Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: This article reports on a study that sought to elicit the views of male university students on risk and \nprotective factors to male interpersonal violence. The participants were 116 third-year students \nwho participated in a final year research project in the Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) \nProgramme at the University of Western Cape (UWC). Each of the students conducted six semistructured \nface to face interviews with male students. Following initial analyses of the interviews, \na video-recorded class discussion was held to discuss the research findings. The data from the \nclass discussion was captured under the four levels of individual, relationship, community and \nsociety, utilised by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its World Health Report on Violence \nand Health. The analysis of the class discussion and the students’ own research reports revealed \nthat at the individual level, risk and protective factors primarily revolve around the challenges of \nconstructing a viable masculinity in specific social and economic contexts; at the relationship \nlevel, the key factors appear to be the experiences and expectations around gender roles and \nfamily dynamics; at the community level, it seems that weak or non-existent community networks \nand activities feed into increasing the risk of male community members becoming involved in \nviolence. Each of these three levels needs to be understood against the historically specific \nbackdrop of the societal ecological level: the gendered cultural values expressed in and reflected \nAfrican Safety Promotion Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2010 \n2 \nL. Clowes et al \nby the wider social, economic and political contexts.
Authors: Lindsay Clowes, Sandy Lazarus, Kopano Ratele
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W16466291