Teenage pregnancy in South African communities is on the increase and poses serious socio-economic and health problems. Several factors contribute to teenagers engaging in sexual activities at school. Thus, the aim of the study was to explore the psychosocial effects of teenage pregnancy on high school learners in the Vryheid District, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province. To achieve this, a qualitative, exploratory and descriptive study was used to conduct the study. Naturalist paradigm that was adopted by the researcher is naturalist as participants were sharing their experiences and their realities were interpreted to find the underlying meaning of the events and activities. The study was conducted at two high schools at eMondlo township in Vryheid District. The selected population of this was grade 12, female high school learners. The study employed both purposive and snowballing sampling techniques. Semi - structured interviews were used to collect data from learners who are currently pregnant and those that were pregnant previously. The sample consisted of 18 learners who were interviewed for the study and data was analysed by using thematic analysis. Themes that emerged from the study are lack of support and stigma, self-judgement, mental health well-being, physical health, interruption of education, resilience and training, skills, and support. Teenage pregnancy is one of the psychosocial problems that teenagers experience and poses many challenges in their well-being. Furthermore, these challenges contributed to drop-out and poor performance at school. Physical health is a threatening concern amongst pregnant learners as well as access to health care services. Thus, schools, the Department of Education, parents, and communities must play a critical role in ensuring that interventions and prevention strategies are put in place to address teenage pregnancy in schools.

In this paper, we use data generated through one-on-one interviews with 12 purposively sampled Child and Youth Care Workers to examine their narratives of work and life-related vulnerabilities and agency during the peak of the COVID-19 global pandemic in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Our findings show that Child and Youth Care Workers were vulnerable to poor mental health. Indeed, working and socialising during the height of COVID-19 posed a mental toll on the Child and Youth Care Workers in this study, who experienced fear, uncertainty, anxiety and stress. Moreover, these workers faced challenges with working under the so-called new normal, which was instituted as part of a non-pharmaceutical response to slow and curb the spread of COVID-19. Finally, our findings show that Child and Youth Care Workers actively identified and applied specific emotionally-focused and physically-focused coping mechanisms to deal with the burden brought on by the pandemic. The study has implications for CYCWs working during crisis periods.

Society’s inadequate response to disability impacts people’s physical health, social relationships and lives in general which can be perceived in the realms of family, friends, neighbours, psychological state and level of independence. The consequences of a disability can have an impact on multiple levels, the personal, interpersonal, family and social (Catherin & Shanbhang, 2015). These impacts are mirrored – and in some ways exaggerated – in the lives of students living with disabilities. Students living with physical disabilities at universities of technology may experience challenges that negatively affect their studies. The purpose of the study reported in this article was to explore the experiences of students who are living with physical disabilities at a selected university of technology in KwaZulu-Natal. The study adopted a qualitative design. Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions were employed to collect data from the 10 participants. And participation of students living with physical disabilities was secured through the snowball sampling technique. The findings of the research revealed a variety of challenges that students with physical disabilities encounter at the selected university of technology.

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