Exploring concepts of death and subjective life expectancy: understanding young adults' perceptions of (In)-vulnerability

This study contributes to the understanding of young adults' concepts of death and subjective life expectancy, especially in an era when HIV and AIDS significantly raise morbidity and mortality levels and lower life expectancy. It was meant to inform theory building about subjective life expectancy and its potential impact on individual decision-making. The sample for this specific paper consisted of ten African adolescents aged between fifteen and twenty-two, all of whom living in areas of Cape Town most heavily affected by the AIDS pandemic, as well as by other environmental factors, such as high poverty and crime rates, and high levels of violent deaths especially among young men. Findings show that young people are extremely aware of high death rates in their environments, especially deaths of a premature nature. Causes indicated were HIV and AIDS, but even more prominently crime and violence. Although confronted with the daily reality of death, participants did not consider these high death rates to be part of "a normal life", yet related them often to a general feeling of social and moral chaos in the townships. Different psychosocial mechanisms of dealing with the threat of death showed, with often very high levels of resilience and a focus on the future, but also fear and lack of clarity about that future in general. Subjective life expectancy (SLE) for oneself, however, was generally high and not influenced by the uncontrollable threat of violent deaths; Instead, the motivation behind SLE showed young adults' belief in personal choice and control exercised within their environments characterised by the complex interaction of poverty, crime, HIV and AIDS, peer pressure and modernisation.? HIV and AIDS was mostly taken into account as a factor of influence that one had control over and therefore did not influence SLE. Peers' SLE, however, was rated far lower than their own, taking into account those factors that participants considered controllable

Educational decision-making in an era of AIDS: exploring the narratives of affected young adults in the Cape Flats

This paper analyses how HIV and AIDS affects decisions around education. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with eight young adults, as part of a larger study into educational decision-making among young Black African adults in general. Results indicate that HIV and AIDS heighten psychological problems including stress, insecurity and anxiety, as identified by psychological research. HIV and AIDS add an extra layer to the already existing complexity and fragility of young people's lives and worlds. But no evidence was found that affected young people would more readily make negative decisions about education, or would orient their values, attitudes and behaviour towards the short- rather than the long-term. The AIDS-affected young people in the sample shape their identities by focusing on future success, albeit within a world characterised by fragility, in ways that are similar to non-affected young people. Positive educational decision-making is clearly an integral part of those young people who choose to regard their current situation of deprivation as temporal and to use education as a vehicle towards future success

The stuff that dreams are made of...Narratives on educational decision-making among young adults in Cape Town

This paper examines the narratives of eight young, Black South Africans on their decisions around education. Analysis focuses on these young adults' value of education on the one hand, and the parallels or breaches between that value and education-related choices or actions on the other. It shows that educational decision-making should be regarded as part of a larger process of identity-formation. I argue that the young people in my sample choose different strategies in attempts to create their identity. One such strategy implies a long-term oriented focus on success; choosing in favour of education is an intrinsic part thereof. Another one rests on a more short-term oriented wish for the same type of success, however with little or no concrete plans on how to reach that. The importance of education is not openly rejected by young adults adapting this second strategy, yet it is not a central factor in it either. Strategies such as these are, however, not static, and the distinction between them not as unambiguous as may seem. Shifting factors in a context of 'fragility' may lead young adults to rethink their choices and plans; many move between different strategies, or create 'in-between' versions that leave room for adaptation when necessary

Educational decision-making in an era of AIDS

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-267).One of the ways in which AIDS is said to ravage the lives of young people is through its impact on education. Youth and their caregivers might respond to shortened life expectancy by investing less in schooling. No evidence has been presented for this hypothesis, however. Indeed, little is known about educational decision-making outside of a Western, industrialized context. This thesis examines educational decisionmaking in South Africa, and specifically tests the hypotheses that AIDS reduces the perceived value of education. The study combines quantitative and qualitative research, all conducted in the South African city of Cape Town. Whilst it proves difficult to model the effects of HIV/AIDS, the quantitative data from both adolescents (who participated in successive waves of the Cape Area Panel Study) and adults (who participated in the 2005 Cape Area Study) fails to provide support for the hypothesis that AIDS leads to a diminished valuation of the importance of education. Qualitative material was collected through diverse methods, from samples of AIDSaffected and non-affected young adults, and from HIV-positive adult caregivers. The qualitative research shows that young adults make educational decisions as part of a broader process of constructing identities. In a context of ‘fragility’, youth have to decide who they are and want they want to be. They construct positive ‘future selves’ that entail the aspiration for a long and successful life, in the course of which they maintain some control in the face of the chaos, hardship and mortality around them. Investing in education is an important marker of this self-control and positive aspiration, and hence their desired identity. HIV-positive adult caregivers also choose to invest heavily in their children’s education because they want to equip their children with advantages that will endure after their own deaths. HIV/AIDS might induce stress, insecurity and anxiety, but no evidence was found that it leads either caregivers or youth to make negative decisions about education, or to orient their values, attitudes and behaviour towards the short- rather than the long-term

Youth livelihoods in the cellphone era: Perspectives from urban Africa

Issues surrounding youth employment and unemployment are central to the next development decade. Understanding how youth use mobile phones as a means of communicating and exchanging information about employment and livelihoods is particularly important given the prominence of mobile phone use in young lives. This paper explores and reflects on youth phone usage in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa, drawing on mixed-methods research with young people aged approximately 9-25 years, in 12 (high density) urban and peri-urban sites. Comparative work across these sites offers evidence of both positive and negative impacts. The final section of the paper considers policy implications

Connecting with home, keeping in touch: physical and virtual mobility across stretched families in sub-Saharan Africa

There is a long history of migration among low-income families in sub-SaharanAfrica, in which (usually young, often male) members leave home to seek theirfortune in what are perceived to be more favourable locations. While the physicaland virtual mobility practices of such stretched families are often complex andcontingent, maintaining contact with distantly located close kin is frequently ofcrucial importance for the maintenance of emotional (and possibly material)well-being, both for those who have left home and for those who remain. Thisarticle explores the ways in which these connections are being reshaped by increas-ing access to mobile phones in three sub-Saharan countries–Ghana, Malawi andSouth Africa–drawing on interdisciplinary, mixed-methods research fromtwenty-four sites, ranging from poor urban neighbourhoods to remote ruralhamlets. Stories collected from both ends of stretched families present a worldin which the connectivities now offered by the mobile phone bring a differentkind of closeness and knowing, as instant sociality introduces a potential substi-tute for letters, cassettes and face-to-face visits, while the rapid resource mobiliza-tion opportunities identified by those still at home impose increasing pressures onmigrant ki

"There is no other way out". Educational decision-making in an era of AIDS: How do HIV-positive mothers value education?

This paper examines the logic behind some of the hypotheses found in influential studies and literature on the potential impact of HIV/AIDS on affected people’s values in life, and more specifically, on the value they attach to education. It has been suggested that caregivers or children, faced with illness, death and a decreased life expectancy as a consequence of AIDS, might no longer be interested in investing in education. However, there does not appear to be any detailed empirical research on how AIDS does make an impact on people’s values in life, their views on the future or the value attached to education. This paper begins to investigate how affected caregivers value education for both themselves and their children. The sample comprised ten HIV-positive mothers, nine of whom have at least one child of school-going age. One group discussion and five in-depth interviews were conducted, using semi-structured questionnaires. This research suggests that HIV-positive mothers are, in fact, strongly inclined to invest in their own education and especially their children’s education. As caregivers, they have an increased sense of the importance of independence for both themselves and their children, and they regard education as the means to achieve that independence. Hence, providing schooling for their children is an intrinsic part of their caregiving

Testing the impact of health, subjective life expectancy and interaction with peers and parents on educational expectations, using Cape Area Panel Survey Data

Theories of Human Social Capital Investment typically hypothesise that the AIDS pandemic will have a negative influence on people's real and subjective life expectancy, and that it will consequently also impact negatively on their willingness to invest in, for example, education. If such were the case, we would expect to see an influence of HIV-related factors on young adults' educational expectations. Unlike previous analyses on expectations, this study therefore analyses the significance of orphanhood, health, subjective life expectancy, and perceived risk of HIV infection. Data were collected by the Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS), covering an original sample of about 5000 young adults within the Cape Town Metropolitan Area. Findings illustrate that educational expectations are in fact very high among young adults, especially among those of the most heavily affected African population group. Analyses do show a remaining, significant and positive impact of health on expectations for all population groups. Subjective life expectancy, however, is insignificant in all groups. Perceived HIV risk is significantly negative only in the African sample, which might indicate some validity of the mentioned hypotheses. The study indicates, however, that measures of affectedness, health, perceived life expectancy, and even perceived infection risk are poorly understood. I argue therefore that much more in-depth work is needed to fully understand, for example, young adults' subjective life expectancy and expressions of health before they can be used as building blocks in the development of influential hypotheses

Modeling the impact of AIDS on the perceived value of education using survey data

This paper constructs and applies a simple model of how AIDS-related poor health might affect the perceived value of education, as part of a broader project on the effects of AIDS on educational decision-making in South Africa. The model itself is straightforward, but the application is fraught with problems because of the paucity of good data on key variables.? The application requires using a variety of proxy variables. The perceived value of education is disaggregated into 'instrumental' and 'societal' dimensions. Controlling for demographic variables, a strong belief in future opportunities and traditional gender beliefs have a significant impact on the perceived instrumental value of education. Furthermore, household monthly income, belief in future opportunities and traditional gender beliefs have a significant impact on the perceived societal value of education. People's low life expectancy for children correlates significantly and negatively with this societal value as well, but it is important to keep in mind that South Africans subjective life expectancy for both themselves and their children is, in fact, very high. Contrary to hypotheses, this life expectancy is also not influenced by poor health, especially not in the poorest and most heavily HIV-affected, African section of the population. It is possible that better data would allow the design of better measures of health, life expectancy and values attached to education, so further research is required before the model can be tested conclusively

Profile of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) aged 15-24 years in South Africa: an annual update

This paper presents the latest profile of young people aged 15 to 24 not in education, employment, or training (NEET) in South Africa, utilising data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), Quarter 1, and the General Household Survey (GHS). The findings reveal that South Africa has consistently had a NEET youth rate above 30% for the past decade, with over 3 million young people affected. This signifies a failure to achieve SDG 8, Target 8.6, of substantially reducing the proportion of NEET youth by 2020 and poses a risk to the country's progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Contrary to popular belief, our findings dispel the misconceptions that NEET youth are disinterested or unwilling to work, as more than 2 million of these youth expressed wanting to work. The analysis shows that a significant portion of the unemployed NEETs are new entrants to the labour market who have been searching for employment for extended periods, exceeding one year or even five years. Additional analysis shows that a staggering 2.4 million (68.5%) of young NEETs continue to reside in income-poor households. The analysis further identifies being female, married, residing in urban areas, living in income-poor households and households with children under seven years as key factors associated with being NEET among youths. Being married and living in income-poor households are the most influential factors in the likelihood of being NEET among young people. These findings carry important policy implications for reducing the NEET rate in South Africa and for fostering increased educational and labour market engagement among young people.This paper was supported through the EU-AFD Research Facility on Inequalities