One way of understanding the impact of traumatic events is through exploration of cognitive changes that confront a traumatized individual. The author investigated changes in individuals' basic assumptions after traumatic experiences. The participants were 65 people who had been traumatized by representatives of the South African apartheid government. From the total sample, 36 participants had witnessed the violent death of a close relative (sibling, mother, or father). The remaining 29 had been tortured and detained. The author administered the World Assumption Scale (R. Janoff-Bulman, 1989), a semistructured questionnaire on basic assumptions developed for the present study, and the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Clinical Checklist (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Traumatic events affected the participants' basic assumptions about the meaning and benevolence of the world. The tortured and detained group and the bereaved group showed differences in their assumptions of self-worth following the trauma. Cognitive approaches can yield invaluable therapeutic insights into strategies for coping with trauma.
A number of developmental early childhood programmes have been implemented overseas to stimulate mother-child interaction in families whose environment is considered to be disadvantageous. There has been a tendency to use narrow cognitively oriented outcome measures, and findings on the efficacy of these programmes are still inconclusive. The present study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of a programme designed to enhance the child's cognitive and socio-emotional functioning through mother-child interaction around a verbal interaction stimulus material, in a selected group of disadvantaged black families. A sample of 90 mothers and their pre-school children was randomly selected and assigned to the experimental group (A1) which received training, first control group (A2) which received visits only and second control group (A3) which was neither exposed to training nor visited. The mother-child dyads were assessed at pre-test, post-test and follow-up periods using two psychological measures, to monitor possible changes in children's development. An integrated parent-effectiveness and children's enrichment programme was found to be effective in stimulating children's cognitive and socio-affective development in disadvantaged black families.
The psychological status of South African Black migrant children whose families had migrated involuntarily from their indigenous residence to an informal settlement was explored. Three groups, each consisting of 50 Black migrant children, were randomly selected from three types of migrant populations. A control group of 50 nonmigrant children was also formed. The Child "A" scale was administered to the parental figures of these children. The results showed differences in the psychological status of the migrant and nonmigrant children as well as between the groups of migrant children. The need for further research to explore the differential impact of premigration socializing experiences on developing migrant children was identified.
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