Personal power, coping and participation in civil protest among black South Africian students

Since the mid 1980's, South Africa has been engulfed in violence. At the centre of the conflicts have been the black youths of the townships and homelands. The present study both describes the relations among several psychological variables and identifies variables that influenced participation in civil protests among black South African students. In addition the effects of such participation on subjects' perceptions of personal power were also explored. A related purpose of the study was to identify factors related to coping in this civil conflict situation. Students responded to a set of nine questionnaires: the Personal Power, Perceived Social Support from friends and Family, Fear survey, Cognitive survey, two Impact of Events scales, and a Biographical Questionnaire. There were significant differences between participants and non-participants on Personal Power, Friend Support, Gender, and whether they lived in the Townships or Homelands. On the other hand, no single variable significantly predicted coping. The implications of these findings are discussed.