Background: Historically, non-career-ending traumatic rugby injury (TRI) has been viewed from a predominantly biological perspective. However, dimensional perspectives, such as the biopsychosocial model, have highlighted the need to incorporate psychosocial understandings of TRI into treatment plans.
Aim: To describe the lived experiences of a cohort of traumatically injured South African Super Rugby players in order to add to the body of literature on the subject of TRI experience.
Methods: The employment of a qualitative, descriptive phenomenological method was used to achieve the research outcome.
Discussion: Common descriptive themes indicated that TRI seems to exist within three stages: the initial, emotional and subsequent reactions to the traumatic injury. Sub-themes described within each stage included attempts at remaining positive and appraising the severity of the injury during onset, fear responses and concomitant feelings of loss related to foregone career opportunities during the emotional reactions stage, the employment of coping mechanisms, and relying on specific support structures during subsequent reactions. Two novel experiences revealed within this study and not reported in the international literature included the injured players’ reliance on compartmentalisation and positive religious belief structures as coping strategies. All themes were reduced to descriptive phenomenological essences that describe a lifeworld or biopsychosocial experience of TRI.
Conclusion: Themes drawn from this study can be applied in the future design and implementation of expanded studies and psychological interventions aimed at assisting traumatically injured rugby players during their recovery process. The identified themes affirm aspects from the international literature while highlighting some uniquely South African outcomes.
Adopting a descriptive phenomenological approach, this study explores the experiences of discrimination of white women in committed interracial relationships with black men within the South African context. Three white females in committed interracial relationships with black males were recruited and interviewed. Open-ended interviews were conducted in order to elicit rich and in-depth first-person descriptions of the participants' lived experiences of discrimination as a result of being in committed interracial relationships. The data analysis entailed a descriptive phenomenological content analysis and description. The results of this study suggest that white women in committed interracial relationships with black men experience discrimination in various contexts, where discrimination manifests as either a negative or a positive encounter; in addition, discrimination evokes various emotional responses and is coped with in either maladaptive or adaptive ways. Finally, the experience of discrimination, although personal, necessarily impacts on the interracial relationship. The nature and impact of discrimination experienced by white women in committed interracial relationships with black men is thus multi-layered and both an intra-personal and an inter-personal phenomenon.
South Africa, as a developing country, is characterized by high levels of crime, partner violence, and other traumatic experiences. Exposure to these traumas may lead to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder or, conversely, post-traumatic growth. Citizens in developing African countries appear to be at risk for the development of insecure attachment styles due to the cumulative effects of socio-economic risk factors. The prevalence of many possible traumatic experiences along with the risk of more insecure attachments set the stage for investigating the impact of insecure attachment on post-traumatic growth. The aim of this study was thus to determine whether two insecure attachment styles, namely anxious and avoidant attachment, were significant predictors of post-traumatic growth. The sample consisted of 233 undergraduate students from a South African university who had experienced a traumatic event. Participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 33 years ( M = 21 years) and were from various ethnic backgrounds (81.5% Black African, 7.7% White, 9% Coloured, and 3.9% Asian/Indian). Two self-report measures were administered via an online survey to assess attachment styles and post-traumatic growth. Results showed that an anxious attachment style was a significant negative predictor of post-traumatic growth. Furthermore, individuals with an avoidant attachment style were significantly less likely to experience post-traumatic growth through relating to others, than along the other domains of post-traumatic growth. The findings contribute by highlighting the importance of considering how insecure attachment styles may impact post-traumatic growth, as this could inform the treatment of trauma victims.
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