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This paper presents empirical and methodological findings from an art-based, participatory process with a group (n  = 16) of adolescent and young advisors in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. In a weekend workshop, participants reflected on their participation in 12 years of health and development-related research through theatre, song, visual methodologies and semi-structured interviews. Empirical findings suggest that participants interpreted the group research encounter as a site of empowerment, social support and as a socio-political endeavour. Through song, theatre and a mural illustration, they demonstrated that they value 'unity' in research, with the aim of ameliorating the conditions of adolescents and young people in other parts of South Africa and the continent. Methodological findings document how participants deployed art-based approaches from South Africa's powerful history of activism, including the struggle against apartheid, the fight for anti-retroviral therapy and more recent social movements towards decolonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child protection social workers (CPSWs) perform statutory duties and often work in hostile work contexts. Nevertheless, some CPSWs are reportedly resilient, thus adjusting well despite exposure to occupational adversities. We followed a qualitative descriptive design in which twenty CPSWs from the Western Cape and the Free State provinces described their sources of occupational resilience during semi-structured interviews. Their self-reported sources of resilience were informed by (1) a high degree of personal agency; (2) navigating a responsive and supportive ecology; (3) commitment to a meaningful purpose; (4) prioritising self-care and (5) religious practices. These sources of resilience confirm what we already know, but our findings go beyond earlier reports and contribute towards a more nuanced understanding of how hardiness and grit fundamentally drive the occupational resilience of CPSWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: 1. Assess validity of the Oxford Cognitive Screen (OCS-Plus), a domain-specific cognitive assessment designed for low-literacy settings, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC); 2. Advance theoretical contributions in cognitive neuroscience in domain-specific cognitive function and cognitive reserve, especially related to dementia. Method: In a cross-sectional study of a sample of 1,402 men and women aged 40-79 in the Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI), we administered OCS-Plus along with health and sociodemographic assessments. HAALSI is a representative sample of older adults in Agincourt, South Africa contributing to normative understanding of cognition in LMIC. We report measure distributions, construct and external validity of the OCS-Plus. Results: OCS-Plus has excellent construct and external validity. Intra-class correlations between similar basic measures of orientation in OCS-Plus and in HAALSI assessments was 0.79, and groups of people performing well on the OCS-Plus verbal memory also showed superior performance on HAALSI verbal memory. The OCS-Plus scores showed consistent associations with age and education and domain-specific associations with alcohol and depression. Younger respondents and the more educated did better on all assessments. Discussion: The OCS-Plus represents a major methodological advance in dementia studies in LMICs, and enhances understanding of cognitive aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]