In their own words: linguistic analysis of interviews with Sesotho mothers on their child’s first thousand days

ABSTRACT

Sensitive and responsive caregiving is a critical protective factor for children in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) during their first 1000 days of life. Health initiatives may benefit from evaluating the experience of caregivers in SSA to understand their parenting experiences. This study utilized linguistic analysis to gain insight into the lived experience of 19 Sesotho-speaking mothers of infants aged 18–30 months in low-income areas of Mangaung, Free State, South Africa. Women were asked the same set of questions about their child’s first 1000 days of life, and we used LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) LIWC to evaluate the perspectives of mothers in SA compared to published LIWC norms. Analyses revealed word use patterns associated with psychological processes such as negative affect, social processes, anger and anxiety. Findings are discussed within the context of Sesotho culture to aid in the future intervention development for this vulnerable population. This study is important because it yields important information about the subjective experience of an understudied critical population of mothers in SSA. Further, this study points to future directions for the field of understanding the impact of motherhood on women in low resource settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Caregiving
• linguistic analysis
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• First 1000 days

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study did not utilize any grant funding.

Notes on contributors

Madeleine Allman

Madeleine Allman, MPH, MA, is a doctoral student at the University of Houston Clinical Psychology Program in the Child track. She is interested in the translation and implementation of interventions for children and families who have suffered attachment trauma, as well as the development of social cognition.

Hui Song

Hui Song, BA, is a post-baccalaureate student and research assistant at the University of Houston. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Houston and is currently pursuing a Masters in Statistics and Data Science. His research interests include the effects of media use and linguistics on emotional outcomes such as aggression.

Amanda Venta

Amanda Venta Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Psychology, a licensed clinical psychologist, and Director of the Youth and Family Studies Lab at the University of Houston. She earned a BA at Rice University and an MA and Ph.D. at UH. Her clinical experiences include several Houston-area schools, Texas Children’s Hospital, DePelchin Children’s Center, Baylor’s Menninger Department of Psychiatry, and contract work with the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Dr Venta’s research is grounded in attachment theory and examines how family connections and, conversely, family separations due to migration and trauma relate to mental health among Latino immigrants and other vulnerable groups. She has received research funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health, the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities, and the American Psychological Association, among others. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, Attachment and Human Development, and Child Psychiatry and Human Development, and has published more than 130 scientific papers, chapters, and books.

Motsaathebe Serekoane

Motsaathebe Serekoane is a medical anthropologist, employed by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Free State. As a social scientist, I am naturally troubled by social suffering. My academic interests are focused on issues pertaining to scholarship that inform sustainable development, transformative education, and heritage, particularly issues of preservation and conservation in a post-conflict society, including community engagement, culture, and health.

Michael Pienaar

Michael Pienaar is a paediatrician and intensivist at the University of the Free State. He focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration around child health.

Molefi Lenka

Molefi Lenka holds an honours degree in Geography from the UFS and is the Centre for Development Support fieldwork manager. He has managed the fieldwork for projects well over R30m over the last 10 years and has co-published more than 30 papers.

Kobus Marais

Kobus Marais is Professor of Translation Studies at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein. He has published three monographs, namely Translation Theory and Development Studies: A Complexity Theory Approach (2014), A (Bio)Semiotic Theory of Translation: The Emergence of Social-Cultural Reality (2018) and Trajectories of Translation: The Thermodynamics of Semiosis (June 2023) and an edited volume Translation Beyond Translation Studies (2022). He has also published edited volumes with Ilse Feinauer, Translation Studies Beyond the Postcolony (2017), and Reine Meylaerts, namely Complexity Thinking in Translation Studies: Methodological Considerations (2018), Exploring the Implications of Complexity Thinking for Translation Studies (2021) and The Routledge Handbook of Translation Theory and Concepts (2023). His research interests include translation studies, semiotics, biosemiotics, complexity theory and development studies.

Jan Cloete

Jan Cloete is a researcher at the Centre for Development Support at the University of the Free State, South Africa. He has been the data manager for large-scale projects at the centre for over 10 years. He holds a master’s degree in Sociology. His research interests include housing provision, the development of mining towns, and community-based poverty alleviation.

Lochner Marais

Lochner Marais is a Professor of Development Studies at the Centre for Development Support at the University of the Free State (UFS). His research interests include housing policy, small cities and towns (mining and renewable towns and cities) and public health focusing on children. In addition to concentrating on these themes separately, he focuses on integrating them. Marais has authored, co-authored, and compiled over 250 research reports, including 180 refereed articles in peer-reviewed journals or books. He has also co-edited nine books and is the author of one scholarly book. Over the past 10 years, he has been a collaborator, principal investigator or co-principal investigator for international research grants of approximately R40 million. He is passionate about creating and managing interdisciplinary projects and prefers research focusing on real-world problems in housing policy, mine–community relations, mine closure and urban health.

Carla Sharp

Carla Sharp Ph.D. is a John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean for Faculty and Research at the University of Houston. She studies mental health outcomes in children and adolescents, their causes and correlates as well as the interventions to address them. She has published over 330 publications and 8 books and her research has been federally funded for over 10 years.