Magen luce Mutepfa

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at The University of Sydney

This paper explored the determinants of well-being, quality of relationships (QOR), and loneliness among people of Botswana before and during the novel COVID-19 pandemic. It also examined whether there were significant differences between participants’ well-being, loneliness, and QOR before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Factors associated with...

COVID-19 and the actions to curtail its spread have elevated the value of mental health as well as public health crises and pandemics. This calls for increased research in this area and the use of consistent and valid instruments to measure diverse aspects of mental health in different populations. This study presents preliminary psychometric prope...

Research on Aging

Background: Survival into older age is a reality for more people in developing countries than in the past. Universally, the population is aging thus, governments are facing major challenges in safeguarding older people’s mental health and health care systems to deal with this demographic shift. Older people’s mental health is an important indicator...

Background: According to Botswana's Current statistics for 2021, people aged 60 and above will make up 8.9% of the population. As people age, they face a plethora of challenges; mental, legal, social, health, economic, environmental, and political, in addition to ageism and marginalization. Therefore, they need resilience to deal with these challen...

This study aims to determine key factors that predict resilience in older people. A cross-sectional design and quantitative methods were used for this study. Four districts were selected in Botswana using cluster random sampling. Data on resilience from 378 older adults aged 60 years+ [Mean Age ( SD) = 71.1(9.0)] was collected using snowballing tec...

The precarious rights of senior citizens, especially those who are highly educated and who are expected to counsel and guide the younger generations, has stimulated the creation internationally of advocacy associations and opinion leader groups. The strength of these groups, however, varies from country to country. In some countries, they are suppo...

Correlates of depression in older people were explored in this study. The prevalence of depression was also calculated. Data were collected using a cross-sectional study stratified by district in urban and rural Botswana using the Patient Health Questionnaire. A snowballing technique was utilized to recruit older participants ( N = 378; age = 71.8;...

This article discusses social determinants of health that influence quality of life (QOL) of older people in Botswana and suggests appropriate interventions. A cross-sectional study stratified by district was used to collect information on the elderly (N = 378). Data were collected from: demographics, individual factors (e.g., self-esteem), health-...

Autoethnography has been used to examine employees’ physical and emotional experiences of workplace bullying and mobbing. In this approach of inquiry, data were extracted through; personal narratives, lived experiences, and opinions through meaning-making. Power structures in academia were found to play a significant role in academic bullying becau...

Substance use disorders contribute immensely to the global burden of disease. In this final chapter, overviews of the book chapters are summarized and the key points have been highlighted. In the first section of the book, major factors that contribute to the causation, risks, signs, and symptoms of substance use/misuse as well as mental and behavi...

The rate of alcohol consumption and its health and socio-economic effects have been discussed in Chap. 3. This chapter presents a summary of the policies (guidelines and laws) that control and mitigate the use of alcohol, using examples from different countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The intensified marketing and policy interference activities by t...

Despite the four categorized key groups of substances namely, stimulants (e.g., cocaine), depressants (e.g., alcohol), opium-related painkillers (e.g., heroin), and hallucinogens (e.g., LSD), there are a few other substances that do not fit into any particular category (e.g., caffeinated energy drink). While tobacco and alcohol are the most common...

Substance use and misuse present a major public health risk and continues to affect younger populations in previously low use areas such as sub-Saharan Africa. With increased globalization, there has been an unprecedented increase in drug trafficking and acceptance of substance use/misuse, resulting in adverse consequences at the individual, family...

This book brings together scholars from across the behavioural sciences and public health to examine substance use in Sub-Saharan Africa. Divided into two parts, the first chapters examine aetiology, signs and symptoms, risk factors, impact, and psychosocial challenges relating to use of conventional drugs, among others. The second section focuses...

Objective: This study explored key factors that influence mental health in older people in Botswana. The prevalence of anxiety and somatization in the elderly population was also calculated. Methods: A cross-sectional study stratified by district was done to collect information on the elderly (N = 378; age: M = 71.8, SD = 9.1). The Patient Healt...

Background Behavioral intentions (motivational factors), attitudes, subjective norm (social pressures), and perceived behavioral control promote or discourage smoking behavior among adolescents. Objective To assess students’ behavioral intentions, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on smoking using the Theory of Planned B...

Background: Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) remain a major public health problem in subsaharan African countries, particularly Botswana. In Gaborone, STIs increased from 24 272 in 2015 to 28 106 in 2016 (16%), despite intense advocacy for behavior change by stakeholders to reduce HIV and AIDS prevalence. This study aimed to establish therisk...

Background: Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) remain a major public health problem in subsaharan African countries, particularly Botswana. In Gaborone, STIs increased from 24 272 in 2015 to 28 106 in 2016 (16%), despite intense advocacy for behavior change by stakeholders to reduce HIV and AIDS prevalence. This study aimed to establish therisk...

Children living in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries face a plethora of challenges that require adaptation and resilience for them to develop typically. The experiences of epidemics, armed conflicts, and many other man-made and natural disasters create abject poverty and psychological issues: the vulnerable children become orphans and/or refugees...

Breast cancer is the most common malignant condition afflicting females globally although there is limited information regarding the determinants that prompt females to participate in breast cancer screening in Botswana. The study explored the Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs in explaining factors associated with breast cancer screening amongst...

Very few studies have examined quality of life (QOL) in elderly carers of orphaned children in African settings. This study explored sociodemographic factors and health-related characteristics that influence QOL of grandparent carers in Zimbabwe. A cross-sectional study stratified by district was done to collect information on socioeconomic factors...

Platforms for administering surveys have evolved in the past 20 years, and increasingly electronic platforms are utilized by many research programs. Historically, paper-and-pencil interviewing was the norm, and in recent years computer-assisted interviewing has been adopted by many. This chapter considers the questionnaire as a mode of data collect...

This chapter considers counseling in Zimbabwe, which is a developing country with a recent history of major sociopolitical transition. It begins with a discussion of school and other types of counseling. Next, the chapter presents counseling approaches and techniques, highlighting the importance of livelihoods counseling. It then talks about counse...

This study examined the patterns of variables that predict interpersonal trust in three distinct countries. Findings indicated that interpersonal trust is highest in the United States, followed by Ecuador and Zimbabwe. A similar ordering occurred with perceptions of social cohesion, whereas the reverse order occurred for perceptions of competition...

Objective: This study sought to explore the impact of protective factors, health, and well-being on resilience of grandparents fostering orphans. Method: Data were collected from grandparents (N = 327; M age = 62.4; SD = 11.2) in Zimbabwe using a survey instrument comprising the Resilience Scale and World Health Organization Quality of Life Questio...

This study examined the messages perceived by adolescent girls with orphanhood to influence their sexual decision making. Participants were 125 students (mean age = 14.7 years), 54% of whom attended church schools in a rural district of eastern Zimbabwe. We collected and analyzed data using concept mapping, a mixed method approach that enabled the...

This article reports on an attempt to demonstrate the importance of putting theory into practice in a way that will impact on the lives of children who are currently being denied their basic rights. Purposive sampling of schools in urban areas in Harare Province, Zimbabwe, was used with data collected from 147 participants (M age = 16.9, SD = 1.38)...

In this study the authors seek to explore the impact of protective factors on health and wellbeing of grandmothers who are primary caregivers. Although researchers in Africa have studied grandparents who assume primary caregiving responsibility, it is rare that they do so from a strength perspective, hence the need to examine the utility of persona...

The authors used state-of-the-art concept mapping approaches to examine structural institutional effects of church and secular high schools on the types of sexual and HIV-prevention education messages transmitted to learners in Zimbabwe. Participants were school teachers (n = 26), school counselors (n = 28), and pastors involved in student pastoral...

The study explored contexts for health and wellbeing for women and children influenced by the structural behavior of an Apostolic faith church organization in Zimbabwe. Twenty-three purposively selected members of an African indigenous Apostolic church (males = 12; females = 11; age range 22-95 years) were informants to a focus group discussion ses...

Africa has the greatest proportion of orphans globally, with the HIV and AIDS pandemic one of the foremost reasons for this situation (UNAIDS/UNICEF/USAID, 2004). Despite the high numbers of orphans and other vulnerable children on the continent, state and federal governments repeatedly consider these children a last priority in social service prov...

This study aimed to explore types of support children infected and affected by HIV and AIDS receive from public and civic organizations. The extent to which the types of support (that is, emotional, mental, spiritual, social welfare and educational support) were received was studied. Purposive sampling was used to select 105 students (mean age = 13...

This study investigated the nature and extent of spousal abuse among the different sexes, social classes, religious and non-religious families in Zimbabwe. Five types of spousal abuse were considered: physical, emotional, economical, sexual and psychological. The relationships between these types of spousal abuse by gender, social class and religio...

This article has no abstract.

This study explored the state of Positive Psychology in six African countries. Thirty-seven participants from the six African countries responded to a survey on the status and prospects for positive psychology in the respective countries. Data was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The quantitative data was analyzed by utilizing simple coun...