Aim: The aim of the study is to explore the relationships between an adolescent’s weight and parenting style, emotional eating, and emotional regulation and lifestyle behaviours to further develop the understanding of the factors that contribute to the current epidemic of childhood obesity. Design: A cross sectional survey design was used. Method: 112 adolescents, aged between 16 and 18 from three secondary schools in Scotland completed a self-report questionnaire on their mother and father’s parenting style, their own emotional regulation strategies, emotional eating and lifestyle behaviours. Their height and weight was measured by the researcher and used to calculate the adolescents’ BMI. Results: Overall, this study did not find that adolescent’s healthy food habits, exercise and emotional eating predicted BMI. There were no significant relationships found between BMI and parenting style, emotional eating and emotional regulation. Conclusion: These findings suggest that parenting style, emotional eating, emotional regulation and lifestyle behaviours are not related to adolescent weight.

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This thesis is based on theoretical findings in the area of developmental psychology and focuses on the period of adolescence. The aim of the thesis is the description of specific features of adolescence as a developmental period typically associated with certain types of behaviour and typical language usage, mainly in the area of vocabulary. The thesis aims at linking description of intellectual development with linguistic alasysis to specify norms of communication within the youth subculture. Theoretical claims are verified by data from empirical research in the form of a survey and linguistic analyses of both audio and video recordings and samples of written communication between adolescents. The thesis accentuates the term youth subculture and puts forward that one of its main characteristics is a specific area of vocabulary which helps to strengthen peer relationships.

Observations of adolescent's language in upper secondary school in Sweden. Do teenagers stule-shift when speaking in different communicative settings; that is the core of this essay. Five informants have been observed in three different speaking sessions, and their language is analyzed, discussed and compared to secondary sources.

The diploma thesis focuses on the youngest age cathegory of respondents in public opinion polls. The main goal is to examine character and quality of information about adolescent's attitudes and opinions obtained in public opinion polls that are held by The Public Opinion Research Centre. To achieve the main goal nonattitude is examined. The thesis will be divided into theoretical and practical part. Theoretical part stands on the basis of public opinion sociology and developmental psychology and the issue of attitude measurement is introduced along with adolescents developmental theory and characteristics. Practical part reflects the information summoned in theoretical part and test them on data collected by The Public Opinion Research Centre which were obtained in continuous research within project Our society. Analysis focuses on examination of nonresponse, don't know answers and neutral attitudes. Results are compared among all age groups.

Research has identified a number of putative risk factors that places adolescents at incrementally higher risk for involvement in alcohol and other drug (AOD) use and sexual risk behaviors (SRBs). Such factors include personality characteristics such as sensation-seeking, cognitive factors such as positive expectancies and inhibition conflict as well as peer norm processes. The current study was guided by a conceptual perspective that support the notion that an integrative framework that includes multi-level factors has significant explanatory value for understanding processes associated with the co-occurrence of AOD use and sexual risk behavior outcomes. This study evaluated simultaneously the mediating role of AOD-sex related expectancies and inhibition conflict on antecedents of AOD use and SRBs including sexual sensation-seeking and peer norms for condom use. The sample was drawn from the Enhancing My Personal Options While Evaluating Risk (EMPOWER: Jonathan Tubman, PI), data set (N = 396; aged 12-18 years). Measures used in the study included Sexual Sensation-Seeking Scale, Inhibition Conflict for Condom Use, Risky Sex Scale. All relevant measures had well-documented psychometric properties. A global assessment of alcohol, drug use and sexual risk behaviors was used. Results demonstrated that AOD-sex related expectancies mediated the influence of sexual sensation-seeking on the co-occurrence of alcohol and other drug use and sexual risk behaviors. The evaluation of the integrative model also revealed that sexual sensation-seeking was positively associated with peer norms for condom use. Also, peer norms predicted inhibition conflict among this sample of multi-problem youth. This dissertation research identified mechanisms of risk and protection associated with the co-occurrence of AOD use and SRBs among a multi-problem sample of adolescents receiving treatment for alcohol or drug use and related problems. This study is informative for adolescent-serving programs that address those individual and contextual characteristics that enhance treatment efficacy and effectiveness among adolescents receiving substance use and related problems services.

Unwanted and unintended pregnancies pose major reproductive health challenges to women throughout the world. Despite the availability of modern contraceptives, many women and men fail to use contraceptives effectively. This research focussed on reasons for not using contraceptives effectively in the Northern Tshwane area of the Gauteng Province of the Republic of South Africa (RSA). Structured interviews were conducted with 83 women and 71 men about their contraceptive practices. Age, religion, educational level and residential areas influenced clients' contraceptive practices. These results were categorised for adult males and females as well as for adolescent males and females. Adolescents encountered problems in accessing contraceptive services. Adult females knew most about traditional contraceptives, although men knew about some of these methods, and adolescents used some of them. All respondents could gain additional knowledge about modern contraceptives. The respondents' knowledge about · emergency contraceptives was extremely limited. Although most respondents knew about legalised choice on.termination of pregnancy (CTOP) services in the RSA, they did not know when nor how to access these services. Nurses working in contraceptive health services, revealed during a focus group discussion that a lack of resources (including shortages of malcondoms, contraceptive injections and oral contraceptives) hampered the quality of services that could be rendered. Of particular concern was the nonavailability of Norplant implants and female condoms. Nurses expressed a need for pecific national policy guidelines about supplying contraception to adolescents. Although most nurses knew about emergency contraceptives, they did not promote its use because they assumed that clients would misuse emergency contraceptives.instead of using contraceptives regularly. The nurses indicated that very few facilities offered CTOP services. The nurses regarded women who obtained repeated CTOPs to be misusing these services and suggested that limitations should be placed on the number-of times any woman could obtain such services. The negative attitudes of community members and of colleagues towards persons working in CTOP services caused hardships for them. Recommendations address ways in which contraceptive services could be improved. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Advanced Nursing Sciences)

Unwanted and unintended pregnancies pose major reproductive health challenges to women throughout the world. Despite the availability of modern contraceptives, many women and men fail to use contraceptives effectively. This research focussed on reasons for not using contraceptives effectively in the Northern Tshwane area of the Gauteng Province of the Republic of South Africa (RSA). Structured interviews were conducted with 83 women and 71 men about their contraceptive practices. Age, religion, educational level and residential areas influenced clients' contraceptive practices. These results were categorised for adult males and females as well as for adolescent males and females. Adolescents encountered problems in accessing contraceptive services. Adult females knew most about traditional contraceptives, although men knew about some of these methods, and adolescents used some of them. All respondents could gain additional knowledge about modern contraceptives. The respondents' knowledge about · emergency contraceptives was extremely limited. Although most respondents knew about legalised choice on.termination of pregnancy (CTOP) services in the RSA, they did not know when nor how to access these services. Nurses working in contraceptive health services, revealed during a focus group discussion that a lack of resources (including shortages of malcondoms, contraceptive injections and oral contraceptives) hampered the quality of services that could be rendered. Of particular concern was the nonavailability of Norplant implants and female condoms. Nurses expressed a need for pecific national policy guidelines about supplying contraception to adolescents. Although most nurses knew about emergency contraceptives, they did not promote its use because they assumed that clients would misuse emergency contraceptives.instead of using contraceptives regularly. The nurses indicated that very few facilities offered CTOP services. The nurses regarded women who obtained repeated CTOPs to be misusing these services and suggested that limitations should be placed on the number-of times any woman could obtain such services. The negative attitudes of community members and of colleagues towards persons working in CTOP services caused hardships for them. Recommendations address ways in which contraceptive services could be improved. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Advanced Nursing Sciences)