Die verband tussen konserwatisme en psigologiese welstand by adolessente

[摘要] English: The primary goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between conservatism and psychological well-being in adolescents. Conservatism is described as a social attitude, characterised by an internalisation of the dominant values of the social environment in which the individual functions, and which directs the individual's behaviour in accordance with the expectations of society. Psychological well-being is described as a state that is characterised by aspects such as a sense of coherence, satisfaction with life, fortitude, coping, hardiness, self-actualisation, potency and psychological resilience. Numerous developmental tasks applicable to adolescents were identified. It was demonstrated that the successful completion of these developmental tasks may have a positive effect on the psychological well-being of adolescents. Numerous risk factors, which may negatively influence the completion of the above-mentioned developmental tasks and therefore the psychological well-being of adolescents, were identified within the South African context. The influence of conservatism on the above-mentioned development tasks and the handling of risk factors were theoretically indicated as predominantly positive. The research sample of this study consisted of 1238 adolescents. The cluster sampling method was used to identify six schools in the Eastern Cape province and five schools in the Gauteng province. The Grade 12-students of these schools were approached to complete the relevant questionnaires. For the purpose of this study The Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985), The Fortitude Questionnaire (Pretorius, 1977) and The Sense of Coherence Scale (Antonovsky, 1987) were used to determine the level of psychological well-being of the research sample. The level of conservatism of the research sample was determined by administering an adapted version of The Conservatism Scale of Wilson and Patterson (1970). Six attitude groupings of conservatism were identified for adolescents, namely: religious fundamentalism, anti-hedonism, conforming attitude towards authority, teenage behaviour, ethnocentrism and insistence on strict rules/punishment. The Afrikaans-speaking adolescents in the study generally exhibited higher levels of conservatism than the English- and African language-speaking adolescents. Adolescent boys were more conservative regarding ethnocentrism, while the girls were more conservative regarding religious fundamentalism, anti-hedonism and teenage behaviour. Religious fundamentalism and anti-hedonism made significant statistical contributions to the explanation of the variances for all three factors of psychological well-being (sense of coherence, satisfaction with life, fortitude). The conservatism component, conforming attitude towards authority, made significant statistical contributions to the explanation of the variances for fortitude and sense of coherence, Teenage behaviour made a significant statistical contribution to the explanation of the variance for satisfaction with life. Ethnocentrism showed a negative relationship to all three factors of psychological wellbeing. The biographical variable gender made significant statistical contributions to the explanation of the variances for all three factors of psychological well-being (sense of coherence, satisfaction with life, fortitude). Language grouping did not make any significant statistical contribution to the explanation of the variances for any of the factors of psychological well-being. The results of this study indicate that adolescents with high levels of conservatismregarding religious fundamentalism, anti-hedonism, conforming attitude towards authorityand teenage behaviour may also experience high levels of psychological well-being. Theresults further indicate that adolescents who exhibit high levels of conservatism regardingethnocentrism may be inclined to experience low levels of psychological well-being.Certain recommendations for further research were also suggested. A ConservatismScale for Adolescents was provisionally compiled, which could be standardised throughfurther research.

[发布机构] University of the Free State