Impact of Christianity and Ancestral Beliefs on Black South Africans’ Decision-Making Regarding the Adoption of Abandoned Children

Author(s):  
P Gerrand ◽  
T Nkomo

Abstract Annually, hundreds of African infants are abandoned in South Africa and become adoptable because rigorous efforts to trace their parents and family members are unsuccessful. Although domestic adoption is prioritised in terms of legislation, policy and practice, most abandoned children’s right to be permanently raised in a loving family is not being realised. The most promising source of potential adopters is black South Africans, but the number of black adopters is ever declining. To investigate factors affecting black South African’s decision-making regarding the legal adoption of abandoned children, a post-graduate study was undertaken. Thirty-nine black adults participated in the study consisting of adopters, adoption applicants in the screening process, potential adopters that did not enter the screening process, adoption of social workers and citizens. The theory emerging derived from concurrent data gathering and analysis as set out by Corbin and Strauss is: ‘Tensions surrounding adoption policy and practice, and perceptions and experiences of adoption’. This article focuses on a main category of this grounded theory; that African ancestral beliefs and modern Christian beliefs can both reinforce and discourage adoption abandoned children.

1998 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham B. Stead ◽  
Mark B. Watson

The appropriateness of Super's career theory among black South Africans is discussed in terms of developmental stages, the self-concept, career maturity, and career decision-making. Suggestions are provided as to how these constructs may need to be re-evaluated and thus become more meaningful to career counsellors and researchers.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-308
Author(s):  
Priscilla Gerrand

In South Africa, hundreds of black, abandoned children enter the legal child care system on an annual basis and become eligible for adoption. Although these children have a right to be raised in their country of origin, they are often made available for intercountry adoption owing to a lack of prospective domestic adopters. Statistically, middle-class black South Africans present as a significant source of domestic adopters, but the number of black South Africans legally adopting abandoned children is small. A qualitative enquiry, using grounded theory, was conducted to establish what factors dissuade involuntarily childless black South Africans from legally adopting abandoned children. Personal interviews were conducted with 39 purposively selected black participants to gather data. The conclusion drawn is that five main factors dissuade black South Africans from adopting abandoned children: (1) meanings of kinship; (2) racial connotations associated with legal adoption; (3) conflicting Christian beliefs; (4) parenthood, gender and identity; and (5) empowered single women prioritising climbing the socio-economic ladder. Recommendations focus on social marketing strategies, policy and practice innovations and research to promote domestic adoption in the African context.


Crisis ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourens Schlebusch ◽  
Naseema B.M. Vawda ◽  
Brenda A. Bosch

Summary: In the past suicidal behavior among Black South Africans has been largely underresearched. Earlier studies among the other main ethnic groups in the country showed suicidal behavior in those groups to be a serious problem. This article briefly reviews some of the more recent research on suicidal behavior in Black South Africans. The results indicate an apparent increase in suicidal behavior in this group. Several explanations are offered for the change in suicidal behavior in the reported clinical populations. This includes past difficulties for all South Africans to access health care facilities in the Apartheid (legal racial separation) era, and present difficulties of post-Apartheid transformation the South African society is undergoing, as the people struggle to come to terms with the deleterious effects of the former South African racial policies, related socio-cultural, socio-economic, and other pressures.


2019 ◽  
Vol 118 (9) ◽  
pp. 154-160
Author(s):  
Dr. Kartikey Koti

The essential idea of this assessment is investigate the social factors affecting particular theorists' decisions making limit at Indian Stock Markets. In the examination coordinated standard of direct is Classified subject to two estimations the first is Heuristic (Decision making) and the resulting one is prospect.. For the assessment coordinated the data used is basic natured which is assembled through a sorted out survey from 100 individual money related authorities based out in Hubli and Dharwad city, Karnataka State in India on an accommodating way. The respondents were both sex and overwhelming part male were 68% . These theorists were having a spot with the age bundle between35-45 which is 38%. These respondents have completed their graduation were around 56%. These respondents had work inclusion of 5 to 10 years which is 45% and the majority of which were used in government portion which is 56%. Their compensation was between 4 to 6 Lakh and were fit for placing assets into business areas. The money related experts were widely masterminded placing assets into different portfolios like 32% in Share market and 20 % in Fixed store. These examiners mode to known various endeavor streets were through News, family and allies.  


1978 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 380-382
Author(s):  
M. Javed Akbar Zaki

To many social theoreticians, the population explosion, particularly in the developing nations presents a crippling threat to their developmental pro¬cesses. Their argument's validity rests mainly on the assumption that expected economic progress is swallowed up by unbalanced rise of numbers in the population. The book being reviewed deals mainly with this subject matter and is divided into two parts, each containing three articles contributed by various researchers. Part one, 'The Social context of Fertility Decision' is focused on analyzing the role of factors affecting fertility at the micro-level decision making process. The first article 'Fertility decision in rural India' by Vinod Jainath, examines the applicability to rural India of various models of the process of fertility decision making and finds most of these wanting with respect to the Indian social situation. While analyzing the fertility patterns of Rural India, he points out the positive need for larger families among the poor small farmers mainly due to labour supply considerations. The author argues that unemployment and under¬employment actually motivate the poor to have more children as it better ensures their economic security in their old age. As the chances of gaining employ¬ment for their offspring diminish, they are induced to increase the total number of children in order that atleast one will be able to support them. Thus a vicious circle of poverty arises in large families because of each of the parents wanting to increase their children's chances of employment by ultimately reducing the overall employment opportunities even further and exacerbating their poverty.


Author(s):  
Simon Chapman ◽  
Ben Lobo

This chapter provides an overview of the MCA’s impact on end-of-life care. It situates the MCA in the current context of policy and practice. It describes how the MCA can be used to improve care, enable people to express and protect choices, and empower and enable the professional and/or the proxy decision maker. It also presents an introduction and explanation of the role of the IMCA and how it might apply to advance care planning (ACP) and end of life decision making, and an explanation of the legal and ethical process involved in reaching best interest decisions, especially for potentially vulnerable people in care homes and other settings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 205979912110085
Author(s):  
Jane Richardson ◽  
Barry Godfrey ◽  
Sandra Walklate

In March 2020, the UK Research and Innovation announced an emergency call for research to inform policy and practice responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This call implicitly and explicitly required researchers to work rapidly, remotely and responsively. In this article, we briefly review how rapid response methods developed in health research can be used in other social science fields. After outlining the literature in this area, we use the early stages of our applied research into criminal justice responses to domestic abuse during COVID-19 as a case study to illustrate some of the practical challenges we faced in responding to this rapid funding call. We review our use of and experience with remote research methods and describe how we used and adapted these methods in our research, from data gathering through to transcription and analysis. We reflect on our experiences to date of what it means to be responsive in fast-changing research situations. Finally, we make some practical recommendations for conducting applied research in a ‘nimble’ way to meet the demands of working rapidly, remotely, responsively and, most importantly, responsibly.


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