Browsing by Author "Burnard, Andrew James."
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item The challenges of constructing a non-hegemonic masculine identity : a study of isi-Zulu-speaking adolescent boys.(2008) Burnard, Andrew James.; Lindegger, Graham Charles.Hegemonic masculinity (HM) is considered by many boys and men to be the "gold standard" of masculinity to which they are expected to conform (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005). However, many boys feel that they fall short of this standard and are thus challenged to negotiate their sense of masculinity through positioning themselves in relation to masculine standards in various ways (Wetherell & Edley, 1999). This research therefore aims to explore the process of subject positioning in relation to HM and, if it occurs, the process of successfully aligning masculine identity with alternative (non-hegemonic) forms of masculinity. Eight late adolescent boys from rural KwaZulu-Natal were interviewed, and the data were qualitatively analysed by focussing on the boys' narratives used to describe masculinity and how they position themselves in relation to the various norms of masculinity. The results indicate that these boys did not show signs of having non-hegemonic masculinities. However, all boys reframed HM into a new discourse still based on the acceptance of the hegemonic domination over women and femininity (including less masculine boys), while disavowing practices relating to alcohol use, crime and risky sexual practices. This discourse represented a sanitised version of HM. It was suggested that boys maintain these multiple versions of masculinity in parallel, and use psychological splitting to maintain them. Soccer emerged as serving an important function for the creation and maintenance of these sanitised masculinities.Item Stage-of-change of smoking acquisition in South African high-school adolescents : a cross-sectional study of decisional balance, temptation and perceived social norms.(2004) Burnard, Andrew James.; Lindegger, Graham Charles.This study aimed to use the Transtheoretical Model of behaviour change (Prochaska and DiClemente, 1983) to investigate the process of smoking initiation in a cross-section of high school adolescents in urban KwaZulu-Natal. This aim was informed by the increase in incidence of smoking among adolescents, who represent a particularly vulnerable population to smoking (Orlandi and Dalton, 1998). The Transtheoretical Model has proved successful in changing problem health behaviours (prochaska and DiClemente, 1983) and lends itself to be a suitable framework for investigating smoking acquisition in adolescents (Werch and DiClemente, 1994). An extensive review of the causes and correlates of smoking uptake and past intervention evaluations suggests that the core constructs of the TTM (Decisional Balance, Temptation and Stage of Acquisition) can be complemented by other another variable, Perceived Social Norms (informed by the Theory of Planned Behaviour, Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975, as cited in Pitts, 1996), to provide a more holistic explanation of smoking acquisition. Alcohol use, parental smoking and certain demographic factors are also found to be salient factors in this process. Findings showed that the perceived cons of smoking were constant across stages and seemed to have no effect on stage membership. Stage differences were explained almost entirely in terms of pros, which increased drastically with later stages. Perceived social norms increased with a later stage, confirming a tentative theoretical relationship between the Transtheoretical Model and Theory of Planned Behaviour. Lack of expressed intention to smoke by participants questions the validity of using the rational decision-making Transtheoretical Model to investigate a process not informed by decision-making. European language speakers were found to be a particularly vulnerable group to smoking, while African language speaking girls show very low rates of smoking. High religiosity was found to be a protective factor, while alcohol use was strongly associated with smoking. Maternal smoking was strongly associated with smoking, but only in girls. No difference in stage was found between schools and grades. The study should be replicated using a longitudinal design to determine the causal relationship between factors and smoking and to further investigate the applicability of the Transtheoretical Model in smoking acquisition.