An exploratory study of violence and the development of self-concept in black children.
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Date
1996
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Abstract
South African black children have been exposed to extremely high levels of violence,
especially in the townships. This study was initiated in ,order to explore the effects of
violence on the self-concept of the black child in South Africa. In addition the
applicability of current self-concept theories and psychometric measures to this
population was investigated. This study is therefore mainly exploratory. Sixty
individuals of both sexes between the ages of 8 and 10 years were sampled from two
schools. Thirty from one in a high violence and the other thirty from one in a low
violence area. However, after finding that the experimental and control groups did not
differ signifficantly these groups were reassigned according to exposure to violence
rather than geographically. Direct and indirect exposure to violence as well as family
and other stressors were measured with the aid of the Life Events Questionnaire (Mason
and Killian, 1993). In order to determine the effect of exposure to violence on selfconcept
these two groups were compared using one quantitative and two qualitative selfconcept
measures. The quantitative measure was the Piers-Harris Children's SelfConcept
Scale and the qualitative measures were the Human Figure Drawing Test and
an Incomplete Sentences Test. Results were analysed by multivariate statistical
procedures. This study concluded that violence has no significant effect.on self-concept
in black children (p,>O.05). The Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale was found
to be a reliable measure of self-concept in black children. Recommendations include
broadening self-concept theories for black children by incorporating theories from
disciplines other than psychology. The power of the present study would have been
increased by using larger samples.
Description
Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1996.
Keywords
Children and violence--South Africa., Children--South Africa--Social conditions., Violence--Psychological aspects., Self-perception in children--South Africa., Children, Black--South Africa., Theses--Psychology.