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University of the Western Cape Faculty of Community and Health Sciences

Department of Occupational Therapy

University of Missouri South Africa Education Programme (UMSAEP) Academic Exchange Report

Report on Project including Visits

Submitted by Prof. Lisa Wegner

Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Community and Health Sciences University of Western Cape

In partnership with Dr. Wilson Majee

Associate Professor, Department of Health Sciences and Public Health University of Missouri

Project: Risk behaviour and leisure engagement amongst youth in rural South Africa and America

Introduction

The project entitled “Risk behaviour and leisure engagement amongst youth in rural South Africa and America” was approved by UMSAEP for funding in 2019. This interprofessional research project includes co-investigators Dr. Wilson Majee, Associate Professor, Department of Health Sciences, University of Missouri (UM); Mr. Joachim Jacobs, Director, HIV and AIDS Programme, University of the Western Cape (UWC); and Prof. Karien Jooste, Chair, Department of Nursing, Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).

Overview of Project

The overall purpose of the project is to explore the challenges and opportunities that vulnerable, rural youth face, with the long-term objective of designing an intervention to facilitate rural youths’ engagement in healthy behaviour. The objectives of this mixed methods study are to provide a comprehensive understanding of the perceptions of, and participation in, risk behaviour (substance use, sexual risk), leadership and leisure among vulnerable youth in rural areas of South Africa (SA) and the United States of America (US). Previous research has focused on in-school adolescents in urban areas (defined as high density, large towns and cities). This study is significant because the study population is older (18 to 28 years), out-of-school youth, living in rural communities (defined as low density, small villages and towns in farming communities) in both SA and the US.

Purpose of Visits

Two academic exchange visits have taken place to date:

Visit 1: Dr. Majee visited UWC from 18 to 31 May 2019. During this visit, we conducted data collection by means of administering questionnaires (n = 180) and conducting focus groups with vulnerable youth. We worked in six rural communities in the Eastern Cape [sites included the Kouga Municipality areas of Patensie, Hankey, Loerie, Thornhill], and two in the Western Cape [Barrydale and Genadendal]. We also conducted the study in three peri-urban sites in the Eastern Cape [sites included Jeffreys Bay, Humansdorp and Sea Vista], and one peri-urban site in the Western Cape [Fissantekraal]. We partnered with the Kouga Municipality in the Eastern Cape, in particular with Mr. Vuyani Zana (Kouga Local Municipality, Special Programmes Officer, Office of the Executive Mayor, Jeffreys Bay) who assisted us with accessing the communities and recruiting participants. We liaised with Trevor Arosi, Director of Community Development from the Kouga Wind Farm. In Barrydale, we worked with Derek Joubert, Herman Witbooi and Peter Takelo from Net Vir Pret [Just for Fun], a non-governmental organization for at risk youth. In Genadendal and Fissantekraal we worked with UWC community development worker Joseph Appollis and local community-based organisations.

Visit 2: I visited UM from 21 September to 4 October 2019. The purpose of the visit was to conduct data collection with rural youth in Columbia through focus groups and questionnaires, conduct data analysis and prepare publications. We successfully conducted one focus group with seven youth at Job Point. We met with community organisations including, Job Point, Love Inc, The Armory and Turning Point to discuss possibilities for data collection and hear about their work with youth. These visits were of great value and interest to me, as they enabled me to obtain a better understanding of the context of rural youth in Columbia, gain insight into the challenges that youth face, and learn about the organisations that exist to support youth in Missouri. Dr. Majee will continue with data collection in the next month. Dr. Majee and I also worked on data analysis, and drafting papers, as well as conference abstracts (see details below). In addition, I was able to meet with Dr. Christopher Hagglund (Dean of the School of Health Professions), Dr. Judith Goodman (Associate Dean for Research), Dr. Rod Uphoff (Director, UMSAEP) and Dr. Lea Brandt (Director, MU Center for Health Ethics). I attended the MU Focus on Africa seminar where two PhD students from Africa presented some of their work.

Progress towards outcomes

The project includes two phases: in quantitative phase 1, questionnaires were completed by 180 youth aged 18 to 28 years and in qualitative phase 2, twelve focus groups were conducted in the above-mentioned sites in South Africa. In addition, one focus group was conducted with a coalition of women who run empowerment groups for adolescents in Sea Vista, Eastern Cape. These were successful outcomes considering the remote rural sites, and difficulty accessing and recruiting these vulnerable youth. A highlight was the opportunity to present an overview of our work to President Choi (University of Missouri) and Prof. Pretorius (Rector, University of the Western Cape), and other colleagues from both universities. The presentation was done using information technology [Zoom] whilst we were collecting data in a remote part of the Eastern Cape and President Choi was visiting UWC in May 2019.

We have made good progress with analysis. The quantitative data analysis of the South African component of the project is nearing completion. A preliminary report on descriptive statistics is already available. A UWC Masters student, Olatunji Funmibi Deji, has been involved in the data entry and analysis, and will be included in a publication. All of the focus groups from South Africa have been transcribed and thematic analysis is well underway. Dr. Majee’s PhD student, Nameri Conteh, has been involved with the qualitative data analysis and will be included in some of the publications that arise from this data.

On 29 November 2019, Prof. Wegner and Dr. Majee will present their findings at a meeting called the Coastal Six forum meeting, which is a quarterly meeting of the six wind farms in the Kouga, Eastern Cape area. The intention is to disseminate the findings and assist the Wind Farms’ Corporate Social Investment/Community Engagement teams to prioritise areas of need in terms of youth in their area. This paves the way for potential funding for our future research plans in the area.

Outputs

The data for this project offers rich potential for a number of publications as follows:

• We are proud to report that one publication has been submitted to the Global Health Promotion journal (impact factor 1.2). The title of the publication is “Addressing youth substance use in rural South Africa: A case study of a community coalition in Sea Vista, Eastern Cape”.

• A second publication is in process entitled “Perspectives on substance use among youth in rural South Africa” and we hope to have this one completed by the end of November 2019.

  An additional two publications have been outlined:

• “Rural youth in South Africa and USA speak out: A comparative analysis”;
• “Leisure engagement among rural youth in the Eastern Cape, South Africa”. We have two further publications planned for 2020 as follows:
• Substance use and sexual risk behaviour among rural youth in South Africa

• Leadership engagement and mental health of rural youth in South Africa.

  In 2020, we intend to present our work at several international and national conferences including:

• June 17 to 19, 2020, Occupational Therapy Association of South Africa Congress: Resilience through Adversity, George, South Africa.

• June 29 to July 1, 2020, World Community Development Congress: Community Development – Our Connectedness, Resilience and Empowerment, Nairobi, Kenya.

• July 12 to 15, 2020, Community Development Society Annual Conference: Global Challenges, Local Resilience, Fargo, ND, USA

• October 17 to 23, 2020, World Leisure Congress: Leisure Makes Life Better, Beijing, China.

Summary

The project is providing valuable and unique insights into risk, resilience and leisure engagement among rural youth in South Africa and the US. Conducting the study in the two sites enables a comparison of similarities and differences. This project is significant as there is scant previous research on this issue. Given the anticipated population growth, the growing rate of youth unemployment and the emergence of varying family structures, understanding perceptions of vulnerable youth on, and their engagement in, risk behaviours can aid the development of interventions that can improve individual, and community health and wellbeing. Finally, we intend to use the project to inform future research and funding proposals for international community development work in partnership with researchers from the University of the Western Cape and the University of Missouri.

In closing, I would like to thank the UMSAEP, UM and UWC for allowing me the opportunity to be part of the programme, and for providing funding to conduct the study and for our two visits. I would like to thank Dr. Wilson Majee for his expertise, hard work, and encouragement on the project. Furthermore, I thank Mr Jacobs, Prof Jooste and the students for their involvement and input. Dr. Majee and I are committed to our collaboration and our work with youth, and we believe that our excellent synergy and common vision will provide the basis for further fruitful, productive, academic work in the years to come.

Prof. Lisa Wegner (Ph.D.)