Using cross-cultural and cultural perspectives, this thesis investigated ideals of parenting and the relations between parenting mismatches and youth adjustment in a sample of adolescents from Chinese immigrant families and Canadian non-immigrant families. Asian traditional parenting techniques have been linked to both positive and negative outcomes in Asian immigrant youth. This study sought to clarify these mixed findings by focusing on adolescent interpretations of parenting, specifically their opinions of how parents should behave, which is referred to as parenting ideals. Parental behaviours of warmth, reasoning, monitoring, and harsh discipline were investigated. Results indicated that adolescents from Chinese immigrant families and Canadian adolescents desired similar levels of these parenting behaviours from their fathers and mothers, with the exception of harsh discipline behaviours. Amongst Chinese adolescents, some findings supported the hypothesis that cultural orientation is related to parenting ideals. Parenting mismatches, or discrepancies between actual and ideal parenting, were hypothesized to be related to more depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem. Findings supported this hypothesis in the dimensions of parental warmth and monitoring, but not reasoning. Low endorsement of perceptions, ideals, and mismatches in harsh discipline precluded strong conclusions about this parenting dimension. Directions for future research and implications for parent education and clinical settings were discussed. / Graduate / 0621 / vivienso@uvic.ca

Implicit family process rules refer to unspoken rules about family beliefs and expectations about communication, closeness, and organization and are an important dimension of family functioning that may have a powerful influence over adolescent psychological well being. This study focused on the relationship between implicit family process rules and adolescent psychological symptoms such as: Hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, and somatization. It was hypothesized that more facilitative implicit family process rules would be related to fewer adolescent psychological symptoms. In addition, a model was created that included theexogenousindependent variables of family status, (defined as intact-marriage or non-intact), treatment status (whether the adolescent was currently in a psychological treatment program or not), and gender to test their relationships to implicit family process rules and adolescent psychological symptoms. A non-treatment sample (N=99) was recruited in Utah County, Utah, using a sample of convenience. The treatment sample (N=144) was recruited from an adolescent residential wilderness therapy program located in Duchesne County, Utah. The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and the Family Implicit Rules Profile (FIRP) were administered to each participant along with a questionnaire requesting demographic information. Structural equation modeling was used to explore the relationships between the exogenous variables, facilitative implicit family process rules, and adolescent psychological symptoms. The model was tested using AMOS statistical software. Results showed that implicit family process rules were significantly related to adolescent psychological symptoms such that facilitative rules were related to fewer psychological symptoms. Males reported more constraining rules on the Expressiveness subscale of the FIRP while females reported more symptomology on the Interpersonal Sensitivity subscale of the BSI. These findings support previous research on family dynamics and psychological functioning and support the hypothesis that perceived implicit family process rules are important to study in adolescents. This research is a step toward a more epistemological approach to family therapy with adolescents as well as a step toward more preventative family therapy and education by addressing family rules. Implications for family therapists and future research are discussed.

This dissertation examines the longitudinal influences of parental relationships – romantic, co-parenting, and parent-child – on positive adolescent functioning. Utilizing data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this study investigates how various dimensions of parental relationships impact adolescent well-being at age 15, as measured by the EPOCH scale. Grounded in Attachment Theory and the Life Course Perspective, this research highlights the interconnectedness of early parental interactions and their long-term effects on adolescents’ emotional and social development. Key findings indicate that supportive and stable parental relationships significantly enhance adolescents’ engagement, perseverance, optimism, connectedness, and happiness. The study emphasizes the critical role of early family dynamics in shaping positive developmental trajectories and offers insights for interventions aimed at fostering resilient and well-adjusted adolescents. These findings underscore the importance of promoting healthy parental relationships to support adolescents’ overall well-being and successful transition into adulthood.

Research suggests that people define themselves, at least in part, in terms of their group memberships and that their psychology often depends on the state of the groups that defines the self (Haslam, Jetten, Postmes, & Haslam, 2009). Historically, the number of social groups in which people are active or with which they identity is seen as social capital and as leading to better mental health (e.g. identity-complexity, or social complexity, Linville, 1987). As such, social and clinical psychologists generally advocate and perpetuate the idea that multiple group membership and complex patterns of identification is psychologically beneficial to individuals. However, is identity-complexity straightforwardly positive for everyone? The current study examined how issues of identity-complexity are associated with psychological well-being in a young population (16-25). We hypothesised that identity-complexity might not be straightforwardly positive when multiple identities conflict with one another or when particular groups are stigmatised. The sample was made up of 464 young persons from a variety of social, cultural, economic, and educational backgrounds in schools, colleges, and universities. As hypothesised, participants who reported multiple identity conflicts and stigma were found to have less resilience and life satisfaction, and more depression and anxiety. Notably, findings also revealed that while it was psychologically advantageous for White participants to belong to multiple groups, the reverse was found for Black participants. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed. Results provide further insight on the relationship between multiple group membership and well-being.

<p>This dissertation consists of two original empirical studies on the determinants of teenage childbearing in the United States. The first study examines the impact of educational attainment on teenage childbearing, using school entry laws as an instrument for education and a highly detailed North Carolina administrative dataset that links birth certificate data to school administrative records. I show that being born after the school entry cutoff date affects educational success in offsetting ways, with a negative impact on years of education but positive impact on test scores. Using an IV regression strategy to distinguish the impacts of years of education and test scores, I show that both educational measures have negative impacts on teenage childbearing.</p><p>The second study examines potential causes of the decline in the U.S. teenage birth rate between 1991 and 2010. Using age-period-cohort models with Vital Statistics birth data and Census population counts, I show that the decline was driven by period changes in the early 1990s but by cohort changes between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s. I also use a difference-in-differences model to investigate the extent to which social policies in the 1970s-1980s can explain these cohort changes. The evidence suggests that while legalization of abortion for adult women and unilateral divorce laws had a significant impact on teenage birth rates in the 1990s-2000s, abortion legalization is unlikely to be a major explanation for the observed decline.</p> / Dissertation

As Sweden has moved towards an assessment-driven education system, an increase in studies reporting the decline of students’ well-being has also followed. The studies indicate a strong correlation between said decline and the potential negative effects of assessment such as stress and emotional distress. Defining well-being as a balance between the students’ abilities and their aims, this essay investigates how and why Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (1991) can be used as a tool for identifying the possible impact of assessment on this   balance while simultaneously working towards both abstract and concrete goals of current curricula and the Education Act. Foucauldian theory is utilized as a way of identifying and dismantling structures of assessment with key factors such as surveillance, testing and categorization constituting the main foci in the analysis of Ender’s Game. The extremes of assessment at Card’s Battle School provide an excellent opportunity for students to gain awareness of their own situation at a safe distance while identifying potential similarities in the Swedish Education System and their effects on well-being.