Professor Maretha Visser completed her undergraduate studies, honours and master’s degree in Counselling Psychology at Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit (now the University of Johannesburg). She received the faculty prize for being the best student in the faculty in her final undergraduate year.

Prof Visser joined the University of Pretoria (UP) in 1993, where she has been doing research for almost 30 years. Her research involves studying human behaviour and developing individual and structural interventions to promote better mental health.

She was part of a team of researchers that developed a family-centred intervention to promote communication between caregivers and adolescents in order to contribute to HIV prevention among adolescents.

“The Let’s Talk programme was a highlight for me, as it made a difference in family relationships,” Prof Vissser says. “The programme is funded by PEPFAR and is being implemented as part of the DREAMS initiative (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe) among large numbers of families in South Africa to prevent HIV/AIDS among adolescent girls and young women and their male sex partners.

“However, I would still like to know what would make a difference in people’s behaviour so that HIV does not spread any longer,” she adds.

Prof Visser is studying the psychological implications of children being exposed to violence and how to help them cope after this exposure. She is also involved in the evaluation of interventions of an NGO to promote equality in gender relationships among young children. The aim of the project is to change gender perceptions and eventually minimise gender-based violence.  

As for cross-faculty research, Prof Visser is working with UP’s Faculty of Health Sciences to equip community healthcare workers with techniques to cope with work stressors. This research can be extended to equipping these workers with the background and skills to help other community members address their psychological and mental health concerns. This would create support structures and make psychological services more available in primary healthcare.

A recent research highlight for Prof Visser was her involvement as a programme evaluator in a large-scale project that spanned four years to promote the education of young girls in rural areas in Ethiopia, where such educational opportunities are limited due to traditional gender perceptions. The project entailed a wide-scale community and education intervention to change gender perceptions, and results showed that a change in community perceptions resulted in girls being able to attend school more regularly and to perform equal to boys.

In 2020, three months into lockdown, she was part of a research initiative that took place among students at UP to determine the effect of the pandemic and lockdown on their emotional and mental well-being. “It was clear that students experienced many emotional problems, especially depression and anxiety,” she says. “They felt isolated and did not feel they belonged or could contribute to society. This research resulted in interventions to assist students develop new ways of coping.”  

Prof Visser says that with every intervention, she hopes to make a difference in the lives of the people involved, adding that she strives to change the contexts that people live in so that many more can benefit in future.

She would like to encourage school learners or undergraduates who are interested in her field to get involved as there are many opportunities.

In her spare time, she likes listening to music and watching movies, and developed an interest in cooking during lockdown.