Latest Articles
ABSTRACT
Tanzania lags behind in the course of ending stigma and discrimination against persons born with intersex variations. To date, the Tanzania Government has not enacted any law outlawing cosmetic surgeries, stigma and discrimination against persons born with intersex variations as per demands and calls from, among others, The First African Intersex Meeting, 2017 and The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 2023. Undoubtedly, this legal/policy silence is not at all unprejudiced. It facilitates harmful practices to take place unnoticed and uncontrolled. Primary and specialized healthcare providers, parents, traditional and religious leaders, therefore, continue performing harmful normalization surgeries and treatment, tradition-led mutilations and killings of infants and children born with intersex variations. In this context, I use scanty evidence available in the country and experience from other parts of the globe to highlight on what parents, guardians and communities should know and do to care and protect infants and children born with intersex variations’ human and citizenship rights in Tanzania. I recommend parents, guardians and community members to better understand who infants and children born with intersex variations are and their (health) needs. Intersex variations are not disorders requiring immediate or emergency (medical) interventions. ‘Normalization’ surgeries should wait until the children are mature enough to make informed consent to alter their physical appearances. Whenever possible, parents and guardians should seek, share support and correct intersex information from parents/guardians with similar experiences and adult persons born with intersex variations, media, internet and intersex-led groups and organizations and institutions within and outside Tanzania. Importantly, parents, guardians, persons born with intersex variations, intersex movements, activists and persons born with intersex variations-led organizations should ........
Original Research Article
ABSTRACT
This study was to determine the Psychometric analysis of personal anxiety and students’ academic achievement in Universities in Cross River State, Nigeria. Two research questions and hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The population of this study comprises 350 year one students from three universities in Cross River State. The sampling technique employed by the researcher in the selection of the sample was the simple random sampling technique. The sample size selected for this study was 225 year one students in selected schools which represents 5 percent of the accessible population comprising of 127 males and 98 females. The questionnaire was designed to measure the two sub-independent variables. The reliability of the instrument was 0.76 reliability coefficient. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while Simple linear regression analysis statistical tool was used to test the research hypotheses that were formulated to guild the study at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study show that there is a significant influence of freshmen’s adaptation to social activities in tertiary institution on their manifest anxiety and there is a significant freshmen’s adaptation to social relationship in tertiary institution predicts their manifest anxiety. Based on the findings, it was recommended that university management should formulate educational policies the will help in addressing problems of freshmen in schools such as problem of participation in social activities and participation in social relationship.
Original Research Article
ABSTRACT
The study sought to investigate the implications of female teenage marriages on human rights violation in Mt Darwin District of Mashonaland Central Province in Zimbabwe. An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methodology design with a QUANT ‒ QUAL criterion was adopted for the study. Quantitative results were cross-examined with findings from qualitative data, which explored alternative explanations for violation of Married Female Teenagers (MFTs)’ human rights. Respondents were 192 MFTs who were randomly sampled from the target population while participants were 17 MFTs and five (5) Key Informants who were purposively sampled from the target population. Respondents provided the required information through a closed-ended questionnaire while participants and Key Informants were engaged in face-to-face interviews using semi-structured questionnaire. Data from Focus Group Discussions were obtained through unstructured questionnaire. Quantitative research data were analysed using the SPSS 21.0 while Content Thematic Analysis was employed to analyse qualitative data. The study revealed that teenage marriages violated MFTs’ rights to; pursue education, enjoy good health, engage in income generating projects, be protected from sexual and verbal abuse and make independent decisions while in marriage. Husbands hindered the right to education for MFTs. Right to engage in income generating projects was hindered by lack of capital and refusal by some husbands and in-laws. The rights to make independent decisions were thwarted by restrictions imposed by husbands on MFTs’ movement, choice, association and belonging. The Government and its development partners were recommended to reach out to male teenagers and men with sexuality and gender-based violence (GBV) programmes.
Original Research Article
ABSTRACT
Social behavioral change communication interventions in Tanzania target populations engaging in high- risk sex behaviors and practices: anal intercourse, sex work, injecting drugs and male same sex relationships excluding women who have sex with women (WSW) or women who identify lesbians. In this paper, I describe terms used in reference to female same-sex sex or sexual relationships, important in health social behavior change communication targeting WSW in Tanzania. Data presented are part of cross-sectional descriptive and retrospective formative study among WSW conducted in Dar-es-Salaam region, Tanzania in 2021. WSW aged 18 and above, stayed in Dar-es-Salaam for six months or more; had had sexual contact with a woman in the past year participated in this study. Participants were recruited via snowball method. Community leaders/members and managers of NGOs/institution supporting WSW were purposively selected to take part in this study. Researchers used four methods to generated data needed for this study: focus group discussion, in-depth interviewing, observation and collecting WSW’s life stories. Content data analysis was conducted to create categories of terms around female same-sex sex or sexual relationships reported by study participants. Four categories of terms around female same-sex sex or sexual relationships emerged: terms referring to women who identify WSW or lesbians; terminologies referring to female same-sex sex; terms referring to female same-sex-related behaviors and practices; and terminologies referring to items/materials used during female same-sex sex. I conclude WSW in Dar-es-Salaam have coined terms that express their socially- created world. I recommend social behavior change communication programmers in the health education and promotion context to use these terms in developing comprehensive and WSW-friendly research protocols for sustainable behavior change among WSW and the public towards making female same-sex sex safe for reduced ....
Original Research Article
ABSTRACT
In quest to study self-differentiation with the view of enhancing mental health among Nigeria police cadets and similar populations, the researchers carried out study to confirm the validity and the reliability of the instrument, differentiation of self-inventory short form (DSI-SF) among the population. Cross sectional method using convenient sampling technique was employed to select 346, males =240 and female =106 of the police cadets, their age range between 17 and 27. Pearson-moment correlation was used to confirm that the total self-differentiation inventory short form and all it subscales is a significant valid and reliable instrument for the measurement of self-differentiation among Nigeria Police Cadets. The instruments can confidently be utilized by researchers to measure self-differentiation. Practitioners can trust it reliability and validity to measure and evaluate self-differentiation among this population and similar.
ABSTRACT
Intersexuality includes a variety of conditions in which individuals are born with, or develop later in life, ambiguous external genitalia and or a combination of chromosomes, gonads, external genitalia, and hormones that do not align as typical male or typical female. Persons born with intersex variations, therefore, are real and exist in all countries around the globe. What is missing in most countries like Tanzania is the comprehensive understanding of who persons born with intersex variations are; their (health) needs; the parents/guardians’, families’, communities’ experiences and governments’ roles in recognizing and protecting human rights and citizenship rights this group is entitled to. Low awareness and understanding of persons born with intersex variations among the general public, policy makers and the (public) health professionals; lack of empirical research on this group and intersex-LGBTQ confusion explain, in part, why there is paucity of data on this population in Tanzania and other countries mainly where LGBTQ is illegal. Data presented in this paper come from desk research I conducted on intersexuality in Tanzania and beyond. I conclude public health experts in this country stand a better chance to bridge gaps identified in existing intersexuality research to enable Tanzania realize demands and calls made by The African Intersex Movement, 2017. I recommend public health intersexuality research to move towards a psycho-social framework which accepts persons born with intersex variations, because the problem is not with this population; it is, rather, with the society expecting them to conform to their socially constructed architypes.
Original Research Article
ABSTRACT
This study is intended is to identify the occupational risk factors of work stress and family life of onsite workers amidst Covid -9 Pandemic. Work stress is linked between the employee and the employer since the employee's performance is impacted by his or her stress level, which in turn impacts the company's performance. The majority of respondents were between the ages of 18 and 25, and the majority of them were female. There is not a significant relationship between the respondents' degree of occupational stress and their profile. Regardless of the potential for enormous growth, on-site workers continue to suffer from a high level of whittling down caused by factors such as high levels of stress and a lack of opportunities for advancement. The examination of the study's findings allows the researcher to provide a few critical recommendations that the onsite workers in the Philippines should evaluate and adopt to lessen workplace stressors. Performance awards are linked to the appropriate amount of supervision and training. Both of these factors are required for positive job behavior and the smooth operation of an organization. Despite the fact that there were more variables that could be considered as indicators of onsite workers' workplace stressor based on external and internal factors, the present study was only able to work on three of them because the literature supported these factors more extensively.