The impact of exposure to civil

In: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14323

Abstract

Includes bibliography. ; The investigation aims at examining the effects of exposure to civil. violence on 304 'black' and 'white' children's evaluations of violence whilst controlling for gender and socio-economic status differences. The study tests the hypothesis that children exposed to civil violence tend to accept the use of violence towards all authority figures. The rationale behind comparing black and white children lies in the phenomenon that civil "unrest" has been. concentrated in black areas in Greater Cape Town and media,restrictions have further insulated whites from this violent reality. The instrument employed to measure these children's evaluations of violence describes 8 incidents, each involving the use of violence either by an authority figure against a child or vice-versa. The authority figures include a policeman, soldier, parent and teacher. A ninth incident involves the use of violence by a husband to a wife. The children were requested to rate each scenario according to its degree of 'wrongness'. Data were analysed by statistical procedures. No differences between gender or socio-economic status were yielded. Comparisons across race were inconclusive although black children were significantly more accepting of a child's violence to a soldier, a finding attributed to the role of the SADF in the "unrest". In general most children in the sample condemned the use of violence, but condoned the use of physical force by teachers and mothers. An overwhelmingly high frequency of corporal punishment in the classrooms was evident, with children generally accepting this. While no definite findings regarding the influence of civil "unrest" on children's evaluations of violence emerged, the politicisation of children was evident in some findings. Violence and evaluations thereof emerged as context-bound, involving the ideological and political views of the respondent. Findings raised doubt around the validity of traditional tools, such as the instrument employed in this study, as measures of ideologically bound concepts such as violence.