The aim of this thesis was to describe the medical, cognitive and psychosocial consequences of epilepsy in young adulthood. Four studies were carried out with this patient group. The first two papers were based on a follow-up study regarding young adults with epilepsy that investigated medical and psychosocial aspects and compared the present results with those five years earlier. We then conducted focus group interviews with young adults with epilepsy and subjective cognitive decline to assess the deeper meaning of living with epilepsy accompanied by cognitive difficulties. In the fourth study we studied cognitive dysfunction further, choosing the language function in young adults with epilepsy. We firstly examined whether language impairments were associated to functional brain alterations and secondly related the language performance to demographics, clinical data, Quality of Life (QoL) and self-esteem. The five-year follow up of 97 young adults with uncomplicated epilepsy revealed no improvement regarding seizure frequency or side effects from anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) over time, even though many new-generation AEDs had been established during this period. During the study period 21% had recovered from epilepsy, Seizure frequency among those who still had epilepsy had not improved, and 42% had experienced seizures during the past year. New-generation anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) had been introduced to PWE, especially to women. There is still need for new and more effective treatment options for this group in the future. It is essential to find alternative approaches to develop better treatment options for this group in the future. However QoL was normal compared to the general population, indicating that new options regarding treatment can have made an impact. Lower QoL was correlated to high seizure frequency and to cognitive side effects. Self-esteem and Sence of Coherence were impaired compared to the situation at adolescence. Self-esteem was correlated to seizure frequency and to side-effects of antiepileptic drugs. Sence of Coherence was not correlated to epilepsy-related factors in the same way as QoL, but mirrored the phenomenon of epilepsy. The qualitative study showed that the consequences of epilepsy are not only restricted to the consequences of seizures, but also concerns many other aspects of life. The interviews revealed four themes: “affecting the whole person“, “influencing daily life”, ”affecting relations” and ”meeting ignorance in society”. Another important factor was language function; when one loses some language ability, this gives a feeling of losing one’s capability. The fourth study examined language by neuropsychological methods and correlated this function to brain activation measured by fMRI. Language functions measured in verbal fluency and abstract language comprehension were impaired in participants with both generalized epilepsy and epilepsy of focal onset. Age at onset of epilepsy and education are the most important factors correlating to language function. An additional factor that impacts abstract language comprehension is the frequency of convulsive seizures, while use of topiramate /zonisamide affect verbal fluency negatively. QoL was not correlated to language impairments, but for patients with focal onset seizures there was a correlation between self-esteem and abstract language comprehension. The fMRI investigation revealed altered activity during language tasks in participants with epilepsy compared to controls. In epilepsy with focal seizures originating in the left hemisphere, we found increased bilateral activation of supporting areas, in the anterior mid-cingulate cortex and the anterior ventral insulae, indicating a compensational functional reorganization. In generalized epilepsy, the functional language network showed an imbalance, as this group expressed an inadequate suppression of activation in the anterior temporal lobe during semantic processing. Subtle language impairment can, even if it does not occur in everyday dialogue, be of importance and have consequences for the person affected. The negative consequences of language decline must be addressed in people with epilepsy of different etiology. Young adults with epilepsy are still substantially affected by the condition. The consequences are not only restricted to the seizures, but concern many aspects of life and there is a great need for new treatment options for this group in the future.

Alcohol is one of the most widely used recreational drugs in the United States today, despite being associated with a myriad of negative effects. Alcohol consumption occurs most frequently within social contexts, and seems to be strongly related to many social factors. It is known that an individual's expectations of the effects of alcohol influences his/her drinking behavior, and that social alcohol expectancies are some of the most frequently reported expectancies. In this study, we explored the relationship between alcohol expectancies and social influences by examining whether exposure to a social context would differentially activate alcohol expectancies. 115 young-adult male participants were exposed to either a social context or a control condition. Subsequently, participants' alcohol expectancies were assessed using both explicit and implicit measurements. Differences between conditions were found on the implicit expectancy measure (a free association task) but not on the explicit expectancy measures. Results from the free association task indicated that participants who were exposed to a social context were more likely to report positive and arousing words in response to the prompt "alcohol makes me _______". These differences suggest that exposure to a social context may not overtly change individuals' alcohol expectancies, but may increase the availability of positive and arousing alcohol expectancies. This increase in availability of positive and arousing expectancies may explain one of the mechanisms involved in deciding to engage in social drinking.

Lexical access is the process in which basic components of meaning in language, the lexical entries (words) are activated. This activation is based on the organization and representational structure of the lexical entries. Semantic features of words, which are the prominent semantic characteristics of a word concept, provide important information because they mediate semantic access to words. An experiment was conducted to examine the importance of semantic feature distinctiveness and feature frequency in accessing the lexical representations of young and older adults in an off-line task using features of animals. The McRae, Cree, Seidenberg, and McNorgan (2005) feature norm corpus is the basis for the selection of stimuli for the current research project. Semantic features were utilized to explore the structure of the lexicon. Stimuli varied in feature distinctiveness based on the study by McRae, et al. (2005) in 3 broad stimulus groups: Distinctive (D), Low Frequency Non-Distinctive (LFND), and Non-Distinctive High Frequency (NDHF). Participants were asked to list all of the concepts that came to mind for a given feature in an untimed task. Distinctiveness was examined between stimulus groups for the number of concepts and variety of first concepts given to the presented feature. It was found that fewer concepts were given and there was less variety in first concepts given for the distinctive features and the most concepts and greater variety of first concepts were given for the high-frequency non-distinctive features. Distinctiveness appears to vary along a continuum, supporting theories of lexical access based on activation and competition between concept words. Additionally, participant age groups were compared for the number of concepts given and the variety of first concepts given. The older adult group produced more concepts and more variety of first concepts than the younger group, in all three feature categories. These results indicate that greater (lifetime) language experience of the participants in the older group was reflected in their performance. A continued interest in semantic features is important to our understanding of the influence of features on the retrieval of semantic concepts and the changes in those retrieval processes over the lifespan.

Psykisk ohälsa hos unga är ett problem som ökar i dagens samhälle. För att främja en bättre psykisk hälsa hos dessa finns kuratorer på skolor, ungdomsmottagningar samt barn- och ungdomspsykiatriska mottagningar. I denna studie har frågorna ställts om kuratorernas bilder gällande de vanligaste orsakerna till psykisk ohälsa hos unga, eventuella könsskillnader samt resurser för att ge stöd. Utifrån sex intervjuer som genomförts med kuratorer på ovan nämnda arbetsplatser visade resultatet att många unga idag lider av problem i hemmet eller skolan, höga krav, depression, ångest, ätstörningar, självskadebeteende, arbetslöshet samt hemmasittande. Av dessa visade sig ätstörningar och självskadebeteende vara vanligast hos flickorna, medan istället hemmasittande och skoltrötthet dominerade hos pojkarna. Övriga orsaker var relativt jämnt fördelade mellan könen. Viktigt är dock att ta hänsyn till mörkertalet av dem som inte söker hjälp. I många avseenden behövde resurserna förbättras, framför allt i form av tid för ungdomarna samt för kompetensutveckling och handledning. / Mental illness among adolescents is a problem which increases in our society. By promoting a better mental health among these, there are social workers working at schools, Youth Clinics and psychiatry receptions for children and adolescents. This study asked the questions about which versions the social workers had about the most usual reasons for mental illness amongst adolescents, if the social workers had noticed any differences of the mental illness between young boys and girls and if the social workers thought that they had sufficient resources to offer the adolescents good help. By six interviews done with social workers on the workplaces above, the results showed that many adolescents today have problems at home or in school, problems with high claims on themselves, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm, unemployment and sitting at home. Of these reasons for mental illness, eating disorders and self-harm had been found to be most usual amongst the young girls, and sitting at home and school fatigue amongst the young boys. The other reasons for mental illness were pretty much the same amongst boys and girls. Still, it is important to take into account that there are hidden statistics of the young people who do not search for help against their mental illness. The resources needed to be improved in many aspects, mostly by more time by the social workers to help the adolescents and more skills development and tutoring for the social workers.

The understanding that Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) commonly persists into adulthood has not been widely accepted until recently. Accordingly, less is known about diagnostic and treatment prevalence or health and social outcomes of ADHD in adulthood. The objectives of this study were to: determine lifetime prevalence of ADHD diagnosis and treatment for Manitoba young adults, investigate whether a socioeconomic gradient exists within Manitoba young adults with a lifetime diagnosis of ADHD, and investigate the relationship between ADHD in Manitoba young adults and health service utilization. Using the Manitoba Population Health Research Data Repository, this cross-sectional analysis used 24 years of data (1984/85-2008/09) and included all Manitoba adults aged 18-29 during 2007/08-2008/09 with a lifetime diagnosis of ADHD. Crude prevalence was calculated for ADHD diagnosis and psychostimulant prescriptions, in addition to several demographic variables. The presence of a socioeconomic gradient in lifetime ADHD diagnosis was investigated using Poisson and negative binomial regression. Relationships between young adults with lifetime ADHD diagnosis and health service utilization for several health and social outcome variables were explored using a matched cohort design with two comparison groups and GEE regression models. In relation to previous Manitoba research on childhood ADHD, the socioeconomic gradient for ADHD diagnosis was found to dissipate into young adulthood. However, when region of residence was accounted for, a small inverse gradient in the urban population and a direct gradient in the rural population were evident. Individuals from the highest income quintile were significantly less likely to be diagnosed before age 18 than all other income quintiles. Depression, anxiety, personality disorders, conduct disorder, substance abuse, multiple types of injuries, receipt of income assistance, and reduced high school graduation were significantly correlated with lifetime ADHD diagnosis. Given the high lifetime prevalence of ADHD in Manitoba young adults, significant socioeconomic correlates for diagnosis, and multitude of adverse health and social outcomes in this population, further investigation into the trajectory of this relatively unexplored population is recommended. Furthermore, continued measurement of the provision and success of additional resources will ultimately be necessary for enhancing the health status of all Canadian adults living with ADHD.

Spanning the period from the early years of the Cold War to the early twenty-first century, Crossing Out argues that medical theories of gender variance which emerge in the middle of the twentieth century are bound by the Cold-War–era discursive limits within which they were articulated, and that the ideological content of those theories persists into late-century research and treatment protocols. I parallel these analyses with interrogations of literary representations of transgendered subjects. What emerges most powerfully from this analysis of literary works is their tendency to signify in excess of the medical foreclosures, even when they seem consistent with medical discourse. By reading these two discursive systems against each other, the dissertation demonstrates the ability of literary discourse to accommodate multifaceted subject positions which medical discourse is unable to articulate. Literature thus complicates the stories that medical culture tells, revealing complex and multivariate possibilities for transgendered identification absent from traditional medical accounts. In tracing these discursive intersections the dissertation draws on and extends Michel Foucault’s theory of subjugated knowledges and Judith Butler’s writings on the formation of gendered subjects. Chapter One establishes the Cold War context, and argues that there are significant continuities between 1950s theories of intersexuality and Cold War ideology. Chapter Two extends this analysis to take in theories of transsexualism that emerged in the same years, and analyzes the discursive excesses of a 1950s pulp novel representation of a transsexual. Chapter Three establishes that the ideological content of the medical theories remained virtually unchanged by the 1990s, and argues that multivalent literary representations of transgenderism from the same decade promise the emergence of unanticipated forms of gender identity that exceed medical norms. Chapter Four is concerned with transgendered children, as they are represented in medical writing and in young adult and children’s literature. Interrogating fiction which negotiates between established medical discourse and an emergent transgender discourse, the chapter argues that these works at once invite and subvert a pathologizing understanding of gender-variant children while simultaneously providing data that demands to be read through the lens of an emergent affirmative notion of trans-childhood.

Shared custody has risen to the fore as one of the most contentious issues facing family law justice systems. Ongoing efforts to implement or contemplate legislative reforms to prescribe a rebuttable presumption for shared custody have been central. Drawing on in-depth, retrospective qualitative interviews with 28 young adults between 18 and 25 years of age, this researcher conducted a thematic analysis and examined children’s perspectives and motivations regarding transitions into and out of shared custody, relationships with parents, and their sense of fairness around decision-making. The dissertation research is presented in a ‘publications format’ and contains an introduction, three self-contained journal-ready publications and an overarching discussion. The introduction provided an overall review of the literature and presented a developing model for tying together the complex strands of existing theoretical and empirical literature. Paper one focused how and why transitions into and out of shared custody happen. Drawing on the metaphor of alchemy, the analysis illustrated that shared custody is not a short-cut to a successful custodial arrangement or parent-child relations. Shared custody blends together complex interactions among elements related to the child’s living situation, maturation and changing notions of fairness, flexibility, the push and pull of relationships, and in some instances, rigid enforcement. The second paper highlighted how participants’ utilized the business strategy of “managing-up” and illustrated how children are active agents in navigating post-separation family relations finding ways to exert their agency to help and protect siblings, manage parental conflict, maintain shared custody to shield their parents and siblings from emotional hurt and initiate contact to maintain parent-child relationships. Including children’s voices in custodial decision-making is predicated on a rights-based doctrine that children ought to have input on decisions that affect their best interests. Participants felt that young children (13 years or less) should have input in how their arrangements were constructed, but not the final say about the type of custodial arrangement. There was general consensus that adolescents (about age 14), should have considerably more input. A final overarching discussion chapter integrated the three papers with the model presented in the introduction and suggests implications for policy and practice.

Šiuo magistriniu darbu siekiama ištirti paauglių ir jaunų suaugusių žmonių internete papasakotas meilės istorijas. Meilės istorijos yra priskiriamos asmeninės patirties pasakojimams – istorijos, žmogaus dėl tam tikrų priežasčių prisimenamos ir pasitaikius progai pasakojamos kitiems. Pagrindinis tyrimo tikslas - atskleisti internetinių meilės istorijų įvairovę, dėmesį telkiant į autorius, socialinę ir kultūrinę meilės istorijų veikėjų gyvenamąją aplinką bei tekstų formavimo ypatumus. Kokybinė tekstų analizė atliekama remiantis psichologijos, ypač raidos psichologijos, mokslo laimėjimais bei žiniomis iš tautosakos. Dėl meilės istorijų gausos, analizei buvo pasirinktas http://www.svajos.com internetinis puslapis. Meilės istorijose analizuojamos trys pagrindinės temos: informacija apie meilės istorijų pateikėjus, pavyzdžiui, jų amžius, lytis, asmenybė; socialinė ir kultūrinė pateikėjų gyvenamoji aplinka – šeima, draugai, laisvalaikis, emigracija, skaistumas, mirties motyvas; bei istorijų pasakojimo formų įvairovė – išplėtoto ir neišplėtoto siužeto, istorijos su laimingomis ir nelaimingomis pabaigomis, bei tokios formos kaip trumpi nesiužetiniai tekstai, laiškai ir svajonės. Internetinių meilės istorijų pateikėjų amžiaus analizė atskleidė, jog, be to, jog retais atvejais savo amžių nusako patys pateikėjai, tai galima nustatyti ir iš tam tikrų užuominų. Gilinantis į internetinės meilės istorijas lyties aspektu, atsiskleidė tam tikri merginų ir vaikinų rašytų tekstų skirtumai –... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / This master‘s thesis aims to investigate love stories by teenagers and young adults published on the Internet. Love stories are included into stories of personal experience. They are stories that people for some reason remember and tell others as opportunity offers. The main aims of the paper are to establish characteristics of love stories on the Internet, their similarities and differences from more casual love stories – written or told, moreover, to analyse what and how much does a love story on the Internet tell about the storyteller and his environment. Qualitative analysis of these texts is based on findings in psychology and especially developmental psychology and knowledge from folklore. For the analysis purpose http://www.svajos.com website was chosen because of a great amount of love stories it contains. Three main topics are analysed in love stories, namely, information about the love storytellers, for example, their age, gender, personality; their social and cultural environment such as family, friends, leisure, emigration, virginity, death; variety of forms of love stories, for example, explicated and non-explicated content, stories with happy endings and unfortunate endings and other forms such as short texts with no plot, letters and dreams. Analysis of the love stories on Internet from the age perspective showed that sometimes the age is given by presenters themselves and sometimes it can be established from certain clues. Analysis of the love stories on... [to full text]

The understanding that Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) commonly persists into adulthood has not been widely accepted until recently. Accordingly, less is known about diagnostic and treatment prevalence or health and social outcomes of ADHD in adulthood. The objectives of this study were to: determine lifetime prevalence of ADHD diagnosis and treatment for Manitoba young adults, investigate whether a socioeconomic gradient exists within Manitoba young adults with a lifetime diagnosis of ADHD, and investigate the relationship between ADHD in Manitoba young adults and health service utilization. Using the Manitoba Population Health Research Data Repository, this cross-sectional analysis used 24 years of data (1984/85-2008/09) and included all Manitoba adults aged 18-29 during 2007/08-2008/09 with a lifetime diagnosis of ADHD. Crude prevalence was calculated for ADHD diagnosis and psychostimulant prescriptions, in addition to several demographic variables. The presence of a socioeconomic gradient in lifetime ADHD diagnosis was investigated using Poisson and negative binomial regression. Relationships between young adults with lifetime ADHD diagnosis and health service utilization for several health and social outcome variables were explored using a matched cohort design with two comparison groups and GEE regression models. In relation to previous Manitoba research on childhood ADHD, the socioeconomic gradient for ADHD diagnosis was found to dissipate into young adulthood. However, when region of residence was accounted for, a small inverse gradient in the urban population and a direct gradient in the rural population were evident. Individuals from the highest income quintile were significantly less likely to be diagnosed before age 18 than all other income quintiles. Depression, anxiety, personality disorders, conduct disorder, substance abuse, multiple types of injuries, receipt of income assistance, and reduced high school graduation were significantly correlated with lifetime ADHD diagnosis. Given the high lifetime prevalence of ADHD in Manitoba young adults, significant socioeconomic correlates for diagnosis, and multitude of adverse health and social outcomes in this population, further investigation into the trajectory of this relatively unexplored population is recommended. Furthermore, continued measurement of the provision and success of additional resources will ultimately be necessary for enhancing the health status of all Canadian adults living with ADHD.

According to Kotler and Armstrong (2004: 259), “a product‟s position is the way the product is defined by consumers on important attributes”. Knowledge of these attributes, and more specifically, which attributes “attract customers to stores is more important than ever” (Paulins and Geistfeld 2003: 371). Furthermore, it is important to note that the attributes which constitute consumers‟ perceptions of value may be of different importance to different groups of consumers (Ziethaml 1988: 14 cited in Sweeney and Soutar 2001: 204), hence justifying the need to study Generation Y independently. According to Sweeney (2006: 6), it is important to study this specific age cohort as “Millennials are very different from previous generations at the same age” and many of their key behaviours and preferences “are likely to remain part of their lifelong culture” and adult buying behaviour. Consequently, it is vital to satisfy and capture this market now in order to secure a committed clientele for the future. Yarrow and O‟Donnell (2009: 2) also describe Generation Y as “potentially one of the most powerful and influential generations ever” (Yarrow and O‟Donnell 2009: 2), as well as being known for its unprecedented purchasing power “of which two-thirds goes on clothing” (Ebenkamp 1999: 4). The research objectives for this study were: 1. To identify the most patronised stores according to a sample of male and female Generation Y consumers. 2. To determine the relative importance of the attributes that Generation Y consumers apply when choosing between clothing retailers. 3. To determine the relative importance of the attributes that Generation Y consumers apply when purchasing various garments and pieces of clothing. 4. To identify the determinant attributes that influence clothing store selection among Generation Y consumers. 5. To determine whether a significant difference exists between the attributes of the male and female Generation Y respondents with regard to clothing store selection. The study involved a two-stage triangulated research design, with a qualitative focus group stage preceding a quantitative survey stage. The data obtained from the focus groups was analysed and subsequently used to formulate and refine the survey to be used in stage two of the triangulation. Purposive quota sampling was utilised during stage two of the research, which resulted in 380 sufficiently completed questionnaires, the findings from which enabled the researcher to achieve the research objectives. The key findings of the study revealed that Mr Price, Edgars, Woolworths and Identity were the most frequently patronised by the UKZNP student respondents. The attributes found to be of the most importance with regard to influencing clothing store selection were: High Quality Merchandise, Value for Money, Uniqueness of Merchandise, Fashionable Merchandise, Store Cleanliness, Wide Selection of Merchandise and Low Prices. The clothing attributes which were identified as the most important to the sample of Generation Y respondents when choosing clothing to purchase, were: Good Fit, Comfort and Quality. The results of the Discriminant Analysis, combined with the mean importance ratings of the clothing store attributes, revealed three determinant attributes influencing clothing store selection among the Generation Y respondents, namely: Low Prices, Fashionable Merchandise and Uniqueness of Merchandise. Finally, an Independent Samples T-Test, as well as a Mann-Whitney U-Test, were run to determine whether a significant difference exists between the attributes of the male and female Generation Y respondents with regard to clothing store selection. The results revealed that female Generation Y respondents in this study place greater importance on the attributes of Convenient Location, Low Prices and Appealing Advertising, when choosing between clothing retailers, while the male Generation Y respondents perceived High Quality Merchandise as being more important and influential. Lastly, numerous recommendations were made regarding how to target and satisfy the Generation Y consumer market, with particular reference to each of the clothing retailers. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.