Thesis, PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-154). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Magister Bibliothecologiae - MBibl / The problem upon which this study is based, is to determine the importance of bibliotherapy to children who are exposed to daily violence in society. Exposure to daily violence have detrimental consequences for these children which result in that it is a traumatic experience for them, that could affect personality development and interpersonal relations. This reseach is done within the context of a school situated in a violence society which provide the ideal oppurtunity to reach such children. The school provides an atmosphere which is conducive to reading and verbalisation. / South Africa

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationship between adult interpersonal functioning of women, currently in therapy wherein they were addressing unresolved issues about their childhood maltreatment, and childhood experiences referring to a developmental psychopathology framework. One hundred and twenty women (30 sexual abuse, 30 physical abuse, 30 family disruption, and 30 control) were individually presented with a series of audiotapes of three interpersonal situations (conflictual, neutral, dating), and asked to record their self-report of physiological response, self- and other-perceptions and coping responses. Physiological indices (heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure) were also recorded, as well as self-report of childhood coping strategies. The data were examined as to whether abuse survivors in therapy addressing their childhood experiences have more interpersonal problems than non-clinical control subjects or than individuals having other types of traumatic backgrounds and whether any noted interpersonal difficulties are specific to the type of abuse, or general in nature. Results indicated that abusive experiences are related to greater dysfunction in regards to self- and other-perceptions than exposure to disruptive/chaotic family environments alone. However, the differences appear to be variable-specific and few differences were obtained on physiological and coping variables. Some specific problems in adult interpersonal functioning were evidenced between the sexual and physical abuse groups. Specifically, in comparison to the physical abuse survivors, sexual abuse survivors reported greater use of different, and perhaps less adaptive, coping strategies in neutral situations. No other dependent variables significantly differed between the two groups. The results were discussed in terms of theoretical and empirical issues related to abuse-specific outcomes, the specific methodology employed in this study, and directions for future research. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY at the UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND, 2004. / This study explores the experiences of children exposed to domestic violence. The aim of the study is to contribute to a better understanding of how domestic violence affects children and to offer them an opportunity to describe their views on how the situation can be improved. The design used in this study is a qualitative phenomenological approach. Data was collected through individual semi-structured interviews with nine children between the ages of eight and fourteen years staying at St. Anthony's Children's Home, Blaauwbosch. These children were taken away from their homes as a result of domestic violence. The interviews were audiotape and transcribed verbatim for each participant. The data was then categorized, coded and analyzed in order to discover common and unique themes that form a general description of the experiences of children exposed to domestic violence. The results revealed that children prefer to be taken away from homes where there is domestic violence. While the social welfare department sometimes intervenes to restore family stability, in this study it became apparent that children are aware of causes or predisposing factors of domestic violence and they are actively involved in seeking solutions. Apart from placement in the children's home, family separation and finding someone to talk to parents were seen as effective ways of improving their situation.

The ‘child soldier’ is one of the most challenging concepts confronting the modern mind. Neither wholly “perpetrator” nor “innocent”, the child soldier character haunts the pages of our recent novels, drawing the reader into the sad page of the recent African history of civil wars. As controversial now as it was in the 1990s when it first appeared, the literature about child soldiers both invites and resists the reader‘s understanding of the reasons behind the grotesque acts of the African child soldier. Francophone African writers such as Ahamadou Kourouma, Emmanuel Dongala and Florent Couao-Zotti among others, have reappropriated the theory of the grotesque as a useful tool for investigating the postcolonial realities through the trope of child soldier. Distortion, degradation, irony, symbolism, and so on, as strategies of representation used in these writers’ novels all contribute not only to increase the reader’s difficulty in comprehending the child soldier but also to deny him sympathy. However, on examining closely the child soldier character whose acts everybody detests, the francophone African writers expose our new sacrificial and cannibalist practices. It is in this respect that the present study proposes to read the child soldier as a postcolonial figure which has become a signifier, not only of war and lawlessness, but also of marginal alienated African people who are victims of the exploitation of systems of modernity. The study further suggests that, in focusing our analyses exclusively upon the child soldier’s ambiguous nature as simultaneously ‘child’ and ‘soldier’, ‘strong’ and ‘weak’, ‘inocent’and‘guilty’, ‘protector’ and ‘destroyer’, and so on, this concept will start to become understandable. In other words, we will solve the problem of child soldier’s violence when such contradictions are given critical attention. It is thus only fitting that multiple voices or perspectives contradict one another in addressing postcolonial issues in Africa of which the child soldier is a clear example in this study.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2007 / Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Social Work. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 25-32, 54-62, 86-94).

Adolescent Alcohol Use (AAU) is widespread and potentially harmful to the health of youth. Substantial research and theoretical development suggest that both violence exposure and internalizing and externalizing problems of adolescents are associated with AAU. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the roles of internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescents to determine if the two types of symptoms are differential mediators of the link between violence exposure and AAU for females and males. Using Developmental Systems Theory as a framework, three primary hypotheses were examined: 1) Increased violence exposure at home and in the community are associated with increased AAU in both females and in males; 2) Internalizing problems mediate the relationship between home/community violence exposure and AAU for females; and 3) Externalizing problems mediate the relationship between home/community violence exposure and AAU for males. The secondary dataset that was utilized to test the hypotheses is a product of the 1995 National Survey of Adolescents in the United States. It includes a national probability sample of 3,161 adolescents and a probability oversample of 862 adolescents residing in urban areas for a total of 4,023 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17. The data were collected by telephone interviews with the adolescents. The findings indicated that, for the most part, witnessing and experiencing physical and sexual violence across home and community contexts were associated with increased levels of AAU for both females and males. Internalizing problems mediated the relationship between sexual abuse and AAU for both females and males. Externalizing problems did not mediate the relationship between violence exposure and AAU for males or females. The findings suggest that internalizing and externalizing problems may play similar roles in females and males. The findings also indicated that home violence exposure accounts for unique variance in AAU beyond community violence exposure, but that community and home violence exposure do not interact to contribute to the highest level of AAU. Both number of different types of sexual victimization and number of different types of physical victimization at home were related to AAU. Implications for social work are discussed. The primary implication for Development Systems Theory is that differential pathways for females and males from environmental stress, in particular violence exposure, to increases in AAU may not be needed. Social work programs aimed at preventing and intervening in AAU should include components that address not only the use itself, but also the level of violence the adolescent has been exposed to, as well as any internalizing problems the adolescent may be experiencing. Future research should continue to examine how risk factors operate to influence AAU.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-178). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-178). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.