Background: Hospitalizations including the diagnosis of an eating disorder (ED) have increased significantly in the pediatric population over the past few decades. Patients who are male, who areage, who receive an nasogastric (NG) tube, or who require admission to a residential treatment program often remain in the hospital for longer periods of time. Few studies examining LOS exist for children and adolescents with an ED. Longer lengths of stay have previously been associated with factors such as having Medicaid, a reduced body mass index (BMI) upon admission, and a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa (AN). Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine risk factors related to a longer LOS in children and adolescents admitted to a large urban pediatric hospital with AN or bulimia nervosa (BN). Participants/setting: A retrospective cohort study was conducted in 65 patients 9-20 years of age who were admitted to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2015. Statistical Analysis: Frequency statistics were used to describe the demographic, anthropometric, and clinical characteristics of the population. A Mann Whitney U test or Kruskal-Walllis test was used to examine differences in LOS by demographic characteristics, mode of nutrition therapy, discharge treatment program location, and admission BMI category. The association between LOS category by demographic and clinical characteristics was determined using a Chi-square statistic. Results: A total of 65 patients (94% female, 89% Caucasian) with a mean age of 14.6 ± 2.4 years were admitted during the study period. The median LOS was 9 days (IQR; 6, 13) and was significantly longer in those who had an NG tube placed vs. oral diet (11 days (IQR; 7, 21) vs. 8 days (IQR; 5, 9.3), respectively; p Conclusion: The characteristics of hospitalized pediatric patients with an ED were consistent with those of other studies. Longer lengths of stay in those who had an NG tube placed may have been due to the patient’s lack of compliance, failure to gain weight, and severity of malnutrition since more time is needed for medical recovery. More treatment centers for children and adolescents with an ED are needed in the state of Georgia to potentially reduce LOS. Future studies should include a greater percentage of males and larger population of children and adolescents.

Illegal political activity has always been part of a democratic society. Despite this, not much is known about young people’s involvement in these political activities. Research portrays political influence attempts of this kind in different terms; as troublesome for the democratic political system, as expressions of conscious decisions vital for humanity’s future, and yet other times as illustrations of a coming-of-age rebellion. Overall there is a lack of collective knowledge on illegal political activity, and especially in adolescence – the age period when these political activities seem to peak. The aim of this dissertation is therefore to enhance knowledge of involvement in illegal political activity in adolescence. This dissertation addresses this task in four empirical studies. Results show that mostly boys engage politically with illegal political means. Adolescents involved are also interested in politics, believe in their own abilities to take part in political activities, have long-term political goals, and approve of violent political tactics. In addition, these activities also seem to associate with a challenge of authority. This could be seen in how political dissatisfaction was translated into illegal political activity, and in the way these activities seemed to be reactions to a non legitimized parental authority. Besides authority challenges, these activities are likely the result of important peer relations; influences from peers with experiences of illegal political activity seem to be a most probable answer to why adolescents adopt these political means. Taken together, the results of this dissertation show that adolescents involved in illegal political activity are well-equipped for political involvement, challenge authorities in most contexts of their lives, and are likely to adopt these political means from already involved peers.

Dans la société occidentale, la maîtrise ou non de la lecture a une influence majeure sur le fonctionnement d'un individu dans la société en influençant sa réussite scolaire et son insertion socioprofessionnelle. Dans ce mémoire, nous nous interrogeons à savoir quelles sont les habiletés langagières entrant en relation avec la compréhension en lecture. Une évaluation individuelle des processus d'identification des mots, de la compréhension orale et écrite de même qu'une évaluation du niveau de vocabulaire maîtrisé à l'oral ont été effectuées auprès d'adolescents âgés de 15 à 16 ans. Les analyses montrent que leurs difficultés de compréhension en lecture ne sont pas associées à des difficultés d'identification de mots, mais bien à une faiblesse au niveau du vocabulaire oral. Ces résultats vont dans le même sens que les recherches sur le sujet qui démontrent que le vocabulaire joue un rôle important dans la compréhension de texte chez les adolescents.

Obesity affects Mexican American adolescents at a much higher rate compared to other ethnic groups, yet little information exists regarding Mexican American adolescents' perceptions of obesity. Culture influences many aspects of one's health, and when better understood, can aid in predicting health behaviors. Several major Mexican cultural values may contribute to Mexican American adolescents' perceptions of obesity and overall health. Healthcare providers must have a deeper understanding of how culture influences adolescents' perceptions of obesity to reduce the obesity trend that currently exists among these adolescents. Qualitative descriptive methodology was used to identify cultural values that likely influence Mexican American adolescents' perceptions of obesity. Five participants were recruited from a local Mexican American church organization in southern Arizona. The researcher conducted a focus group interview at a local library. The interview was conducted in English and audio-recorded for accuracy. A demographic questionnaire was also used to aid in data collection. The overarching theme that emerged from the data analysis was, "Food, Family, and Fidelidad." Major themes that support this overarching theme include: (a) knowledge about obesity, (b) perceptions of obesity, and (c) parental respect. These findings were interpreted using the concepts of the Health Belief Model. Cultural values (e.g., respeto, familismo, machismo, marianismo) and non-cultural factors (e.g., the media, youth organizations, and personal nutritional knowledge) highly influenced participants' perceptions of obesity. With a greater knowledge of how Mexican cultural values as well as non-cultural factors influence Mexican American adolescents' perceptions of obesity, healthcare providers will be better equipped and better prepared to give this population quality, patient-centered care, and can use this knowledge to create dynamic treatment options that reflect Mexican American adolescents' needs, values, concerns, and beliefs. These actions will greatly contribute to closing the healthcare gap that currently exists between healthcare providers and this vulnerable group of individuals.

Despite growing interest in maternal oral health, research aimed at this population is scant. To date, no qualitative studies of adolescent maternal oral health exist. Therefore, the purpose of this descriptive, exploratory, concurrent, mixed-methods study was to explore oral health status, beliefs, and practices, and pregnancy and parenting outcomes in this population by triangulating both quantitative and qualitative data. A non-probability, convenience sample of 46 pregnant and parenting adolescents was recruited. Five questionnaires were administered and visual oral examinations were conducted. Twenty-four of these 46 participants also participated in the qualitative component of the study. Adolescents in this study were both pregnant (n = 20; 43.5%) and parenting (n = 26; 56.5%), and primarily of Hispanic decent (n = 38; 83%). Of the 20 adolescents who were pregnant, four had been told by a nurse or physician that they had a pregnancy complication(s). Among the parenting adolescents, the most common past pregnancy complications were self-reported as prematurity (n = 6; 35%) and high blood pressure (n = 3; 18%). Thirty-three (72%) participants reported ever having dental insurance. While 16 (35%) participants had seen a dentist in the past 6 months, another 15 (33%) did not recall their last dental visit. One adolescent reported never having been to a dentist. Associations among visual oral health status and selected contextual variables were non-significant, which may be attributed to the small sample size. However, moderate significant correlations were found between social connectedness and oral-health-related quality of life, as well as between visual oral health status and measures of self-reported dental health. For the qualitative component, six themes related to oral health value and well-being, oral health knowledge, practices, myths, and barriers to accessing oral health services emerged. Triangulation of the quantitative and qualitative data did not produce statistical significance; however, discrepancies were found between the overall objective, visual oral health status, and the subjective perception of oral health status, which supports the overall findings. Future research should focus on larger studies to further explore associations between social connectedness, oral-health-related quality of life, and objective and subjective measures of oral health status and behaviors. / text

The study aims to contribute in the understanding of key values and behaviours for Education for sustainable development and their correlations and to further develop knowledge about how they are distributed among upper secondary school students in relation to socio-demographic factors. There were 274 surveys collected in 5 different schools in Ulaanbaatar and analysed using ANOVA followed by Tukey test and Pearson’s correlation tests. The study supports the findings of previous research that universal, benevolence and traditional values are positively correlated with a positive environmental behaviour. The positive orientation towards sustainability suggest that the current adolescent Mongolian population can become potential environmental supporters with a strong motivation towards sustainable behaviour and attitudes. The demographic and social factors were weak in relation to value orientations, no significant difference observed in value orientation. There was a notable gender difference in pro environmental behaviour which aligned with many existing academic studies. Social factors in relation to environmentally friendly attitude suggested that pro environmental adolescents were somehow exposed to the natural environment and read books during their free time displayed increasingly positive behaviour toward the environment. Therefore this study emphasises the importance of encouraging informal outdoor activities and increasing the access and popularity of reading books among youths. These measures would also serve to strengthen the benevolence value and promote pro environmental behaviour.

Experiencing sibling conflict is a fact of life for most children, and this study investigates which form of sibling conflict is more likely to lead to adjustment difficulties such as anxiety and depression. Questionnaires enquiring about sibling relationships, anxiety and depression were administered to 121 students of Westland High School aged between 13 and 18 years. The correlations and multiple regressions performed indicated that adolescents with a positive sibling relationship have significantly lower levels of depression. In addition, emotional conflict between siblings was found to be a significant predictor of depression, whilst jealousy was found to be a significant predictor of anxiety and social phobia. Implications for intervention regarding disciplining emotional aggression and controlling for jealousy are discussed.

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The purpose of this phenomenological enquiry was to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be an adolescent living with a sibling who has a chronic illness. Children’s chronic illness has an impact on well siblings and research findings have been inconsistent as to what effect this has on them. Semi-structured interviews using photo-elicitation were conducted with eight adolescents who had siblings with a chronic illness. Through the use of interpretive phenomenology, three themes emerged: Making Sense over Time, Getting Away from It All, and Creating Common Ground with Siblings and Family. The adolescents were able to make sense of chronic illness over time by asking parents questions about the illness and attending support groups. Siblings found normalcy in their lives by getting away to spend time alone or connecting with friends.

The aim of the research was to investigate the needs of adolescents and to determine their attitude, knowledge and skills regarding HIV/AIDS and life skills. The next step was to develop an empowering program to teach them life skills and to educate them with regard to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. To meet this aim, the following objectives were formulated: -To identify the needs of adolescents and extend their knowledge, skills and attitude regarding HIV/AIDS and life skills through empirical research and literature study. -To design a life skills program through a literature study and empirical research in order to improve the social functioning of the adolescents. The objectives were achieved by studying the relevant literature and through empirical research. The available literature on the subject was consulted to determine whether any research has been conducted in this field, and whether the subject could be researched. The empirical research was conducted to confirm the previous research findings. The literature study and empirical research were vital for formulating a social work empowering program. In this research, the survey method was used as a systematic fact-gathering procedure. Data was gathered through a structured questionnaire. The data was used to describe the study sample, since socio-economic status could possibly have an effect on the general health and development of children. The research data were collected from the adolescents and their families to estimate the prevalence of their living standards, habits and lifestyle, knowledge, attitude and behaviour regarding HIV/AIDS . The findings of this research reflected that adolescents had an urgent need for more knowledge and information concerning HIV/AIDS and life skills. In order to address this problem an empowering program was developed and will be presented. In this research the group work method will be used as an effective intervention strategy in empowering young people. Education is crucial; therefore it seems important to educate young people in certain life skills to empower them to cope with the challenges and demands of life. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.