<p><strong>This essay reflects on the thoughts and experiences of social workers in child protection agencies when it comes to talking about sexuality with teenagers, age 13-20, who is being subjected to inquiry. The research is qualitative and based on five semi-structured interviews. It has a phenomenological position and has been analyzed hermeneutically through cognitive and gender theory. Previous research shows that youths who get in contact with child protection often have issues about their sexuality. This study show that social workers in the agencies lack knowledge about this issue and that they seldom talks about it with the teenagers or their own colleagues. They are however aware of risks involved with the youth’s sexual activities and the problems that may evolve from it. Despite this they sometimes avoid the subject. Their reason is that they are afraid of investigating more than necessary and by doing so offend the clients. Sexuality for them is a private area and they feel that they need motivation for asking certain questions. The study also shows that they find it easier to talk with teenagers of the same gender as themselves. The teenagers therefore get varied help and treatment. </strong></p>

L’obésité pédiatrique est un phénomène en expansion croissante, amenant les professionnels de la santé à en parler en termes de phénomène pandémique. Mais au-delà de cette expansion croissante, c’est également l’augmentation de la sévérité de l’obésité chez l'enfant et l'adolescent qui apparaît inquiétante. Or, la présence des déterminants sociaux,énergétiques, génétiques ne suffisent pas toujours pour expliquer son développement et principalement quand il s’agit d’obésité sévère. Dans le cadre de l'obésité sévère, il y a lieu de dépasser les théories centrées sur la compréhension de l’agir alimentaire pour envisager les théories qui considèrent l’implication de l’ensemble du corps dans le développement de l’obésité et ce principalement lorsqu’on s’intéresse à l’adolescent. Les objectifs de cette étude visent, face à ces éléments, à établir, dans un premier temps, un profil démographique, médical, familial, psychologique et psychopathologique d’une population d’adolescents souffrant d'obésité sévère. Ces informations ont été recueillies à l’aide de questionnaires structurés et par observation de 164 adolescents satisfaisant aux critères de l’obésité sévère. Un diagnostic pédopsychatrique selon la CFTMEA R 2000 a été posé pour chaque sujet. Nos résultats ont souligné le déterminisme multiple de l’obésité de nos sujets mais également l’importance des comorbidités bio-psycho-sociales. Dans un second temps, à l’aide d’une analyse factorielle, nous avons mis en évidence qu’une plus grande sévérité de l’obésité s’associait à des facteurs d’environnement défavorisant(troubles mentaux dans la famille, carences, maltraitance) et à la présence d'un profil psychopathologique. De plus, ces mêmes modalités étaient associées avec une compliance familiale et individuelle moins importante. Dans une dernière partie, nous nous sommes centrés sur les liens qui unissaient ces différents éléments. Pour ce faire, nous avons aux travers d’analyse de cas et à l'aide d'un Rorschach, du Questionnaire de l'Image du Corps de Bruschon-Schweitzer, et d'un dessin de soi, évalué la présence de troubles de l’image du corps chez 10 de nos sujets et leur évolution durant la prise en charge en lien avec la perte de poids. Nos résultats ont mis en évidence la présence de troubles de l’image du corps avec une image de soi incertaine, indifférenciée aux limites diffuses. L’obésité s’inscrirait en tant que garant concret face à une image du corps peu unifiée. Ceci nous permet de considérer que l’obésité s’installe au travers à la fois d’un corps peu investi, peu mobilisable imposant la nécessaire édification de barrière (l’obésité) entre le « dedans fragilisé » et le dehors vécu comme dangereux. Nous pouvons dès lors considérer la difficulté des sujets de se résoudre à une perte de poids qui ne permettrait plus au sujet de recourir à ce type de fonctionnement. De ce fait, nous avons conclu qu'il s'agit dans la prise en charge de ces sujets de reconsidérer l’image du corps comme outil thérapeutique vecteur d’amélioration à court et à long terme.

A significant number of teenagers are killed each year by unintentional or intentional injuries. A teenager is in a vulnerable phase of her/his life, going from being a child to adult. This transition often includes testing the limits of their capabilities, which can include, e.g., high speed driving, testing alcohol and other drugs, including drinking and driving. The development from child to adult includes different psychological stress factors, such as, e.g., school problems, broken love affairs and bullying. The demands – perceived or real – also increases over time and vulnerable individuals can turn to self-harm and in the most extreme case suicide. The aim of this thesis was to investigate teenager fatalities in the northern half of Sweden and to suggest preventive measures. A survey of teenager fatalities during a twenty-year period revealed that the incidence of unintentional (n=248) deaths decreased, while intentional (n=102) deaths were unaffected over time. Most unintentional deaths were transportation related (n=204) while most of the intentional deaths were suicides (n=88). Twenty-eight percent of the decedents were test-positive for alcohol at autopsy. In a series of three studies, teenager suicides were investigated in depth, firstly through an interview study with the investigating police officer in charge of the investigation of a teenager suicide. Most of the suicides occurred in rural and depopulated areas despite the fact that most teenagers live in the larger cities along the coastline. A majority of the suicides appeared to be planned. Females, contrary to males, often had a psychiatric history. One of the conclusions was that police officers provide essential information concerning the circumstances around a teenager suicide. Parents who had lost a child through suicide, and in some cases siblings, were interviewed 15-25 months after the suicide. It was striking how the life of the surviving family members were still affected by the devastating trauma of the suicide; most parents testified that they were still struggling with the question “why?” and that they were thinking of their lost child every day. Post suicide support was often badly timed and insufficient, especially for the younger siblings. The family doctor has an important role as a co-ordinator of a long-term individually formulated support scheme for the bereaved. Evidence of suicide contagion and suicide cluster formation, i.e., one teenager suicide led to another suicide, was found in these studies, and two suicide clusters were identified, with links between the victims in each cluster. Both clusters occurred within a geographical and timely proximity. Everyone involved in the well-being of the young should be aware of the risk of contagion and suicide cluster formation. The fifth study concerned 12,812 teenagers who visited the Emergency Room at Umeå University Hospital due to an injury during 1993 through 2006. Sixty-one of these were found dead through 2007, 49 by unnatural (of which 38 were included) and 12 by natural causes. The standard mortality rate for unnatural death was calculated to 1.44 (1.02-1.98), confirming an increased risk of premature death. In many of these deaths, alcohol and drugs may have contributed. By increasing the awareness among health professionals that injury can predict a premature death - primarily among those who develop substance abuse - some premature deaths may be prevented by early intervention. This thesis confirms that most teenagers die from unnatural causes, mostly in transportation-related events and by suicide. By studying these deaths, preventive measures that could save lives have been suggested.

This essay reflects on the thoughts and experiences of social workers in child protection agencies when it comes to talking about sexuality with teenagers, age 13-20, who is being subjected to inquiry. The research is qualitative and based on five semi-structured interviews. It has a phenomenological position and has been analyzed hermeneutically through cognitive and gender theory. Previous research shows that youths who get in contact with child protection often have issues about their sexuality. This study show that social workers in the agencies lack knowledge about this issue and that they seldom talks about it with the teenagers or their own colleagues. They are however aware of risks involved with the youth’s sexual activities and the problems that may evolve from it. Despite this they sometimes avoid the subject. Their reason is that they are afraid of investigating more than necessary and by doing so offend the clients. Sexuality for them is a private area and they feel that they need motivation for asking certain questions. The study also shows that they find it easier to talk with teenagers of the same gender as themselves. The teenagers therefore get varied help and treatment.

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When we probe into how on-line games affect the interaction between teenagers and their families, we find that the parents¡¦ teaching attitude is the key factor of affecting the children¡¦s behavior in the games. If the parents and the children have a better interaction, or even they can play the games together, then the development of the children are comparatively healthier and better. From the analysis of this study, we see that on-line games did not bring about bad effects to the children, on the contrary, under the guidance of the parents, the children can successfully go in and out the world of on-line games. Such an unharmed result is just what most of the parents like to see: not to indulge, not to be deceived, not to contract bad habits from bad friends and so on. However, comparatively, the children¡¦s experience in on-line games could lack spirit of adventure. No matter in a fictitious or a concrete society, the grownups have a higher capacity of awakening after all. The guidance of the parents can inspire unlimited possibilities in the children, and they can ward off the chance of getting hurt under the parents¡¦ protection. ¡§Defeat is the motivation of growth; deception is the turning point of development!¡¨ Don¡¦t forget to reserve the room for defeat during the process of children guidance and assistance. When the grownups shake off the self-centered and subjective viewpoints, they are conscious of a transformation of a hero. In the fictitious world, making a mistake is a rare chance to launch an unexpected discovery, and life starts to liaise the unknown power. Regardless of old or young, and which life stage you are at, conjuration can always unveil the overture of mythic transformation. When you fulfill a spiritual trial and ritual, it is like you are experiencing a circle of death and resurrection. Experiences are past concepts and modes of thinking in a familiar living domain which are applicative no more, and it is time to cross the threshold. After returning I hope to provide some corresponded and balanced viewpoints to the past one-way discourse, and let the teenagers to show more distinctive features of themselves.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-82). Also available on the Internet.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2008. / Directed by Rosemery Nelson-Gray; submitted to the Dept. of Psychology. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 28, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 50-65).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-82). Also available on the Internet.

Introduction Though the associations of general parenting styles and smoking-specific parenting practices with adolescent smoking have received much attention in recent years, important questions remain. Most general parenting studies focused on Caucasian parents but much less in the literature is known about Chinese parents. As for smoking-specific parenting practices in the household, anti-smoking practices have been the focus, with pro-smoking practices seldom being studied. The objectives of the present study were: 1) to examine general parenting styles of Hong Kong fathers and mothers, and their associations with adolescent current smoking; 2) to explore potential effect modifiers of the above associations—age/sex of the adolescent and parental smoking status; 3) to estimate the prevalence of adolescents’ exposure to smoking-specific parenting practices and the coexistence of pro-smoking and anti-smoking practices within a family; and 4) to examine the associations of smoking-specific parenting practices with adolescent current smoking status and their intention to smoke. Methods Data from 2 large-scale school surveys were used. In the Hong Kong Student Obesity Surveillance project (HKSOS), 34,678 secondary students aged 12-17 completed an anonymous questionnaire. Current smoking denoted any smoking in the past 30 days. The parenting style of each parent was classified as authoritative (high care/high control), authoritarian (low care/high control), permissive (high care/low control) or neglectful (low care/low control). Binary logistic regressions generated adjusted odds ratios (AORs) of current smoking for parenting styles, and parental care and control. In the Youth Smoking Survey (YSS) (2003/04), information of adolescent smoking behaviours, their exposure to smoking-specific parenting practices at home and socio-demographic characteristics was collected among 36,612 secondary 1-5 students. Pro-smoking practices included “buy cigarettes/hand cigarettes/light a cigarette/clean the ashtray for family members”, “easily see packages of cigarettes of family members at home”, “exposure to secondhand smoke at home” and “smoking among family members”. Anti-smoking practices were “parent-child communication about harms of smoking” and “anticipated control from father/mother if you were to smoke”. AORs of adolescent current smoking and their intention to smoke for each pro-smoking and anti-smoking practice were calculated. Results In HKSOS, over half of the fathers (51.5%) and mothers (66.2%) were authoritative. Current smoking (3.1%) was associated with lower levels of care both from father and mother, lower levels of maternal control, but higher levels of paternal control. Compared with authoritative fathers, the AORs (95% CI) of adolescent current smoking were 0.74 (0.59-0.93) for permissive, 1.13 (0.87-1.43) for authoritarian, and 0.99 (0.77-1.28) for neglectful. The corresponding AORs for mothers were 1.30 (1.04-1.61), 1.80 (1.34-2.41), and 2.49 (1.90-3.28). In YSS, 9.7% of adolescents were current smokers and 33.2% had the intention to smoke. About half the students (52.7%) reported pro-smoking practices and 87.8% reported anti-smoking practices at home. Anti-smoking practices were associated with lower odds of adolescent current smoking and intention to smoke, whereas pro-smoking practices were linked to higher odds. Conclusions Authoritative mothers and permissive fathers seemed to have protective effects against adolescent smoking. Pro-smoking practices were associated with higher odds of adolescent current smoking and intention to smoke, while anti-smoking practices were protective. / published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Philosophy