The exodus of young people from traditional churches is well established and this project is a handbook to guide more meaningful engagement with young adolescents. Based in ministry experience and research, the handbook addresses parents, religious educators, youth ministers, and pastors who seek to enhance young adolescents’ faith formation. By affirming and encouraging them through this time of changing bodies, minds, and emotions, early adolescent faith formation can introduce Catholic Christian beliefs and values in a context that matters to the youth: their own struggle to become the persons God created them to be. The handbook makes practical suggestions for effective ways to build inter generational relationships.

The purpose of this study was to model students’ perceptions of teachers (fair, warm, friendly, etc.) over time from 6th to 9th grade, to examine whether a relationship existed between students’ perceptions of teachers and distal outcomes of education attainment and education status in emerging adulthood, and to examine whether gender was associated with teacher perceptions, the trajectory of perceptions, or the outcomes. Attachment Theory and Self Determination Theory were used as frameworks for understanding relationships between study variables. The present study used existing data from a longitudinal, multi-wave, intervention study (Project Alliance 2 [PAL-2] DA018374) that addressed adolescents’ negative behaviors during middle school to high school. Data was examined from a sample of 415 participants from the larger randomized control trial of 593. Participants were students from three socioeconomically and ethnically diverse public middle schools in the Pacific Northwest. Data was analyzed using Mplus7.1 using full information maximum likelihood to account for missing data. The study had several key findings. First, latent class growth model (LCGM) analyses revealed a significant a linear model that showed an overall declining trajectory of students’ perceptions of teachers from 6th to 9th grade. There was a significant difference between students’ perceptions of teachers in 6th grade and education status. Students who reported more positive perceptions of teachers in 6th grade were more likely to endorse enrollment in a vocational or educational program. Second, LCGM analyses further revealed a model with an added quadratic term that showed an overall declining trajectory of student’s perceptions of teachers that decelerated beginning at 7th grade. Third, LCGM and growth mixture model analyses examined trajectories of students’ perceptions of teachers over time and revealed a two-class model. The first class was represented by a declining trajectory and a second class represented by overall lower students’ positive perceptions of teachers in 6th grade that increase each year through the 9th grade. Students’ perceptions of teachers appear to converge in 9th grade for both classes. Implications for practice and research, along with limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

The present study examined the relationships among perceived social support, mental health, and achievement in early adolescents, via analysis of an archival data set consisting of 390 middle school students. Specifically of interest was how various sources of social support (i.e., parent, classmate, and teacher) independently and uniquely predicted pathology (i.e., internalizing and externalizing symptoms) and wellness (i.e., life satisfaction) in youth. This study also examined the role of gender in the relationship between social support and mental health outcomes in order to delineate the specific types of support most salient to boys versus girls. Finally, this study explored the protective nature of high student academic achievement in the relationship between social support and mental health in order to determine if academic achievement moderated the relationship between social support and mental health. Results indicated that social support from all sources was inversely associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems, and associated in a positive manner with life satisfaction and achievement. Social support was a significant predictor of all mental health outcomes, with social support and life satisfaction evidencing the strongest relationship. The strength and magnitude of the associations between perceived support from various sources and student mental health were consistent across gender groups, evidencing no moderating effect. Academic achievement moderated the direction and strength of the relationships between externalizing behavior and (a) classmate support, and (b) parent support, respectively. Implications for school psychologists and directions for future research are discussed.

Given increased evidence related to the importance of fostering life satisfaction in the overall population (Diener & Diener, 1996), as well as recent suggestions regarding the importance of increasing positive academic and social outcomes for youth with ADHD (DuPaul, 2007), it is important to gain a clearer understanding of how life satisfaction may be related to ADHD symptoms. Although research has examined the relationship between life satisfaction and externalizing behavior (Suldo & Huebner, 2004a), research on the relationship between life satisfaction and ADHD is currently limited. This study examined if levels of ADHD symptoms predicted reports of life satisfaction in a middle school population (n = 172). Hyperactive/impulsive and inattentive symptoms explained 2.5% of the variance in the dependent variable, life satisfaction, which is not a statistically significant amount, F(2, 169) = 2.2, p = .12. Results of this study also demonstrated that perceived interparental conflict did not moderate the relationship between ADHD symptoms and life satisfaction. Additionally, results of this study demonstrated that life satisfaction did not moderate the relationship between inattentive symptoms and academic achievement in reading, academic achievement in mathematics, and depressive symptoms. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

abstract: This study addresses conflicting findings regarding gender differences in the moderating role of ethnic private regard in the longitudinal association between school ethnic discrimination and educational values among Latina/o early adolescents. Participants included 689 Latina/o early adolescents in middle school (Mage = 12.06, SD = .98 at Time 1; Mage = 12.66, SD = 1.00 at Time 2). Two waves of data were collected approximately eight months apart. Ethnic private regard moderated the association between school ethnic discrimination at time 1 and educational values at time 2 only among Latino male early adolescents, such that the negative association between school ethnic discrimination and educational values existed only for males with high ethnic private regard. Implications highlight the need to enhance teachers’ cultural competency in working with Latino male students. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Counseling Psychology 2016

The Master thesis deals with possible links between children´s attachment in their early adolescence and their personality characteristics. Bowlby´s theory of attachment, developmental characteristics of children in their early adolescence as well as various approaches to the concept of personality with a special emphasis on the theory of J. Block and J. Block are indroduced on the basis of studied literature. The Master thesis contains an evaluation of data gathered in a survey on attachment and its linkages with adolescents´ personality characteristics. The survey was carried out by the application of methods called {\clqq}Das Bindungsinterview für die späte Kindheit`` (BISK, An Interview on the Attachment in the Late Childhood) and {\clqq}California Child Q-sort`` (CCQ) which are described in detail in a practical part of the thesis.

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediation and moderation effects of classroom peer norms (CPN) on the associations of teacher support with student engagement and aggression during sixth grade (first year of middle school). Current literature suggests that early adolescence is a critical developmental period with many changes occurring, including a peak in aggression, decreased academic engagement, increased peer influence, and decreased teacher support. Despite these challenging changes, teachers often serve as a powerful yet “invisible hand” (Farmer, Lines, & Hamm, 2011) that can influence student behaviors directly or indirectly via CPN. However, these two routes of teacher influence have rarely been examined simultaneously. The current study investigated these two routes by examining the partial mediation and moderation effects of CPN on the associations of teacher support with four student behaviors (overt and relational aggression, involved and disruptive behavior) among a diverse sample of 312 students from 32 classrooms across the fall and spring of sixth grade. Students self-reported teacher support (academic, emotional) and engagement (involved, disruptive behavior) and peer-nominated aggression (overt, relational). CPN was computed as a class average of a certain behavior (aggression or engagement). Multilevel modeling was used to test the mediation and moderation effects, considering the nested nature of the data (i.e., students nested within classrooms). Results indicated full mediation effect of CPN on the relations of fall teacher support with spring overt aggression, relational aggression, and disruptive behavior, and a moderation effect on spring involved behavior. Interestingly, the average classroom perception of teacher support showed a significant direct negative effect on relational aggression and disruptive behavior, and a direct positive effect on involved behavior, all of which became smaller and non-significant when CPN was taken into consideration (i.e., when the indirect or mediation effect was considered). In terms of the mediation effects, classes which had high levels of average perception of teacher support in the fall tended to have low disruptive behavior CPN, which was further associated with low levels of individual student disruptive behavior in the spring. The same mechanism applied to overt and relational aggression, except that the significance level of the relations of CPN with overt and relational aggression was marginal (i.e., p < .10). The moderation effect suggests that students who reported high levels of teacher support in the fall (relative to his/her classmates, regardless of the class average) tended to report high levels of involved behavior in the spring only if the fall involved behavior CPN was also high. These findings highlight the importance to investigate both teacher and peer influence within a classroom in order to better understand student behaviors during the first year of middle school. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as well as limitations and future directions.

In this study an attempt was firstly made to define, describe and explicate the phenomenon of HIV/AIDS providing a basis for understanding the multidimensional nature, key characteristics and impact of HIV/AIDS in terms of its background, the current status as well as the future of the epidemic. Literature concerning HIV/AIDS in general, global and in particular the South African situation was discussed. Secondly the concept AIDS orphans was investigated after which grounding, description and explanation of the problems and needs of AIDS orphans were presented in order to give a clear picture of challenges faced by these children. Problems of orphan-hood such as legal and ethical issues, socio-emotional issues, educational issues, financial issues and child-headed households were identified. The study focused on early adolescent AIDS orphans therefore adolescence, as a life phase with specific emphasis on early adolescence was reviewed. Hereafter, the researcher presented a newly self-developed life skills programme for early adolescent AIDS orphans (i.e. AIDS ORPHANS LIFE SKILLS PROGRAMME) followed by all the empirical research findings, a general summary, conclusions and recommendations. The broad aim of the study was to develop and empirically test the effectiveness of a life-skills programme for early adolescent AIDS orphans. Two research questions and a hypothesis were formulated for the study. The research questions included: (a) what is the nature and prevalence of socio-emotional needs and problems of early adolescent AIDS orphans? (b) What are the life skills needed by early adolescent AIDS orphans? Accordingly the hypothesis of the study read: If early adolescent AIDS orphans undergo a life-skills programme then their skills will be enhanced in order to cope better with their socio-emotional needs and problems. In the context of applied research the type of research conducted in this study was intervention research. This type of research was relevant for this particular study because it is a problem-solving process seeking an effective intervention programme for the promotion of life skills for early adolescent AIDS orphans. In view of the fact that the AIDS orphan situation is a crises for the whole nation innovative preventative positive educational programmes for children orphaned by AIDS are deemed pivotal. The focus of this research study was two-folded using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The first phase of the study was qualitative and explorative in nature. The aim of the researcher was to have a broader understanding of the phenomenon HIV/AIDS, the socio-emotional needs and problems of and life skills needed by early adolescent AIDS orphans in South Africa. The focus of the second phase was to develop a life skills programme for early adolescent AIDS orphans, based on the information collected in the first phase of the study and then to empirically test the effectiveness of the newly developed life skills programme. The researcher used semi-structured interviews with a schedule to collect qualitative data during the first phase of the research. During the second phase, the researcher utilised a self-constructed group administered questionnaire to collect quantitative data before and after implementation of the life skills programme (pre-test and post-test). In order to explore the socio-emotional needs and problems of and life skills needed by early adolescent AIDS orphans, a phenomenological design seemed appropriate. The research design was selected to reach the first three objectives of the study, namely: To conceptualise theoretically the phenomenon of HIV/AIDS and AIDS orphans, the specific characteristics, needs and problems of early adolescents as well as life skills for early adolescents; a) To explore and identify the nature and prevalence of socio-emotional needs and problems of early adolescent AIDS orphans; b) To explore and identify the life skills which AIDS orphans, in their early adolescent phase need to improve their coping capabilities; Qualitative data through semi-structured interviews with a schedule was collected. The sample thus included 40 respondents i.e. 10 social workers, 10 caregivers and 20 AIDS orphans. The empirical research findings based on the first part of the study confirmed that HIV/AIDS has forced vast numbers of children into precarious circumstances, putting them at high risk of becoming infected with HIV. AIDS orphans are especially vulnerable to HIV infection for a host of social and economic reasons including poverty, sexual exploitation, violence, and lack of access to HIV information and prevention services. The consequence of this is that children are often socially isolated and deprived of basic social services. The findings further confirmed that there are currently no life skills programmes specifically designed for early adolescent AIDS orphans in South Africa. Deficiencies in life skills contribute to the vulnerability and exploitation of these children. Life skills were viewed as crucial in improving the quality of life of AIDS orphans. Life skills can enable adolescents to develop sound and positive view of life. The researcher also applied the comparison group pretest-posttest design (i.e. a quasi-experimental comparison group pretest-posttest design) with respondents to reach the last three objectives of the study, namely: a) To develop a life-skills programme for early adolescent AIDS orphans; b) To empirically test the effectiveness of the developed life skills programme for early adolescent AIDS orphans; and c) To suggest practical recommendations for further utilisation of the newly developed life skills programme for early adolescent AIDS orphans. The researcher developed a life skills programme for early adolescent AIDS orphans namely AIDS Orphans Life Skills Programme. The evaluation of the self-developed life skills programme for early adolescent AIDS orphans was done by a self-constructed group administered questionnaire in the pre-test i.e. before implementation of AIDS orphans life skill programme, and post-test with both the experimental (30 respondents) and comparison group (30 respondents). The sample thus included a total of 60 early adolescent AIDS orphans and the empirical data was collected to include 2 measurements once before and once after the intervention (AIDS orphans life skills programme). The findings confirmed that there was a statistical significance difference in the experimental groups life skills (i.e. sense of identity and self-esteem, communication, assertiveness, self-awareness, coping and stress management, decision making, problem solving, conflict management and a healthy life style) with a 95% chance that the results were due to AIDS Orphans Life Skills. There was not statistical difference in the experimental groups critical and creative thinking skills. Nine out of ten key elements of AIDS orphans life skills programme were thus successful in that they promoted life skills amongst early adolescent AIDS orphans. AIDS orphans life skills programme is perceived as having had the impact that was hoped for. / Thesis (DPhil (Social Work))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Social Work / unrestricted

The goal of this study was to examine influence of peers on the popularity goal of early adolescents. Research has demonstrated that there is increased preoccupation with popularity status during early adolescence, but there is little research on what influences youths' actual goal for popularity status (Adler & Adler, 1998). To address this gap in the literature, this research investigated two types of peer influences on adolescents' popularity goal over time: peer group norms and perceived peer norms. Youth are assumed to be influenced by the norms set by their peer groups and by their perceptions of the peer norms for popularity. However, individuals are also assumed to be differentially open to such influence. Therefore, I considered potential moderators for both types of peer influence. Two moderators were explored for the influence of peer group norm on early adolescents' popularity goal over time: the group's popularity status and an individual's own status within the group. For the influence of perceived peer norms on early adolescents' popularity goal over time, I considered an interaction with the peer group's norm for popularity goal. Given the nested nature of the data, with adolescents within peer groups, this study employed Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) analyses to model the effects of peer groups on individuals over time. A total of 232 adolescents in 57 peer groups were included in the study. A series of models were analyzed to test for the influence of peer group norms on adolescents' popularity goal over time. First, the main effect of peer group norm on adolescents' popularity goal was tested. Results demonstrate that the higher the peer group norm, the higher adolescents' popularity goal at Time 2, after controlling for their popularity goal at Time 1. Second, the two-way interaction between peer group norm and groups' popularity status on adolescents' popularity goal was tested. Results indicate that the association between peer group norms and adolescents' popularity goal was significantly moderated by the popularity status of the group. A higher peer group norm was associated with higher popularity goal over time when adolescents were in low popular groups. The association between peer group norm and popularity goal remained relatively stable for those adolescents in high popular groups. Third, I tested the three-way interaction between peer group norms, groups' popularity status, and individual members' status within the group on adolescents' popularity goal over time. Results indicate that the strength of the association between group norm and adolescents' popularity goal was stronger for low status individuals than high status individuals in high popular groups. For those high status individuals, a negative association was found. There was also a positive association between group norm and popularity goal for both low and high status individuals in low popular group with overall higher levels of popularity goal (Time 2) for the low status individuals than for the high status ones in these groups. This study also analyzed models to test for the influence of perceived peer group norms for popularity on adolescents' popularity goal over time. Results indicate there is a positive association between perceived peer norms for popularity and adolescents' popularity goal over time, even after controlling for the influence of peer group norms. There was no significant interaction of perceived peer norms and peer group norms on the adolescents' popularity goal over time. Together, results provide evidence that youths' popularity goal may be influenced by the norms established in their peer group, their groups' popularity status as indicated by the nuclear members' popularity levels, their own status within the group, and their perception of peer norms in the networks. Results suggest that both individual and peer group factors contribute to youths' openness to peer influence and that such factors should be considered when investigating how peers may influence youths' social goals. / Psychology

The researcher is concerned about the lack of attention given to withdrawn early adolescents (WEAs) at school. During early adolescence, the foundations for lasting character, personality traits and social interaction are laid. Learners exhibiting withdrawal behaviour are described as being quiet, reserved, removed or distant. Attempts by educators to get them involved in lessons often end in failure and this causes educators to become frustrated and confused about how to deal with these learners. The aim of this study is therefore to establish the factors that contribute to withdrawal behaviour in early adolescents. The researcher devised an identification instrument that makes the identification of WEAs much easier for educators. He also established the deep seated fears and anxieties of WEAs and ascertained how they would like to be treated by their educators. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)