Browsing by Author "Ngubane, Mbalenhle Felicia."

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Exploring resilience among South African female masters students: an ecological systems perspective.
(2019) Ngubane, Mbalenhle Felicia.; Sliep, Yvonne.
Background: South Africa is a low-middle income country (LMIC) characterised by factors such as poverty, high teenage pregnancy, poor education and high levels of unemployment. However, recent South African Higher Education statistical reports have indicated a significant increase in the number of students enrolling for post-graduate courses particularly master’s qualifications. These are also predominantly female students. Master’s degrees are intensive and require extensive academic and personal development, knowledge synthesis and adequate resources to attain satisfactory results. The main objective of the study is to identify factors that contribute to the resilience of South African female master’s students in response to adversity and challenges. Methods: The study used a qualitative approach and analysed secondary data from life stories together with the individual semi-structured interviews of seven South African female post-graduate students enrolled for a master’s in Health Promotion at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Howard College. Data was categorised into codes using NVivo qualitative software and further analysed into themes manually using thematic analysis. The Ecological systems theory was used as the study’s theoretical framework. The theoretical framework is an integrated, holistic approach that is relevant when exploring subjective experiences. In this study, the socio-ecological systems model explores the interactions between students and their social environments as well as the impact of contextual factors on personal development. In addition, Resilience theory was applied as the study’s underpinning conceptual framework to explore the concept of resilience as it is experienced in the different contexts. The use of these theories helped obtain an in-depth understanding of the context and enhanced the analysis of the data set. Findings: The study unveils key findings relating to the influences of context on the adversity faced by South African female post-graduate master’s students and their coping strategies. At the micro- level, the study shows the positive contribution of students’ retrospective interpretations in gaining insight and making sense of past experiences. This propelled students towards a positive outlook on their experiences, including the challenges faced as students became more conscious of their personal strengths and internal ability to overcome adversities. The study found that at the meso- level, most students reported to have mobilised their internal resources such as agency, self-esteem and locus of control to overcome high risk factors imposed by their immediate vii environments. Most students did not receive external support. However, where support was available, within a family system for example, students reported it acting as a buffer to other external hardships at school or in the broader community. Lastly, at the macro- level, findings indicate that cultural beliefs, gender norms and policies around education and welfare in the South African context dismantle women’s aspirations in terms of furthering their education and succeeding in life. Participants indicated that males and females were not afforded the same opportunities, with females being expected to assume domestic roles while males are encouraged to go out and work for their families. The above listed contextual factors were experienced negatively, and participants reported dependency on their internalised abilities as preferred coping mechanisms in overcoming the adversities caused by those contextual factors. Conclusion: South Africa is a multifaceted country that is rich in diversity and the study depicts how participants individually have a role to play in their own development within broad contextual factors. Context was found to significantly influence the responses to adversity and inform coping. Based on the findings, dissemination of evidence-based research such as this study through conference papers, community presentations and policy briefs can be used to involve communities and policy-makers to work towards eradicating negative contextual factors experienced by students. The current research study also encourages government departments and university bodies to be more instrumental in creating access to more resources that are supportive to alleviate the pressures that students endure when they rely on their inner strength in response to external environmental hardships.
Exploring the perceived preparedness of clinical and counselling psychology students for the newly acquired roles as intern psychologists.
(2021) Ngubane, Mbalenhle Felicia.; Sliep, Yvonne.
Background: The training of clinical and counselling psychologists in South Africa has continuously received research attention as it is arguably rich in diversity and presents with the nuances of contextual factors influencing the training and wellbeing of trainee psychologists. South African psychology is inherently embedded in the politics of apartheid ideology and colonial oppression, marginalisation, elitism, unequal power relations and social control (Macleod & Howell, 2013. Consequently, the traditional training model has also been under scrutiny to ascertain its efficacy, given the contextually diverse challenges clients present for psychotherapy. The overall objective of the study is to identify the influential factors that contribute to the trainee psychologists’ perceived preparedness for their newly acquired professional roles. Methodology: The study explored the perceived preparedness of clinical and counselling trainee psychologists for their professional roles, using a qualitative research approach. The qualitative approach allowed the researcher to uncover the underlying trainee psychologists’ subjective experiences of the master’s training programme and the perceived impact on their professional competence. The researcher conducted five one-on-one in-depth interviews with intern psychologists who were enrolled at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The accumulative data was categorised into codes using the stepwise thematic analysis method. Themes were consolidated with the help of the ecological systems model, adopted as a methodological framework, characterised by an integrated, holistic approach that is relevant when exploring subjective experiences. The ecological systems theory gave insight to the exploration of contextual factors that have an impact on students’ personal and professional development. Findings: The emergent findings of the study indicate that most participants reportedly experienced the professional training as being stressful, identifying concurrent academic, clinical, and therapeutic demands deeply entrenched in the training process. Moreover, trainees as illustrated in the findings, constantly put themselves under significant pressure to perform well despite not sharing their challenges with other trainees in the programme. Over the years, the increasing demands of the training have evidently become the fibre of the development of psychologists. The interviewing process provided participants the opportunity to retrospectively reflect on the nuances of their training experiences, which positively contributed to building their emotional and intellectual insight pertaining the technical and soft skills acquired in the first year of training.