Access to Opportunities and the Lovelife Programme Among Youth in South Africa

Abstract

We evaluated the efficacy of a motivational and opportunity multimedia health promotion programme for young people: loveLife. Participants were 3123 youth from four of nine provinces of South Africa (mean age=20.5 years, SD=2.0, females=45.4%, the majority population group=91.5% Black African). They completed a number of measures on opportunities, value-add and motivation, individual factors, socioeconomic factors, health risk and exposure to loveLife programmes. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. About 60% indicated that loveLife had opened various avenues of opportunities to them such as continuing with education, improving school results and finding a job. In multivariate analyses it was found that high self-esteem, having a sense of the future, not marginalized, and participating in 5 or more loveLife face-face programmes were associated with positive outcomes for the youth.

Keywords:

• opportunities
• motivation
• value-add
• youth intervention programmes
• loveLife
• South Africa