Petro van der Merwe

Adolescent identities in the cyberworld

The main aim of this study was to understand how adolescents express their identities in virtual worlds. Fifty-nine South African high school learners (females = 51%) completed an interview and survey regarding their online interactions important for their personal identities. The adolescents completed think aloud interviews (verbalisations) and surveys which focussed on behaviour, beliefs, attitudes, opinions, feelings, expectations, self-classification, and level of involvement with social media. The data were thematically analysed and profiled by theme utilising frequency distributions. The results suggest adolescents to ‘try out’ new identities; including assumed and idealised identities. They self-report to do and say things online that they ordinarily would not do offline for social desirability reasons. Adolescents appear to inhabit two reality worlds important for the enactment of the identities they construct with online friends and strangers.The main aim of this study was to understand how adolescents express their identities in virtual worlds. Fifty-nine South African high school learners (females = 51%) completed an interview and survey regarding their online interactions important for their personal identities. The adolescents completed think aloud interviews (verbalisations) and surveys which focussed on behaviour, beliefs, attitudes, opinions, feelings, expectations, self-classification, and level of involvement with social media. The data were thematically analysed and profiled by theme utilising frequency distributions. The results suggest adolescents to ‘try out’ new identities; including assumed and idealised identities. They self-report to do and say things online that they ordinarily would not do offline for social desirability reasons. Adolescents appear to inhabit two reality worlds important for the enactment of the identities they construct with online friends and strangers.

Women’s breast-feeding meanings in the context of mother-to-child transmission of HIV

This study explored infant feeding practice meanings of HIV-positive mothers. Informants were eight black South African mothers (age range 18–29 years) enrolled in a mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) prevention programme. In-depth interviews on factors that influence exclusive breast-feeding were conducted with the mothers. Thematic analysis of the data yielded meanings around practices of knowledge contestation with health care providers and family, work demands, and personal preferences. Moreover, successful breast-feeding by mothers with HIV status may depend on addressing contradictory messages by health workers on infant feeding and community and family pressure to mix-feed the infant children.