Community perspectives on the quality of life of children in a challenged rural context

Abstract

Knowledge from Africa to conceptualise a good life for children in challenged rural contexts is scarce. This descriptive, instrumental case study investigated how community members, living in a rural, South African context, conceptualise the quality of life of children in a challenged rural space, and is framed by interpretivism and informed by Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach. Photovoice data were generated with purposively selected community members (n = 39: 11 males and 28 females) living in Mahikeng. A subset of this photovoice dataset was purposively selected and included textual (verbatim transcriptions of audio-recorded photovoice focus group interviews), as well as visual data (individual and group consensus photovoice posters). Following deductive thematic analysis, contextually relevant multi-dimensional resources were evident which, from an emic perspective, are significant to enable opportunities for a good quality of life for children in a challenged rural space in a South African province. While community-level insights foregrounded especially cognitive resources to enable a good life for children given the challenged context, pertinent Afrocentric cultural and social, as well as psychological resources were also common, with physical and environmental resources germane to the topic being less recurrent. Silences in the data (economic resources, childhood friendships, violence in schools, HIV and AIDS, and tuberculosis) require further study. An evidence-based conceptual framework on community perspectives on the quality of life of children in a challenged rural context is proposed – with salient extrinsic and intrinsic conversion factors indicated for collective agency to utilise capabilities as functionings.