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The study’s design was a cluster-randomized, matched-pairs, parallel trial of a behavior-based sexual assault prevention intervention in the informal settlements. The participants were primary school girls aged 10–16. Classroom-based interventions for girls and boys were delivered by instructors from the same settlements, at the same time, over six 2-h sessions. The girls’ program had components of empowerment, gender relations, and self-defense. The boys’ program promotes healthy gender norms. The control arm of the study received a health and hygiene curriculum. The primary outcome was the rate of sexual assault in the prior 12 months at the cluster level (school level). Secondary outcomes included the generalized self-efficacy scale, the distribution of number of times victims were sexually assaulted in the prior period, skills used, disclosure rates, and distribution of perpetrators. Difference-in-differences estimates are reported with bootstrapped confidence intervals. Fourteen schools with 3147 girls from the intervention group and 14 schools with 2539 girls from the control group were included in the analysis. We estimate a 3.7 % decrease, p = 0.03 and 95 % CI = (0.4, 8.0), in risk of sexual assault in the intervention group due to the intervention (initially 7.3 % at baseline). We estimate an increase in mean generalized self-efficacy score of 0.19 (baseline average 3.1, on a 1–4 scale), p = 0.0004 and 95 % CI = (0.08, 0.39). This innovative intervention that combined parallel training for young adolescent girls and boys in school settings showed significant reduction in the rate of sexual assault among girls in this population.

This study investigated the effects of a gender-based violence (GBV) educational curriculum on improving male attitudes toward women and increasing the likelihood of intervention if witnessing GBV, among adolescent boys in Nairobi, Kenya. In total, 1,543 adolescents participated in this comparison intervention study: 1,250 boys received six 2-hr sessions of the “Your Moment of Truth” (YMOT) intervention, and 293 boys comprised the standard of care (SOC) group. Data on attitudes toward women were collected anonymously at baseline and 9 months after intervention. At follow-up, boys were also asked whether they encountered situations involving GBV and whether they successfully intervened. Compared with baseline, YMOT participants had significantly higher positive attitudes toward women at follow-up, whereas scores for SOC participants declined. At follow-up, the percentage of boys who witnessed GBV was similar for the two groups, except for physical threats, where the intervention group reported witnessing more episodes. The percentage of boys in the intervention group who successfully intervened when witnessing violence was 78% for verbal harassment, 75% for physical threat, and 74% for physical or sexual assault. The percentage of boys in the SOC group who successfully intervened was 38% for verbal harassment, 33% for physical threat, and 26% for physical or sexual assault. Results from the logistic regression demonstrate that more positive attitudes toward women predicted whether boys in the intervention group would intervene successfully when witnessing violence. This standardized 6-week GBV training program is highly effective in improving attitudes toward women and increasing the likelihood of successful intervention when witnessing GBV.

Utilizing a sample of 114 undergraduate students studying at the United States International University-Africa, this study analyzed the factors that impacted on body image dissatisfaction among young adults in Kenya. A quantitative design was utilized for the study. Data were collected through a self-administered structured questionnaire and analyzed utilizing the SPSS software version 24 with beta (β ) coefficients as the main test statistic. The results showed that those studied had low levels of both body image consciousness and dissatisfaction and that, overall, they were free from the negative consequences of body image dissatisfaction. Regression analysis revealed that further showed that only 4 of 8 individual factors, none of the socio-cultural factors and only 1 of 4 control variables evaluated were significant predictors of body image dissatisfaction. The regression model explained 72.1 percent of the variance in body image dissatisfaction. It was concluded that, among others, the factors that have been utilized as predictors of body image dissatisfaction in Western countries also apply to the Kenyan situation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Sexual assault is a major cause of injury, unplanned pregnancy, HIV infection, and mental health problems worldwide. In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, sexual assault has reached epidemic proportions. This study evaluated the efficacy of an empowerment and self-defense intervention for adolescent girls to decrease the incidence of sexual assault and harassment in Nairobi’s large informal settlements. METHODS: A prospective cohort of 1978 adolescents from 4 neighborhoods near Nairobi were taught empowerment, deescalation, and self-defense skills in six 2-hour sessions. The standard-of-care (SOC) group (n = 428) received a life skills class. Self-reported, anonymous survey data were collected at baseline and 10.5 months after intervention. RESULTS: Annual sexual assault rates decreased from 17.9/100 person-years at baseline to 11.1 at follow-up (rate ratio = 1.61; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.26–1.86; P < .001); there was no significant change in the SOC group (14.3 to 14.0, rate ratio = 1.02; 95% CI, 0.67–1.57, P = .92). Sexual assault disclosure in the intervention group increased from 56% to 75% (P = .006), compared with a constant incidence of disclosure (53%) in the SOC group. The majority (52.3%) of adolescents in the intervention group reported using skills learned to stop an assault. CONCLUSIONS: This intervention decreased sexual assault rates among adolescent girls in Kenya. The intervention was also associated with an increase in the disclosure of assaults, thereby enabling survivors to seek care and support and possibly leading to the identification and prosecution of perpetrators. This model should be adaptable to other settings both in Africa and globally.

Utilizing data collected from a randomly selected sample of 360 academic and managerial staff, regression analysis was performed to identify the determinants of acceptance of change among employees at the University of Botswana. The results showed moderate levels of employee acceptance of innovations and revealed that, of the four categories of substantive factors analyzed, managerial features were the most important determinants of acceptance of organizational change. It was concluded that management action is needed to boost the levels of acceptance of change and that a more participative approach to the management of the change process is necessary to guarantee the involvement of all stakeholders from the decision-making to the implementation and administration stages of the process.

Objective: The aim of this article is to identify and profile some often overlooked socioeconomic and political factors that render the protection of the rights of the child, as guaranteed through the 1989 United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, a distant dream in most African countries. It is argued that, in most African countries, there are other major impediments to the protection of the child’s rights in addition to the frequently cited lack of adequate legislation and of political will. Method: The paper is a review essay and utilizes existing literature from varied sources to advance its main arguments. It draws from such documents to profile the socioeconomic and political barriers to the protection of children’s rights in Africa both at the family and at the national levels. Core argument: The ratification of the United Nation’s 1989 Convention and the passing of supportive legislation by most state governments, has not resulted in major improvements in the well-being of children. This is as a result of prevailing socioeconomic and political conditions such as social transformations within the family unit, poverty, and rampant corruption. The emergence of HIV/AIDS, civil wars and armed conflicts is a major impediment to the protection of children’s rights across most of Africa. Conclusion: The effective implementation of the 1989 United Nations’ Convention by African governments requires more than the ratification of the Convention. Governments require the political will to implement its prescriptions by passing supportive legislation. To create the necessary enabling environments, equal emphasis should be placed on the eradication of poverty, corruption and disease; and to ending armed conflicts where they exist.

Data from Kenya are utilized to revisit the Lincoln-Kalleberg corporatist control argument with a view to extending it to incorporate a fourth category - stress-reducing structures - of structural determinants of satisfaction and attachment. The results show strong support for the extended model and are consistent with Mueller et al. (1994) and Wallace's (I1995) position that the Lincoln-Kalleberg model is a general one that explains satisfaction and attachment even in non-corporatist work settings. It is concluded that the importance of work structures as determinants of satisfaction and attachment may differ across work settings but they are the basis of any initial model for explaining the same.

Although developing countries that rely on agriculture continue to invest considerable amounts of resources toward the training of qualified agricultural manpower, the intensification of agricultural research, and the development of favourable agricultural policies, little attention is given to the organizational and social structure of the workplaces of the technical workers in agriculture. We argue that an understanding of what produces satisfied agricultural technicians is important in its own right, but is also important for indirectly increasing agricultural production in these developing countries. Following a social exchange theoretical argument, and using a national sample of technically trained agricultural personnel in Kenya, we identify the factors in the workplace that affect job satisfaction. Implications for management are drawn from these findings.

To determine the effect of a standardized 6-week self-defense program on the incidence of sexual assault in adolescent high school girls in an urban slum in Nairobi, Kenya.Population-based survey of 522 high school girls in the Korogocho-Kariobangi locations in Nairobi, Kenya, at baseline and 10 months later. Subjects were assigned by school attended to either a "No Means No Worldwide" self-defense course (eight schools; N = 402) or to a life-skills class (two schools; N = 120). Both the intervention and the life-skills classes were taught in the schools by trained instructors. Participants were administered the same survey at baseline and follow-up.A total of 522 girls (mean age, 16.7 ± 1.5 years; range, 14-21 years) completed surveys at baseline, and 489 at 10-month follow-up. At baseline, 24.5% reported sexual assault in the prior year, with the majority (90%) reporting assault by someone known to them (boyfriend, 52%; relative, 17%; neighbor, 15%; teacher or pastor, 6%). In the self-defense intervention group, the incidence of sexual assault decreased from 24.6% at baseline to 9.2% at follow-up (p.001), in contrast to the control group, in which the incidence remained unchanged (24.2% at baseline and 23.1% at follow-up; p = .10). Over half the girls in the intervention group reported having used the self-defense skills to avert sexual assault in the year after the training. Rates of disclosure increased in the intervention group, but not in controls.A standardized 6-week self-defense program is effective in reducing the incidence of sexual assault in slum-dwelling high school girls in Nairobi, Kenya.

WOS: 000235484300004, PubMed ID: 20976033, This article reports two worldwide studies of stereotypes about liars. These studies are carried out in 75 different countries and 43 different languages. In Study 1, participants respond to the open-ended question "How can you tell when people are lying?" In Study 2, participants complete a questionnaire about lying. These two studies reveal a dominant pan-cultural stereotype: that liars avert gaze. The authors identify other common beliefs and offer a social control interpretation., NICHD NIH HHSUnited States Department of Health & Human ServicesNational Institutes of Health (NIH) - USANIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) [R01 HD048962-05, R01 HD048962]

The current study examines whether the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia) can be assessed reliably and validly by means of a self-report instrument in different countries of the world. All items of the GELOPH (Ruch and Titze, GELOPH〈46〉, University of Düsseldorf, 1998; Ruch and Proyer, Swiss Journal of Psychology 67:19–27, 2008b) were translated to the local language of the collaborator (42 languages in total). In total, 22,610 participants in 93 samples from 73 countries completed the GELOPH. Across all samples the reliability of the 15-item questionnaire was high (mean alpha of .85) and in all samples the scales appeared to be unidimensional. The endorsement rates for the items ranged from 1.31% through 80.00% to a single item. Variations in the mean scores of the items were more strongly related to the culture in a country and not to the language in which the data were collected. This was also supported by a multidimensional scaling analysis with standardized mean scores of the items from the GELOPH〈15〉. This analysis identified two dimensions that further helped explaining the data (i.e., insecure vs. intense avoidant-restrictive and low vs. high suspicious tendencies towards the laughter of others). Furthermore, multiple samples derived from one country tended to be (with a few exceptions) highly similar. The study shows that gelotophobia can be assessed reliably by means of a self-report instrument in cross-cultural research. This study enables further studies of the fear of being laughed at with regard to differences in the prevalence and putative causes of gelotophobia in comparisons to different cultures.

The Big Five Inventory (BFI) is a self-report measure designed to assess the high-order personality traits of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness. As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, the BFI was translated from English into 28 languages and administered to 17,837 individuals from 56 nations. The resulting cross-cultural data set was used to address three main questions: Does the factor structure of the English BFI fully replicate across cultures? How valid are the BFI trait profiles of individual nations? And how are personality traits distributed throughout the world? The five-dimensional structure was robust across major regions of the world. Trait levels were related in predictable ways to self-esteem, sociosexuality, and national personality profiles. And people from the geographic regions of South America and East Asia were significantly different in openness from those inhabiting other world regions. The discussion focuses on limitations of the current data set and important directions for future research., peer-reviewed

We present a descriptive analysis of indigenous discourses on the subject of HIV/AIDS in Serowe, an urban village in Botswana. The results show that people tend to view disease from the perspective of their culture. This is evident from the way AIDS in particular is understood, explained, prevented and treated among the residents of Serowe. Those studied considered AIDS to be a ‘Tswana disease', which was curable provided that it was attended to early by a real (traditional) doctor. The results suggest that the major cause of AIDS is believed to be breaches of sex taboos, especially those prohibiting sexual intercourse during menstruation, just after childbirth, immediately after a miscarriage and after the loss of a spouse. It is concluded that the persistent indigenous conceptions of AIDS observed in the study have important consequences for the prevention of the spread of AIDS that should be used in the campaign against HIV/AIDS, rather than dismissed by the government and other institutions involved.

As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, a total of 17,804 participants from 62 cultural regions completed the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ), a self-report measure of adult romantic attachment. Correlational analyses within each culture suggested that the Model of Self and the Model of Other scales of the RQ were psychometrically valid within most cultures. Contrary to expectations, the Model of Self and Model of Other dimensions of the RQ did not underlie the four-category model of attachment in the same way across all cultures. Analyses of specific attachment styles revealed that secure romantic attachment was normative in 79% of cultures and that preoccupied romantic attachment was particularly prevalent in East Asian cultures. Finally, the romantic attachment profiles of individual nations were correlated with sociocultural indicators in ways that supported evolutionary theories of romantic attachment and basic human mating strategies., peer-reviewed

The authors thank Susan Sprecher (USA), Del Paulhus (Canada), Glenn D. Wilson (England), Qazi Rahman (England), Alois Angleitner (Germany), Angelika Hofhansl (Austria), Tamio Imagawa (Japan), Minoru Wada (Japan), Junichi Taniguchi (Japan), and Yuji Kanemasa (Japan) for helping with data collection and contributing significantly to the samples used in this study., Gender differences in the dismissing form of adult romantic attachment were investigated as part of the International Sexuality Description Project—a survey study of 17,804 people from 62 cultural regions. Contrary to research findings previously reported in Western cultures, we found that men were not significantly more dismissing than women across all cultural regions. Gender differences in dismissing romantic attachment were evident in most cultures, but were typically only small to moderate in magnitude. Looking across cultures, the degree of gender differentiation in dismissing romantic attachment was predictably associated with sociocultural indicators. Generally, these associations supported evolutionary theories of romantic attachment, with smaller gender differences evident in cultures with high–stress and high–fertility reproductive environments. Social role theories of human sexuality received less support in that more progressive sex–role ideologies and national gender equity indexes were not cross–culturally linked as expected to smaller gender differences in dismissing romantic attachment., peer-reviewed

Evolutionary psychologists have hypothesized that men and women possess both long-term and short-term mating strategies, with men's short-term strategy differentially rooted in the desire for sexual variety. In this article, findings from a cross-cultural survey of 16,288 people across 10 major world regions (including North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Oceania, South/Southeast Asia, and East Asia) demonstrate that sex differences in the desire for sexual variety are culturally universal throughout these world regions. Sex differences were evident regardless of whether mean, median, distributional, or categorical indexes of sexual differentiation were evaluated. Sex differences were evident regardless of the measures used to evaluate them. Among contemporary theories of human mating, pluralistic approaches that hypothesize sex differences in the evolved design of short-term mating provide the most compelling account of these robust empirical findings., peer-reviewed

The essay attempts to discuss the genesis and entrenchment of corruption in sub-Saharan Africa taking a holistic approach. By integrating the historical and international contexts of the problem, it links the origins and spread of corruption to the colonization of Africa, the lasting legacy of that colonization, and the actions and practices of international actors. A holistic approach, it is argued, is necessary if the vice is to be understood in its historical totality. This will not only offer a more encompassing explanation of corruption but also allow for the development of well rounded strategies for the alleviation of the problem. The paper concludes that corruption is a multifaceted, complex problem that requires a comprehensive approach that cuts across disciplines. Through such an approach the economic, social, legal, administrative and moral aspects of the problem can be targeted. The approach should also recognize the close linkages among these aspects of the problem and draw in the international dimension of the causes of the problem. While acknowledging that efforts have been expended at the national and international levels to combat corruption, the paper argues that there is still a lot of room for improvement. Much more can be, and needs to be, done. Of particular importance is the need for political goodwill and commitment from governments, bureaucracies and international agencies. This is a necessary condition if the fight against corruption is to be both effective and sustainable.

A Journal article by Dr. Oscar Githua and Prof. Munyae Mulinge, Lecturers at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in USIU- Africa

Gender inequality is a global concern (Bradshaw and Wallace 1996) and as indicated by the United Nations Decade (1975-1985) and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing gender inequality in developing nations is receiving much of the attention. At the heart of the gender equality issue is the concern with justice. The argument is that on average women and men have similar abilities and talents and therefore should be treated and rewarded equally. When they are not injustice exists. This battle has not yet been won in modernized societies but there do exist policies and laws in most of these societies that support in varying degrees the equal treatment of women and men. Developing nations like Kenya are just as enmeshed in this struggle over gender equality but in most instances the degree of inequality is greater and there are fewer legal structures that support equality. Another major difference between developed and developing nations is the availability of data on gender inequality. Developed nations have the capacity (via government and scientific institutions) to collect analyze and disseminate huge amounts of data that can be used to document gender inequalities. Developing countries lack these capabilities (and data) and as a consequence we hear pleas for ...valid reliable timely culturally relevant and internationally comparable data on gender inequalities. (excerpt)

Workplace conditions for male and female agricultural technicians in public and parastatal sector work settings in Kenya are analyzed to test the hypothesis that, relative to the public sector, the potential for differential treatment based on gender is likely to be higher in the parastatal sector. Compared to those in the public sector, female technicians in the parastatal sector perceived greater workplace disadvantages relative to their male counterparts. These can be explained in terms of fewer formal rules and regulations in the sector to check differential treatment of employees. The results demonstrate the importance of the social organization of the workplace in understanding gender inequalities in employment settings. Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review (EASSRR) Vol. XVII No. 1 January 2001, pp. 53-78

An abstract of a Journal article by Prof. Munyae Mulinge, a Lecturer at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in USIU- Africa

A Journal article by Prof. Munyae Mulinge, a Lecturer at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in USIU- Africa.

Ridgeway argues that we can increase our understanding of the creation and perpetuation of gender inequality in the workplace by applying micro-level theories of social psychological processes that operate in such settings. We go beyond her arguments to propose that the degree of mixed-sex interaction in the workplace be viewed as a factor that produces differences in gender workplace inequalities. Specifically, we hypothesize that when the collective task-directed behavior in a work group involves face-to-face mixed-sex interaction, gender workplace inequalities will be greater than in settings where such behavior involves women and men working largely independently of each other. This hypothesis is supported strongly by natural-setting data that compare gender workplace inequalities in agricultural research teams, where face-to-face interaction is present, with the same inequalities in agricultural extension settings, where there is little face-to-face interaction.

As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, 16,954 participants from 53 nations were administered an anonymous survey about experiences with romantic attraction. Mate poaching--romantically attracting someone who is already in a relationship--was most common in Southern Europe, South America, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe and was relatively infrequent in Africa, South/Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Evolutionary and social-role hypotheses received empirical support. Men were more likely than women to report having made and succumbed to short-term poaching across all regions, but differences between men and women were often smaller in more gender-egalitarian regions. People who try to steal another's mate possess similar personality traits across all regions, as do those who frequently receive and succumb to the poaching attempts by others. The authors conclude that human mate-poaching experiences are universally linked to sex, culture, and the robust influence of personal dispositions., peer-reviewed