Meaning making amongst South African survivors of violent crime

The aim of this study was to explore the meaning attributions, in terms of comprehensibility and significance, held by South African crime survivors in relation to the traumatic event, and to see if existing international research on meaning making and posttraumatic growth (PTG) was relevant in the South African context. A qualitative multiple case study approach was employed. Semi structured interviews were conducted with ten violent crime survivors in Cape Town. The interviews were recorded and transcripts analyzed using strategies from grounded theory. Five broad thematic areas were identified: (1) disrupted schema (2) precursors to meaning making (3) meaning making strategies (4) grappling with meaning and (5) areas of significance/benefit or posttraumatic growth. While some themes reflected previous findings in the international trauma literature, others appeared to be context-specific. The results imply several recommendations for future research and clinical practice with survivors of violent crime in South Africa

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Psychology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Thacker, Mandy

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kaminer, Debbie

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8179

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8179