7-point scales. Career women reported more statistically significant encouragement from family members and significant others than did their traditional counterparts. There was no causal relationship between encouragement and career goals in the two groups of women. A number of significant findings and nonsignificant trends combined to suggest that for women the perception of greater encouragement from significant others in the immediate environment is necessary to compensate for the sex role expectation of nonachievement, and that women who set high goals believe they are acting in accord with significant others. This is in support of Stake and associate's hypothesis (Stake, 1979; Stake & Levitz, 1979). The combination of an interview and self-report methodologies appeared to be useful in gaining better understanding of implications of the results for the career achievement of black women.     

ASSESSING THE APPROACHES TO LEARNING OF NIGERIAN STUDENTS

The reliability and validity of the Study Process Questionnaire (Biggs, 1987) is investigated for 352 Nigerian undergraduates. The concepts involved in the SPQ are relevant to Nigerian students and the SPQ scales and subscales were found to be of adequate internal consistency reliability for research purposes. This conclusion was further enhanced by the meaningful factor structure of responses to the SPQ subscales found for the Nigerian sample. However, doubt is cast as to the metric equivalence of SPQ scales across cultures making it difficult to Interpret direct cross‐cultural comparisons of mean scale scores.     

Variations in fearfulness and worries of Xhosa children

Xhosa‐speaking South African children in school settings face several academic and emotional challenges. These may be due to family obligation, conformity to authority figures and over expectations from parents, teachers and society. This study examines the differences in the number and types of reported fears and worries in 200 South African children and adolescents, between 14 and 18 years of age. Responses to a questionnaire investigating the inventory of fears and worries revealed significant differences in the number, pattern and level of fears. The participants endorsed school fears at higher levels than their Senegalese, Australian, Nigerian and American counterparts. Girls and children of low‐income homes tend to exhibit higher levels of fears than children of upper‐class homes. When interpreted within the cultural context, results further indicate that the number of fears decreased with age and that cultures that have fear‐producing stimuli, and that favour inhibition and obedience serve to increase levels of fears and worries.     

Student evaluations of teaching effectiveness: a Nigerian investigation

An investigation is reported which tests the applicability of two American instruments designed to assess tertiary students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness with 158 Nigerian undergraduates. The scales were found to have generally high internal consistency reliability coefficients, most of the items were seen to be appropriate, and every item was considered of importance by at least some of the students. In addition, all but the Workload/Difficulty items clearly differentiated between good and poor lecturers. Factor analysis found a strong main factor of teaching effectiveness plus a minor factor referring to course workload and difficulty. Further analysis generally supported the convergent and discriminant validity of those scales hypothesized to measure similar or dissimilar components of effective teaching. However, this analysis supported the factor analytic results as more overlap between aspects of teaching skill and enthusiasm was found than has been evident in Western studies. Thus there must be doubt about the cross-cultural validity of a multidimensional model of teaching effectiveness.     

Internal Structure of the Children's Motivation Analysis Test--normative data

The present study investigated normalised stens for 380 Xhosa children in standard 5 using the Children's Motivation Analysis Test (CMAT). The CMAT was administered to separate groups of girl and boys upper elementary school children, representing the first such normative data available for this instrument in South Africa. The gender differences in the means and standard deviations for the main CMAT subscales for each group are investigated and reported. It is suggested that the norms presented are also recommended for use with other African samples, as previous comparative work with CMAT norms has shown that they are not significantly influenced by Zimbabwean/South African cultural differences.