The aim of this study was to examine three distinct parenting styles and their effect on children’s behavioural patterns, as perceived by the child. The parenting styles, based on Baumrind’s typologies of authoritative, authoritarian and permissive parenting, were measured as well as the children’s self-rated internal and external symptoms. Results indicated that there was a relationship between authoritarian parenting and all aspects of internal symptoms (depression, loneliness and self-esteem) as well as delinquency and aggression (external symptoms). Gender had an effect on depression and loneliness with females displaying higher levels. Permissive parenting was the largest contributor to drug use and an effect of age on drug use was also found. In conclusion, the results from this study shows that authoritarian parenting has a detrimental effect on a host of mental health issues and behavioural problems. However, authoritative parenting was shown to have the most positive outcome across the study. Implications for positive parenting style interventions are discussed. In addition, further studies examining parent-child relations from the child’s perspective are suggested.

More than half of known crime is committed by 5-6% of the criminal population. Who are these people? Research has shown that it is likely that a majority of these individuals are characterized by having a psychopathic personality. Interestingly, research has shown that psychopathic features are not unique to adults. Youths with high levels of psychopathic traits resemble adult psychopaths in that they are the most frequent, severe and aggressive, delinquent offenders. There is less knowledge, however, about the development of these traits in adolescence, and many fundamental questions have yet to be addressed. The aim of this dissertation is to begin to examine a few of these questions, such as: a) the role of parents andtheir behavior in the development of psychopathic personality in adolescence; b) patterns of stability and change in psychopathic traits during adolescence; and c) whether or not subgroups of adolescents with high levels of psychopathic traits can be identified in a normative community sample. Overall, the results reveal that a psychopathic personality profile characterizes a small group of youths at particular risk of negative development. This group, as well as showing high levels of psychopathic traits throughout adolescence, report high levels of delinquent behavior, and also experience dysfunctional relationships with their parents. Further, the results reveal important subgroups of adolescents with high levels of psychopathic traits, much in accordance with the literature on adult psychopaths. Whereas one group expresses the personality style of primary psychopaths, another is more aggressive, impulsive, and anxious than the other. Taken together, the results of this dissertation suggest that some adolescents are at particular risk of future negative development. Implications for theory and practice, and for the directions of future research, are discussed.

Introduction: African American adolescents have a higher prevalence of risky sexual behavior compared to Hispanic and White adolescents. African American adolescents account for 65% of HIV diagnoses among individuals aged 13 to 24 years (Jackson et al., 2015). The rising rate of new STI and HIV cases remains a public health concern and the need for intervention in target populations is outstanding. The objective of this study is to measure the association between alcohol and other substance use and risky sexual behaviors in African American adolescents in the United States. Methods: Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) 2015 National Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS) was used in this study. SAS 9.3 software package was used for descriptive analysis, univariate logistic regression, and multivariate logistic regression of assessing the relationship between alcohol and drug use with risky sexual behaviors in black adolescents in comparison with white adolescents. Results: When controlling for age, gender, and all other variables, African American adolescents that reported ever consuming alcohol were 2.2 (OR=2.2 95% CI=1.6-3.2 p= <.0001) times more likely to ever had sex, 3.8 (OR=3.8 95% CI= 2.9-4.9 p= <.0001) times more likely to have had sex with 4 or more people in the past 3 months, and 1.3 (OR=1.3 95% CI=0.8-2.1 p= <.0001) times more likely to have had sexual intercourse with at least 4 people in their lifetime. When asked if they ever used marijuana, adolescents that reported at least once were 4.5 (OR=4.5 95% CI= 3.2-6.5 p=<.0001) likely to have engaged in sexual intercourse, 3.8 (OR=3.8 95% CI=2.6-5.5 p= <.0001) times more likely to have had sex with four or more people in the past 3 months, and 6.1 (OR=6.1 95% CI=3.7-10.2 p= <.0001) times more likely to have at least 4 sexual partners in their lifetime. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that use of illicit substances does increase risky sexual behaviors in African American Adolescents. Further implications of this study can be utilized in the development of intervention programs. Intervention programs should target African American adolescents that engage in risky sexual behaviors and any substance use.

The focus of this thesis is economic evaluations of programs and interventions regarding children and adolescents with mental health issues, victimization, and intellectual disabilities (ID). The first paper examines a potential link between mental health issues among adolescent and the class-size of the school class they are enrolled in. The class-size and schools’ financial resources is often at the center of policy debates. Our results suggest that there is no evidence that larger classes have negative impact on the mental health for adolescents in a Swedish context. The second paper investigate the societal willingness to pay (WTP) to reduce bullying in Swedish schools. The results suggest that the tax payers WTP is about 5 SEK and the societal is about 600 000 SEK per reduced bullying victim. This value of WTP could be used as a measure to evaluate different investments in anti-bullying programs and efforts to reduce the bullying in schools. The third paper estimates the cost-effectiveness of one recently introduced antibullying program, the Finnish KiVa program, one of the few evidence based programs in the world. Based on a decision-analytic model, the results indicate that the KiVa program is a cost-effective program that has a cost per reduced victim well below the WTP as estimated in the second paper as documented above. The fourth paper evaluates, from the municipality perspective, the effects of investing in a SE program compared to “business as usual” in order to increase the likelihood for gaining regular employment for the pupils with ID. The results indicate that it takes 9 years before breakeven is reached if investing in the SE program. The fifth paper conducts a decision-analytic economic evaluation of the SE program using simulations to assess the effects over the full life-course. The results suggest that from a societal perspective the program is cost-effective ten years after the investment and by then has generated a benefit of 17 000 SEK per individual.

Research suggests that optimising affect during exercise may be key to exercise adherence (Van Landuyt, Ekkekakis, Hall & Petruzzello, 2000; Williams et al. 2008; 2012). Recent advances in this area have explored factors that contribute to affective responses in adult populations (Ekkekakis, 2003), but whilst it has been hypothesised that these factors are the same for children and adolescents they have not been explored systematically in the same way. As such, one aim of this thesis was to investigate the relationships between affect and physical activity in child and adolescent populations. Following on from this, a further aim was to explore the factors that contribute to affective responses. Given the research that suggests positive affect experienced during exercise may result in enhanced adherence to physical activity (Williams et al. 2012), the final aim of this study was to determine how to elicit the most positive affective responses during an acute exercise session. This thesis comprises a review of relevant literature, and six study chapters which were the result of three empirical studies; two acute exercise studies and one questionnaire based study. The findings of Study 1 demonstrated that, as with adults, affective responses declined after the onset of ventilatory threshold in both children and adolescents, indicating that to achieve optimum affective responses, particularly with younger children, exercise needs to be prescribed at an intensity below the ventilatory threshold. The findings from studies 2 - 4 highlighted specific factors that contribute to affective responses, reporting that preference for, and tolerance of, different exercise intensities may be an important factor to consider when prescribing exercise (studies 2 & 4). Results also showed that affective associations with physical activity played a significant role in determining overall physical activity behaviour (study 3). The findings from studies 4 and 5a and b revealed that encouraging adolescents to self-select their own exercise intensity may elicit a more positive affective response during the exercise session compared to the affective responses elicited during a prescribed exercise session. This thesis provides substantial evidence to support the link between affect and physical activity in children and adolescents. More specifically, it highlights several important factors that should be considered when attempting to enhance affective responses during an acute exercise session.

Lower performance on measures of neuropsychological and academic ability has been noted in adolescents with either Type I Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) or exposure to traumatic life events. This present study looked to gather information on trauma exposure and symptoms in adolescents with T1DM. The first aim was to compare the neuropsychological and academic achievement performance of Type I Diabetes Mellitus positive adolescents who had experienced a traumatic event with those who had not. Second, the study explored if T1DM positive adolescent’s performance on neuropsychological and academic achievement could be predicted by the number and severity of traumatic stress symptoms they experienced. Finally, the study aimed to explore the nature of trauma exposure of its T1DM positive adolescent participants. Results found limited evidence participants who self-reported trauma exposure performed worse than those who did not on a measure of perceptual reasoning; those with parent-reported trauma exposure scored lower on a measure of visual perception and reasoning as well as an assessment of calculation ability than those whose parents did not. As trauma symptoms scores as reported by either self- or parent-report increased, participant scores on measures of general cognitive ability and attention decreased. As self-reported trauma symptoms increased, performance on perceptual reasoning and psychomotor ability decreased. As parent-reported trauma symptoms increased, vocabulary and verbal abilities decreased. In addition to the results noted for trauma symptom scores, the as the number of self-reported symptoms increased, executive functioning, vocabulary, and verbal abilities decreased. While parent-reported trauma symptoms were not associated with decreased performance on any academic measure, as self-reported trauma symptoms scores increased math calculation, reading comprehension, and writing fluency scores decreased.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of group counseling upon personality and behavior changes in delinquent girls confined in a state training school in Texas.

This study investigated adolescents' perception of parental behavior toward them and its relationship with sex, delinquency, and security. The subjects chosen for the study were sixty boys and sixty girls from eleventh grade English classes, and sixty boys and sixty girls from two institutions for juvenile delinquents. All subjects were white, they ranged in age from fifteen through eighteen years, and they had two living parents.

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.

Resilience is the ability to survive and persevere during difficult times. Resilient people also thrive after overcoming adversity. Adolescents have many developmental tasks to overcome in their quest to becoming adults. Difficulty with these tasks can lead to academic and personal failures. Adolescents with low resilience often struggle with low self-esteem. If students are identified early as having lower levels of resilience, professional school counselors have an opportunity to provide resilience-enhancing activities. Prior to middle school, students are assigned all of their classes. During middle school, students begin to select their elective courses which may be representative of their interests and current emotional status. By looking at students' elective courses, I looked for patterns of resilience that may help professional school counselors proactively identify students in need of additional guidance in order to be academically successful. This study utilized a convenience sample of middle school students enrolled in the 8th grade (N = 190) of a large suburban school district located in the southwest United States to measure levels of resilience and elective course enrollment. Gender of the participants was 107 females and 83 males. The students reported their ethnicity as 5.8% African American/Black, 11.1% Asian, 12.6% Hispanic, 1.1% Native American, 1.6% Pacific Islander, 59.5% Caucasian/White, and 8.4% multiracial. I measured resilience in this study using the Resilience Scale and comparisons based on elective course. Data analyses include descriptive statistics and ANOVAs. Based on a statistical significance criterion of p < .05, students enrolled in athletics scored significantly higher in resilience than did non-athletics students enrolled in physical education/outdoor education (p = .035). Additionally, Caucasian females were significantly less resilient than Caucasian males (p = .031). Limitations of the study, implications of the results for practice, and recommendations for future research are presented.