M.Ed. / The way in which an adolescent experiences authority is an important element of the educational process. Without authority, it can be said, there is no education. But adolescents’ experience of authority is something that is developed outside the classroom, primarily during their interactions with parents. This study explores how South African adolescents experience authority, but focused on the effect of living in institutions, and not at home with their parents. A 47-item questionnaire was constructed on the basis of current international and South African research on the adolescents’ experience of the authority of parents/caregivers and educators. Twelve independent variables were included in the questionnaire. These independent variables included questions on age, gender, language, religion and the academic qualifications of their parents. The questionnaire was completed by 247 adolescents in grades 10 and 11, living in the Johannesburg area of South Africa. Of this total, 183 adolescents lived with their parents and 36 lived in institutions where they were being cared for by foster parents. A factor analysis of the questionnaire revealed two statistically significant constructs and they were termed Experience of parental authority (Cronbach alpha of 0.8333) and Experience of educator’s authority (Cronbach alpha of 0.8434). When various independent variables were used to statistically compare the participants with respect to these two factors, the following was found: • Learners who lived at home and learners who were being taken care of by their parents were found to score significantly higher than learners from institutions or those who were being taken care of by others on both factors, Experience of parental authority as well as Experience of educators’ authority. This difference, though statistically significant, was not substantial with respect to Factor One. With respect to Factor Two, Experience of parental authority, the difference was both statistically significant and substantial. The significant finding, then, is that, learners who live at home and those who are being taken care of by their parents appear to have a more positive experience of their parents’ authority than learners who live in an institution or those who are being cared for by persons other than their parents. • Although learners who were older scored significantly higher than younger learners on both factors, the difference was not substantial. • No significant differences could be found on the two factors for a learner’s gender, the learner’s level of education (this also held true when girls and boys were tested separately), the level of education of the learner’s parents or when the learner was orphaned through losing one or both parents. • No significant differences could be found in their experience of adult authority between the scores of learners speaking Afrikaans, English, Nguni or any other language. The impact of this research would indicate that adolescents who live in institutions or those who are being cared for by persons other than their parents, display a significantly more negative experience of parental authority than those who live at home and who are being cared for by their parents. / Prof. C.P.H. Myburgh

The study sought to describe the factors contributing to termination of pregnancies among teenagers in Vhembe District of Limpopo Province, by studying the responses given by teenage girls aged 19 years and younger. The study also sought to determine the socio economic characteristics of teenagers who terminate pregnancies, the role of parental care in avoiding unwanted teenage pregnancies, the teenagers’ general knowledge of reproductive health issues as well as their sources of information regarding reproductive health issues. The major inferences drawn from this study included that teenagers’ knowledge of reproductive health issues was inadequate and that they have nothing tangible because of their low educational and economic status that put them at risk of being involved in sexual activities at an early age leading to unwanted pregnancies that end up in termination. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made for imparting knowledge regarding sexual issues to teenage girls in Vhembe District of Limpopo Province.

[pt] Este estudo teve como objetivo investigar práticas e significados da escrita, manuscrita e digital, entre nativos digitais, numa abordagem micro social e se inscreve como pesquisa no campo dos New Literacy Studies. Em diálogo com autores como Chartier, Jenkins, Livingstone, Rivoltella e Caron & Caronia, o trabalho de campo, de tipo etnográfico, acompanhou cinco adolescentes cariocas em suas casas, em encontros semanais, registrando a interação dos mesmos com seus computadores, conectados à Internet. Procurou-se identificar, além das práticas escritoras, representações e significados que esses adolescentes atribuem à escrita digital e manuscrita e as comparações que estabelecem entre as mesmas. A análise de conteúdo do material empírico permitiu que fossem identificadas variações significativas entre a escrita para falar (em interação com a rede, pelo teclado), a escrita para si, a escrita para o outro e a escrita na e para a escola, variações, estas, associadas ao suporte. Percebeu-se a existência de um corte de gênero no que se refere à escrita para si: as meninas encontram no papel espaço para a produção de textos e relatos voltados para o autoconhecimento e para a expressão de sentimentos íntimos. Para ambos os gêneros, as redes sociais online se apresentam como espaços privilegiados de experiências de sociabilidade, configuradas na troca de mensagens síncronas e assíncronas, como recursos de comunicação, mas também na escrita literária, de jovens para jovens, na qual se destacam fanfictions e webnovelas. / [en] The aim of this study is to investigate practises and meanings regarding byhand and digital writing among digital natives under a micro-social approach that is related to New Literacy Studies. Taking the authors Chartier, Jenkins, Livingstone, Rivoltella and Caron & Caronia into account, this study, based on ethnographic research, focused on five carioca adolescents in their homes, during weekly meetings, keeping records of their interaction with computers connected to the Internet and by-hand writing. There has been an attempt to recognize not only production practises, but also representations and meanings that such adolescents construct from by-hand and digital writing and the comparisons teenagers make regarding such representations and meanings. Analysis of the empirical data has shown significant variation among writing to speak (related to the web, through the keyboard), writing for the self, writing for the other and writing to school. Such variations are associated to the support. It has been noticed a distinctive difference concerning gender when it comes to writing for the self: the adolescent girls see the paper as a locus for self- discovery and for the expression of inner feelings. To both genders online social networks are seen as privileged spaces to share experiences, based on synchronous and asynchronous messages exchange as resources of communication, but also on literary writing, from and to young people. Among such pieces of writing, fanfictions and webnovelas stand out.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-105).

Les scarifications adolescentes sont devenues un phénomène croissant ces dernières années. Des cas de jeunes qui se coupent sont apparus dans la clinique psychanalytique, dans les médias et sur Internet. L’agir sur le corps devient le dernier recours pour réussir à dire quelque chose sur le malaise du sujet et ce dernier n’est pas sans rapport au malaise de la culture. L’adolescence est un temps logique marqué par plusieurs transformations que le sujet adolescent doit subjectiver. C’est un temps où le détachement du discours parental exige que le sujet trouve dans le social les signifiants qui le représentent. Quand le sujet ne trouve pas, dans le langage, le recours symbolique qui soutient son ex-sistence, il peut trouver dans l’agir un moyen de s’exprimer. L’agir dans les scarifications est donc une façon de dire avec le corps. L’adolescence est aussi un temps de transformation de l’image du corps et l’adolescent doit faire avec cette nouvelle image. Les objets du discours techno-scientifique offrent aux sujets un rapport inédit à l’image de soi. Ainsi, l’image peut être à la fois un objet de jouissance et un moyen de montrer ce qui ne peut pas se dire avec les mots. La conjonction du Discours de la Science et du Discours du Capitaliste tente de produire ce que nous appelons obj’être, un sujet qui est représenté par les objets qu’il consomme. Cela crée un teen way of life qui devient, pour ces discours, un modèle idéal d’adolescence. L’adolescence dévoile également l’impossible du rapport sexuel lors de la rencontre avec l’Autre sexe. Les scarifications adolescentes montrent que le recours au corps est une façon, pour certains adolescents, de traiter l’angoisse résultant de ces transformations. La coupure sur le corps devient alors une limite entre le sujet et l’Autre. Si d’un côté cette coupure vient faire limite à la jouissance qui envahit le corps, de l’autre elle devient aussi un mode de jouissance. Les scarifications adolescentes, en tant que séparation de l’Autre, sont pour certains adolescents le dernier recours d’un dire. / Teenager cutting has emerged in recent years as a growing phenomenon. Reports on these young people who cut themselves have appeared in the psychoanalytic clinic, in the media and on the Internet. Acting on the body becomes the last recourse to say something about subject’s discontent which is somehow related to the culture’s discontent. Adolescence is a logical time marked by several transformations that teenagers need to deal with in a subjective manner. It is a time when distancing from parental discourse requires the subject to find in the social discourse the signifiers that can represent him. When the subject does not find in the language the symbolic resources that sustain his ex-sistence, he can appeal to acting as an expression to say something. In this case, the act of cutting the body takes place. Adolescence is also a time of body image transformation and teenagers have to deal with their new image. Objects from technical-scientific discourse offer to subjects an unprecedented way of relating to the image of them. Therefore, images can be both an object of jouissance and a mean of showing what words can’t say. The conjunction of the discourses of science and the capitalist tries to produce what we call obj’être (object being), a subject represented by the objects he consumes. This creates a teen way of life that becomes, for these discourses, an ideal mode of adolescence. Adolescence also reveals to the subject the impossibility of the sexual rapport in the encounter with the Other sex. Teenager cutting shows that the appeal to the body is the way some teenagers find to treat the anguish that results from these transformations. Cutting the body becomes then a limit between the subject and the Other. If on the one hand the cut in teenager cutting becomes a limit to the jouissance that invades the body, on the other hand it becomes also a mode of jouissance. Teenager cutting, as a separation from the Other, is for some teenagers a last recourse of a saying.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of perceived family competence on late adolescent problem-solving abilities, family relationships, and affective experience. Specific areas of interest were perceived confidence in problem-solving and approach rather than avoidance of problems; intergenerational intimacy, intergenerational individuation, and personal authority in the family system as the adolescent relates to parents; and level of depression. Subjects were 256 late adolescents whose parents were still married and living together. Results indicated that perceived family competence had an effect on the dependent variables in the expected directions. Specifically, individuals who scored high on perceived family competence were high on perceived problem-solving confidence, approached problem-solving, were high on intergenerational intimacy, intergenerational individuation, and personal authority in relation to parents, and had less depression than individuals low on perceived family competence. Several sex differences were noted. Females had significantly higher approach to problem-solving than did males. Women reported significantly higher intergenerational intimacy with parents than did men. There was a significant interaction on personal authority such that for the high perceived family competence group, women scored higher than men. However, there were no significant differences between males and females in the low perceived family competence group.

A religiosidade tem sido estudada nas diferentes fases do ciclo vital, em especial na adolescência, como fator protetivo a prática do ato infracional. Para compreender esta dimensão da vida sob a ótica de adolescentes autores de atos infracionais, o estudo visou a investigar os significados de fé e religiosidade para adolescentes em conflito com a lei, norteado pelos conceitos de Mauro Amatuzzi. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa exploratória, realizada com seis adolescentes, com idades entre 15 e 17 anos, em cumprimento de Medida Socioeducativa, Liberdade Assistida, de uma cidade do interior do estado de São Paulo. O estudo utilizou como instrumentos de coleta de dados a entrevista semiestruturada e a fotografia. Inicialmente foi realizada uma oficina de fotografia, na qual os adolescentes receberam a questão a ser respondida em fotografias: \"Como você pode representar a sua fé em fotografias?\". Após a oficina, os adolescentes fotografaram, com o seu próprio aparelho celular, imagens do seu cotidiano que representavam a sua fé. Em seguida, foi realizada uma entrevista individual a fim de conhecer a história do participante, explorar suas expressões de fé e conversar sobre as imagens capturadas e seus respectivos significados. Por fim, foi realizado um grupo em que os adolescentes puderam ver todas as fotografias impressas, sem que fossem identificados seus respectivos autores, e manipulá-las de forma a agrupá-las conforme os sentidos, construindo categorias. As categorias foram nomeadas pelos próprios participantes como: Tudo, Fé em Deus, É o plano, Paz e Família. Os dados foram analisados por meio da Análise de Conteúdo das entrevistas individuais, que serviram de apoio para a compreensão do material fotográfico. As categorias formadas foram: Proteção, Motivação, Deus onipresente, Identificação, Sentido de ligação afetiva, Referências e Símbolos, Ações e Rituais. A partir dos resultados obtidos foi possível compreender que este grupo de adolescentes em conflito com a lei apresenta diferentes experiências e significados de fé. No entanto, todos revelam relação com o enfrentamento das adversidades cotidianas e projeto de vida, principalmente relacionado a conquistas de bens materiais. Percebemos que o instrumento fotográfico facilitou a participação dos adolescentes na pesquisa e possibilitou aos mesmos o encontro com a própria experiência, evidenciando-se como um recurso efetivo para a compreensão do significado e mediação da narrativa / Religiosity has been studied in the different phases of the life cycle, especially in adolescence as a protective factor the practice of the infraction. In order to understand this dimension of life from the point of view of adolescent offenders, the study aimed to investigate the meanings of faith and religiosity for youth in conflict with the law, guided by the concepts of Mauro Amatuzzi. This is an exploratory qualitative research carried out with six adolescents, aged between 15 and 17 years old, in compliance with the Socioeducational Measure, Assisted Liberty, of a city in the interior of the state of São Paulo. The study used semistructured interviews and photography as instruments of data collection. Initially a photography workshop was held, where the adolescents received the question to be answered in photographs: How can you represent your faith in photographs? After the workshop, the adolescents photographed, with their own mobile devices, images of their daily lives that represented their Faith. Then an individual interview was conducted to learn the story of the participant, to explore their expressions of faith and to talk about the images and their respective meanings. And finally, a group a meeting was done for the adolescents could see all the printed photographs, without identification of the respective authors, and manipulate them in order to group them into categories. The categories were named by the participants as: All, Faith in God, It is the plan, Peace and Family. The data were analyzed through the content analysis of the individual interviews, which served as support for the understanding of the photographic material. The categories formed were: Protection, Motivation, Omnipresent God, Identification, Sense of affective bonding, References and Symbols, Actions and Rituals. From the results it was possible to understand that this group of adolescents in conflict with the law presents different experiences and meanings of faith, however, all reveal relation with the confrontation of daily adversities and life project, mainly related to achievements of material goods. From the results, it was noticed that the photographic instrument facilitated the participation of the adolescents in the research and enabled them to encounter their own experience, proving themselves as an effective resource for understanding the meaning and mediation of the narrative

No description available.

Les troubles alimentaires à l’adolescence se retrouvent dans divers contextes socio-économiques et constituent une importante question de santé publique au Brésil. Néanmoins, les liens entre la famile, l’alimentation et les troubles alimentaires sont encore peu explorés, spécifiquement au Nord-Est du Brésil. Notre objectif est d’analyser la place de la nourriture dans les relations familiales d’adolescentes brésiliennes anorexiques et boulimiques. Nous avons utilisé une méthode qualitative, exploratoire, auprès d’un échantillon de vingt-six sujets, dont huit familles, quatre anorexiques, quatre boulimiques, âgées de 12 à 18 ans, huit mères, quatre pères, cinq grand-mères et une soeur dans deux services de santé publique, CETRATA et PRONUTRA à Fortaleza-Ceará, au Nord-Est du Brésil. Nous les avons ensuite interrogés grâce à l’outil de photo-elicitation. La photographie d’un repas familial prise par l’adolescente a servi de base à l’entretien semi-structuré. L’analyse des entretiens a été réalisée à l’aide de l’Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). L’analyse des résultats a permis d’analyser deux facteurs importants : la relation duelle parent-adolescente et le fonctionnement du groupe familial. Les résultats mettent en lumière un contrôle paternel très important dans la gestion de l’alimentation dans le groupe anorexie. La nourriture est apparue comme un moyen trouvé par l’adolescente anorexique et boulimique pour élaborer leurs situations de perte et de deuil. L’adolescente réorganise ses liens affectifs dans un mouvement paradoxal de demande de contrôle par l’autre, qu’elle-même contrôle en retour. Il semble y avoir, spécifiquement, dans l’anorexie, une délégation de la part des parents de soin aux personnes tierces, représentées par la famille élargie et les personnes appartenant aux systèmes extrafamiliaux. Différents conflits entre les sous-systèmes autour de la nourriture ont une fonction structurante pour le système familial, même s’il s’agit de le maintenir dans un état dysfonctionnel. Ces conflits affaiblissent la cohésion familiale dans l’anorexie et la boulimie. Un affaiblissement des règles et une informalité autour de l’organisation d’un repas sont apparus comme une manière d’échapper à la rigidité des rôles que le trouble alimentaire de la fille impose aux parents. Il semblerait que le mode d’organisation de repas familiaux ne reflète pas nécessairement le mode de fonctionnement de la famille. L’un des résultats les plus importants que notre étude sont conflits transgénérationnels.Nous avons trouvé des divergences entre la génération des parents et celle des grand-mères concernant la façon d’éduquer l’enfant et la transmission de rituels. Ces divergences semblent donc affaiblir le sentiment d’appartenance de l’adolescente à la famille à travers la nourriture. L’ensemble de nos résultats montrent la nécessité de travailler autour du processus séparation-individuation de l’adolescente brésilienne anorexique et boulimique de manière à concilier l’identité individuelle et familiale et favoriser son autonomisation. / Eating disorders in adolescence occur in various socioeconomic contexts in Brazil and are thus an important public health issue there. Nevertheless, the link between family, food and eating disorders has been very little explored, especially in northeastern Brazil. Our main goal was to examine the role of food in family relationships of Brazilian teenagers with anorexia and bulimia. We used an exploratory qualitative method to analyze interviews with 8 families and twenty-six individuals: four adolescents with anorexia and four others with bulimia, aged 12 to 18 years, with eight mothers, four fathers, five grandmothers, and one sister of a teenager with bulimia, referred through two public health centers (CETRATA and PRONUTRA) in Fortaleza-Ceara, in northeastern Brazil. Applying the technique of photoelicitation, we used a photograph of a family meal taken by the adolescent as the basis for the semi-structured interviews, analyzed with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The results revealed two important superordinate themes: the parent-teenager relationship and the functioning of the family group. Results highlighted important paternal control in anorexia nervosa. Food appeared to be a means enabling adolescents with anorexia and bulimia to deal their situations of loss and grief. They appear to reorganize their emotional ties in a paradoxical movement by which they request to be controlled by another, who in turn they control. In anorexia, in particular, parents appear to delegate to third parties (the extended family and persons belonging to non-family systems) the role of monitoring the girl’s food supply. Different types of conflict around food between the subsystems, including that of siblings, seem to be necessary to maintain the family system, albeit dysfunctionally, and they weaken family cohesion. Loosening of the rules and informality around organization of meals has emerged as a way to escape the rigidity of the roles that daughters’ eating disorders impose on parents. One of the most important results of our study is the existence of transgenerational conflicts. We found divergences between the parents’ generation and that of the grandmothers concerning the ways of raising children and transmitting rituals. These divergences thus seem to weaken these teenaged girls’ feelings of belonging to the family through food. Overall, the results show the need for work around the separation-individuation process in Brazilian girls with anorexia and bulimia to help reconcile their individual and family identities and to promote their autonomy.

The aim of this study is to describe teenagers' experience of being diagnosed with cancer. A cancer diagnosis very dramaticaly changes the lives of a teenager and its relatives. Cancer is a loaded word that most people associate with death and the teenager and its relatives generally react with despair and anxiety towards. Adolescence is a very emotionally difficult period with many physical and psychological changes, and it is therefore particularly difficult to suffer from a serious illness like cancer during this period. The method used when conducting this study is qualitative content analysis of various blogs written by teenagers living with cancer and resulted in six categories. The result of this study shows that the analyzed teenagers have similar feelings and experiences, although they are described in various ways. Constant fear and living in uncertainty are considered to be particularly difficult. Teenagers who have cancer develope a different outlook on life and value small things differently. The teenagers included in this study have often felt alone in their situation and that no one understands them. Blogs have been used as a form of therapy where the teenagers can express their feelings. A nurse can inform and encourage patients to use blogs both in order to read about people in simular situations and also as a forum to express their own feelings.