Suchergebnisse

Young people who grew up without their biological fathers may or may not use their surnames. This paper
contributes to an understanding of young people's views of the relevance of a biological paternal surname. We conducted
gender-matched in-depth interviews with 73 volunteers aged 14-39 in two South African provinces and transcribed and
translated audio-recorded home language interviews into English. The findings indicate that the pursuit for using a
biological father's surname was motivated by seeking ancestral protection, seeking one's father so that he could play an
overseeing role in rituals, and citizenship rights; some participants believed that the use of a biological father's surname
was essential for registration for an identity document, passport, marriage and death certificate. However, there was no
agreement in the data about the importance and usefulness of using a biological father's surname. In conclusion, the
article maintains that the father's surname is important for some children who grew up without their fathers.

South Africa celebrated twenty years of democracy in
2014 following more than 100 years of colonization and
institutionalized discrimination through Apartheid. A
'broken' family structure is one of the pathetic legacies left
by political instability in post-colonial and post war countries
globally. This phenomenon of broken families is evident in
South Africa following the period of discrimination against
Black people and the systematic migrant labor system that
was sponsored by and for the Apartheid government. The
migrant labor system separated fathers from their families
and men left their families in the rural communities to work
in the burgeoning mines and factories in urban areas. The
current democratic State has a responsibility to strengthen
broken families through policies and intervention informed
by research evidence. There is an emerging body of research
on Father Connections in post-war and post-colonial settings.
This special issue brings together eight articles on Father
Connections in South Africa. The articles present data from
diverse but interesting research; for example the piece by
Nduna M and Taulela M focuses on the experiences of
'discovering' biological fathers for youth who grew up with
absent and unknown fathers. The participants that the article
draws from are young women from a small town, in
Mpumalanga. Through narrative analysis, the article explores
how young people deal with finding out who their biological
fathers are. In the article by Selebano N and Khunou G, the
experiences of young fathers from Soweto are explored.
It is illustrated in this article that, there are strong ties
between young men's experiences and the community
values, history and culture where they experience
fatherhood. The article by Langa M interestingly looks at
narratives and meaning makings of young boys who grew up
without fathers. Langa looks at how young boys can adopt
alternative ideas of what it means to be a man in contexts
that would otherwise be assumed to automatically lead to an
embrace of hegemonic notions of masculinities. On a similar
note the article by Nduna M focuses on experiences of young
people who grow up without a father entering into
endeavours to find and use their father's surname. The
article looks at how the signifying paternal ancestry is
developed and maintained in contexts of father absence,
through pursuing an absent father's surname as the 'right
surname'.
The article by Lesch E and Ismail A focuses on the
significant question of the father daughter relationship and
examines constraining constructions of fatherhood for
daughters with a specific focus on the Cape Winelands
community in South Africa. In Chauke P and Khunou G's
contribution on the media's influence on societal notions of
fatherhood in relation to the maintenance system is
examined. The article looks at how cases of maintenance are
dealt with in print media. Franklin A & Makiwane M's
article provides a significant examination of male attitudes of
family and children. This article begins to speak to the
transformations of expectations of men in families. This
transformation is addressed through a look at racially
disaggregated quantitative data. Mthombeni A reviews a
book, Good Morning Mr. Mandela by Zelda Le Grange
where she examines some of the challenges of fatherhood in
South Africa's past and present.

This study was a point of departure for future research on the need for a coherent understanding and knowledge of parenting in Bangladesh. This article presents the findings from an integrative research review on parenting in Bangladesh. A comprehensive search conducted in PubMed, Science Direct, and PsychINFO using the keywords "parenting", "childcare", "motherhood", "fatherhood", "mothering", "fathering", each paired with "Bangladesh" yielded 246 articles. Twenty papers published between 2006 and 2018 were selected for thematic analysis based on pre-set criteria. In most studies, the term mother was used interchangeably with parent, with mothers regarded as the primary caregiver. Parenting in the Bangladeshi context was found to be conceptualized primarily in terms of attitudes, disciplinary practices, feeding, parent–child interaction, and psychosocial stimulation. Parenting components aimed at moral development and attachment building in children were underrepresented. The data revealed largely inconsistent and uncoordinated discussions of parental practices, demonstrating the lack of a holistic approach in the literature in Bangladesh. Research on parenting in Bangladesh favors gendered assumptions of females as the primary caregiver. Based on their findings, the authors recommend qualitative studies to better reflect and conceptualize the concept of parenting in Bangladesh.

In South Africa, it has been established that a high number and growing proportion of children are growing up
without fathers in their lives. Research suggests that some children who grow up without their biological fathers seek to
know them during adolescence. Some discover them whilst others never do. This paper aimed to investigate experiences
of young women who discover their fathers during adolescence.

We undertook a qualitative study in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa to understand experiences of children who
grow up with absent fathers. We conducted face-to-face, gender-matched interviews with young women aged 15 to 26.
Five case studies are presented here. We used Topical structural analysis to examine the narratives.

Findings reveal that mother or someone else from the maternal family was instrumental in the disclosure of the father's
identity. Four topics that cover the resultant experiences in relation to the father were; a weak or no relationship formed, a
positive relationship was formed, the child was disinterested or the mother barred regular visits to the father.

This study concludes that the maternal family context, reasons for father absence, how the disclosure happened influence
experiences that follow discovering one's father. Forming a positive relationship with the father depended on the child
and father's common interest.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of African children's lives in times of transition, transformation, and change some twenty-two years after political emancipation in South Africa. With diverse family formations, non-marital childbearing, and diverse parenting situations prevalent in South Africa, the book covers both the conceptual and theoretical questions that explore the context of children's experiences. It uses examples from a range of primary and secondary data sources to illustrate how resilience in children faced with adversity could be nurtured, demonstrating the links between theory and practice, and critically commenting on questions of epistemology by drawing on research with children within different African social and cultural contexts.While the volume affirms the complexities of explaining child adversity or privilege, it stresses the diversity of South African children's experiences and the importance of adopting both children's rights and Afro-centric perspectives to account for the commonality and diversity of childhood and children's empowerment in diverse family systems. The contributions also provide recommendations on how to respond and intervene in children's issues, from both practical and policy levels, in a dedicated manner to ensure that children are protected from harm, nurtured to succeed, and assisted during and after traumatic experiences.This volume represents a valuable resource for scholars and students in the fields of humanities, social science, development studies and public health, as well as policy makers, child practitioners, and child rights advocates

BackgroundPsychological factors are often neglected in HIV research, although psychological distress is common in low‐ to middle‐income countries, such as South Africa. There is a need to deepen our understanding of the role of mental health factors in the HIV epidemic. We set out to investigate whether baseline depressive symptomatology was associated with risky sexual behaviour and relationship characteristics of men and women at baseline, as well as those found 12 months later.MethodsWe used prospective cohort data from a cluster randomized controlled trial of an HIV prevention intervention in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Our subjects were 1002 female and 976 male volunteers aged 15 to 26. Logistic regression was used to model the cross‐sectional and prospective associations between baseline depressive symptomatology, risky sexual behaviors and relationship characteristics. The analysis adjusted for the clustering effect, study design, intervention and several confounding variables.ResultsPrevalence of depressive symptoms was 21.1% among women and 13.6% among men. At baseline, women with depressed symptoms were more likely to report lifetime intimate partner violence (AOR = 2.56, 95% CI 1.89‐3.46) and have dated an older partner (AOR = 1.37, 95% CI 1.03‐1.83). A year later, baseline depressive symptomatology was associated with transactional sex (AOR = 2.60, 95% CI 1.37, 4.92) and intimate partner violence (AOR = 1.67, 95% CI 1.18‐2.36) in the previous 12 months. Men with depressive symptoms were more likely to report ever having had transactional sex (AOR = 1.48, 95% CI 1.01‐2.17), intimate partner violence perpetration (AOR = 1.50, 95% CI 0.98‐2.28) and perpetration of rape (AOR = 1.81, 95% CI 1.14‐2.87). They were less likely to report correct condom use at last sex (AOR = 0.50, 95% CI 0.32‐0.78). A year later, baseline depressive symptomatology was associated with failure to use a condom at last sex among men (AOR = 0.60, 95% CI 0.40‐0.89).ConclusionsSymptoms of depression should be considered as potential markers of increased HIV risk and this association may be causal. HIV prevention needs to encompass promotion of adolescent mental health.

IntroductionAdolescents having unprotected heterosexual intercourse are at risk of HIV infection and unwanted pregnancy. However, there is little evidence to indicate whether pregnancy in early adolescence increases the risk of subsequent HIV infection. In this paper, we tested the hypothesis that adolescent pregnancy (aged 15 or younger) increases the risk of incident HIV infection in young South African women.MethodsWe assessed 1099 HIV‐negative women, aged 15–26 years, who were volunteer participants in a cluster‐randomized, controlled HIV prevention trial in the predominantly rural Eastern Cape province of South Africa. All of these young women had at least one additional HIV test over two years of follow‐up. Outcomes were HIV incidence rates per 100 person years and HIV incidence rate ratios (IRRs) estimated by Poisson multivariate models. Three pregnancy categories were created for the Poisson model: early adolescent pregnancy (a first pregnancy at age 15 years or younger); later adolescent pregnancy (a first pregnancy at age 16 to 19 years); and women who did not report an adolescent pregnancy. Models were adjusted for study design, age, education, time since first sexual experience, socio‐economic status, childhood trauma and herpes simplex virus type 2 infection.ResultsHIV incidence rates were 6.0 per 100 person years over two years of follow‐up. The adjusted IRR was 3.02 (95% CI 1.50–6.09) for a pregnancy occurring at age 15 or younger. Women with pregnancies occurring between 16 and 19 years of age did not have a higher incidence of HIV (IRR 1.08; 95% CI 0.64–1.84). Early adolescent pregnancies were associated with higher partner numbers and a greater age difference with partners.ConclusionsEarly adolescent pregnancies increase the incidence of HIV among South African women. The higher risk is associated with sexual risk behaviours such as higher partner numbers and a greater age difference with partners rather than a biological explanation of hormonal changes during pregnancy.

This paper utilizes critical theory to interrogate and problematize the practice of anonymising research sites as an ethical imperative. The contributing authors conduct research in and with various communities in southern Africa, position themselves and work from and within diverse areas and specialities of the social sciences. This article is developed from their rich and wide spectrum of field experience with a great diversity of communities, but mainly the poorer, under-resourced, socially and economically marginalized. The authors strongly identify with these communities whose anonymity in published research is seen as marginalizing. Such research sites are places and communities where these researchers grew up and live in, and thus not just as peripheral or 'out there' entities. Therefore, the naming of research sites in this context is deemed as being ethical, out of respect for participants, for a contextually embedded understanding, and for well-targeted interventions and policy influence.