The purpose of the present study was to investigate factors that contribute to the social adjustment to college for gifted emerging adults. Specifically, perceived parental attachment, and social competence were included. Additionally, social competence was examined to determine if it served as a mediator between parental attachment and social adjustment to college. Responses from 70 participants recruited from the Honors Program at Florida State University (FSU) were included in analysis of the data, which comprised of 19 males (27.1%) and 51 females (72.9%) with a mean age of 19.27 years (SD = 1.05). Results from bivariate correlations and multiple regression analyses revealed positive, significant correlations between parental attachment and social adjustment to college, parental attachment and social competence, and social competence and social adjustment to college. Analyses also found that social competence partially mediated the relationship between parental attachment and social adjustment to college. The majority of research regarding gifted individuals focuses on the experience and developmental domains within the K-12 setting. The findings of the present study add to the significant dearth of literature concerning the college experience of gifted individuals. Specifically, the results provide support that a secure parental attachment influences positive development of social competence and better social adjustment to college in gifted emerging adults. Furthermore, these findings are important factors for researchers, clinicians, and university officials to consider when assessing the needs of gifted and non-gifted emerging adults in a college setting, and when developing social support services and resources for students.

Previous research has produced heterogeneous findings regarding the effectiveness of expressive writing in reducing grief symptomatology among the bereaved (e.g., Collison, 2016; Lichtenthal & Cruess, 2010; Stroebe et al., 2006). The purpose of this study was to address these mixed results by exploring the effects and linguistic characteristics of a novel writing task (i.e., the acrostic poem) among bereaved undergraduates, using an innovative data analysis technique (i.e., Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count). The current study recruited 68 undergraduates who had lost a loved one. Participants were randomly assigned to write over multiple days using the acrostic poem, emotional disclosure prompt, or a control writing prompt. Consistent with previous research, the results indicated no significant differences in grief between conditions over time; however, there were key group differences in linguistic content. Further, while all participants endorsed improvements in grief one week following the intervention, the participants returned to baseline one month later. Patterns of writing, coping, religiosity/ spirituality, physical symptoms, and grief in bereaved emerging adults were also assessed. The results suggest that while expressive writing might not be an effective intervention for the bereaved, the content of writing might provide clinicians some insight on psychological and spiritual processes at play in bereaved emerging adults.

This study examined the effect of the experience of a loss on alcohol use and drinking motives in a college sample. Participants for this study were drawn from the “Spit for Science” project (Dick et al., 2014). The sample included 3,013 students (31.8% men, 68.2% women; 44.3% White, 21.1% Black, 19.6% Asian, 6.0% Latinx; mean age = 18.96; 16.2% bereaved) from Virginia Commonwealth University. Data were collected from participants’ freshman spring and sophomore spring time points on the Life Events Checklist, Alcohol Consumption items, and Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised. Participants who were bereaved between the freshman and sophomore timepoint did not significantly differ in their alcohol consumption, coping drinking motives, or conformity drinking motives compared to their non-bereaved counterparts. Limitations and future directions for research are reviewed.

After a shift in upper elementary reading instruction that emphasized complex learning using nonfiction text, Texas schools showed low reading comprehension scores among upper elementary students. The purpose of this exploratory single case study was to examine the pedagogical content knowledge of Texas upper elementary teachers who teach nonfiction reading comprehension strategies to at-risk students who do not qualify for special education services. The central research question focused on how teachers view their pedagogical content knowledge while instructing students. The conceptual framework for this study was a combined Shulman's (1986) pedagogical content knowledge model and Thomlinson's (2000) differentiated instruction learning model. Data sources included online questionnaires (N=161), open-ended scenario-based phone or Skype interviews (N=10), and public documents on reading professional development in the state of Texas. Findings from open coding and inductive analysis indicated that the paradigm shift from reading to learn to learning to read is a challenge in the upper elementary classroom, teachers are relying on inadequate professional development to develop their pedagogy and content knowledge, and teachers may be rescuing struggling students rather than differentiating them. Findings may help Texas educators make more informed decisions on pedagogy to promote expository reading comprehension among upper elementary at-risk students and to increase their opportunities for success.

As of 2015, over 34% of emerging adults in the United States between 18 and 34-years-old were still living with their parents or guardians, and prior research has suggested this trend was steadily growing. The current study examined contextual factors, such as an individual's state of well-being during this transitional phase, to determine what, if any, variables may also be contributing to this issue. Both Adlerian theory and social exchange theory were used as the theoretical foundation to better understand how to mitigate this phenomenon. Amazon MTURK was used to recruit 336 participants who completed the survey. A series of MANOVAs and chi-square analyses were used to test for the relationship between the failure to launch phenomenon, wellness, and moderating effects of mentorship in this study. The results showed a significant, although weak, relationship between financial dependence and wellness factors of coping self (p = 0.034) and social self (p = 0.026). The presence of and frequency of contact with mentors significantly predicted successful launching (p = 0.001). Mentorship was not found to be related to wellness factors nor did it moderate the relationship between such factors and failure to launch. The findings implied mentorship was a potential mitigating factor to the failure to launch phenomenon. The positive implications include personal, familial, and societal growth for this population as they successfully transition to independent adulthood.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Agriculture)) --University of Limpopo (Turfloop Campus), 2008 / A large number of emerging farmers in South Africa is involved in subsistence agriculture as a result of poor resource endowment or due to other constraints. Relatively few agricultural products from emerging farmers reach the formal agricultural market. Livestock production is common among emerging farmers and a large proportion of the national livestock is in the hands of the rural poor. Horticultural crops are generally perishable and require immediate disposal, thus implying that the farmers who produce horticultural crops do so with intention to sell their products. Most studies tend to group farmers regardless of their line of production. Only few studies have attempted to investigate the socioeconomic characteristics of farmers, differentiating the commodities that they produce. The objective of this study is to identify and compare the socioeconomic characteristics that determine the farm income of the emerging livestock farmers and horticultural farmers in South Africa. Such an analysis would allow more targeted policy responses for different groups of emerging farmers. The data used in this study consisted of 202 livestock farmers and 126 horticultural farmers selected through quota sample covering all nine provinces in South Africa. The data were collected by the Development Bank of Southern Africa in 2005. Descriptive Analysis and Discriminant Analysis are applied to determine the factors that matter the most in determining incomes of livestock and horticultural farmers. Farm iv income is used as the dependent variable, and fourteen independent variables were identified. The factors that matter the most in determining livestock farmers’ income are, namely access to finance, farm size, age of the household head, membership to farmer organizations and government support. The factors that matter most in determining horticultural farmer’s income are namely farm size, age of the household head, land type (land ownership), and extension services. The results of this study showed that access to land and age of the household head matter the most to both livestock and horticultural farmers. The study found that poor access to land is one of the major constraints facing emerging farmers in South Africa. Land is also one of the factors that may determine the amount of credit the emerging farmers can obtain and, if farmers produce on communal land, it becomes harder to obtain credit. Memberships to farmer’s organisations, government support and access to finance are characteristics that matter the most to livestock and do not seem to matter that much to horticultural farmers. Farmer organisations often lobby for collective provision of appropriate and needed services for their membership. The services that are often lobbied for are services such as extension, marketing and provision of training to empower women and young people so as to enable them to participate fully in farming activities. The results of this study show that there are differences in socio-economic characteristics that matter the most in determining farm income for livestock and horticulture farmers. v Horticulture farmers should be given much support to improve access to get enough land and training while in livestock farming assistance focus should be on access to finance and support services. vi

Thesis (MSc (Agriculture)) --University of Limpopo, 2007 / The main objective of this study is to identify the socio-economic factors associated with the level of annual farm turnover of emerging farmers in South Africa. This study defines emerging farmers as those farmers that are participating in the market and have intentions to produce and sell more. The study is based on a randomly selected quota sample of 500 emerging farmers surveyed from the nine provinces of SA in 2005. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis and logistic regression are used to analyse the data. Factor analysis is used to determine the emerging farmers’ access and utilization of agricultural infrastructure and support services. The logistic regression is used to predict the likely positioning of emerging farmers in the high and low farm turnover groups. Farm turnover is based on how a farm household organizes and manages its resources and how it is able to interact with the outside stakeholders. The level of annual farm turnover is categorized into four groups, low turnover group 1 (LTG1), low turnover group 2(LTG2), high turnover group 1 (HTG1) and high turnover group 2(HTG2). Whilst many studies on constraints to production in agriculture in South Africa have identified infrastructure as such a constraint, few have attempted to study the extent to which emerging farmers are able to access and utilize output markets infrastructure. The results show that the local output markets are generally more accessible to emerging farmers. Access to external markets is absent. The implication of this is that it is important for policymakers to know that farmers access output markets in a package form and that the role of locating output markets in centers can stimulate agricultural and rural development. The creation of favourable environments for the participation of emerging farmers in the mainstream of the economy has been the most significant initiative in promoting structural change, away from subsistence farming towards commercialization of agriculture in South Africa. Despite the new opportunities that have been created to facilitate participation of emerging farmers in the first economy, emerging farmers continue to face a host of challenges ranging from socio-economic to farm based constraints. These constraints have made some emerging farmers to fall in the high farm turnover group and others in the low farm turnover group. Logistic regression analysis is used to identify socio-economic factors that place emerging farmers in one group versus the other and to identify constraints faced by emerging farmers. Six logistics models are developed to distinguish emerging farmers in one group from another. Model 1 compares the HTG2 and the LTG1. The factors that increase the likelihood of being in an HTG2 rather than in an LTG1 are farm size, level of education, sugar farming, tarred road to the local fresh produce market, distance to the output market, being NAFU (National African Farmers Union) membership, and access to ground water. Horticulture and livestock farming decrease the chances of being in the HTG2. Factors that increases the likelihood of being in the HTG2 rather that LTG2 are farm size, level of education, sugar farming, road conditions to the local fresh produce market and access to ground water. Farm structure decreases the chances of being in the HTG2. The main factors affecting most of the emerging farmers in South Africa are the size of farm, level of education, distance to output market which leads to lack of transport and that most of the emerging farmers uses surface water for irrigation. Some of the farmers face poor road condition to the output market and they produce less to the output market. Access to high value commodities such as sugar does increase. The policy required to encourage commercialization must be tailored to the needs of the different categories of emerging farmers in South Africa. The low turnover group of farmers appears to contain community garden farmers. These farmers will require the comprehensive set of programmes that are commonly recommended. The programmes include land reform, educational programmes, infrastructural services, marketing and / Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa

This study investigated romantic relationship attitudes and experiences as factors of interethnic romantic relationships among Native American (NA) emerging adults. The study included 114 participants ages 18 to 25 years from about 70 NA indigenous groups across North America. Factors were organized into the moral, societal, and psychological domains of the social-cognitive domain theory. Factors identified by this study included four significant predictors of past interethnic dating and three significant predictors of future likelihood of NA dating among emerging adults with differences between NA relationships with Whites or with other minorities. Past dating experiences associated with strong White identity, past multicultural interaction, diversity climate in childhood community, and past parental support of interethnic dating relationships. Future likelihood of engagement in interethnic romantic relationships for NA emerging adults associated with past interethnic dating and other multicultural interactions. Past multicultural interactions was the only predictor that emerged in NA romantic relationships with both Whites and other minorities.

Emerging adulthood (ages 18-25 years) is a developmental period marked by changes in attachment, the onset of serious dating relationships, and rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) up to 40% and 90% for physical and psychological IPV, respectively. This dissertation aims to investigate moderators of the link between insecure attachment, a known risk factor for IPV, and psychological IPV, coercive controlling behaviours, and relational aggression in emerging adulthood. One hundred and seventeen undergraduate students in dating relationships were recruited to partake in a baseline assessment followed by a 14-day daily diary study. During the baseline assessment, participants self-reported on putative trait level risk factors such as demographics and insecure attachment. During the daily diary portion, participants reported on their use of partner aggression (physical and psychological IPV, coercive controlling behaviours, and relational aggression; however, due to low base rates, physical IPV could not be analyzed as an outcome), as well as their experiences of felt partner acceptance and rejection, support and conflict in their relationships, alcohol use, and stress for each day. I hypothesized that attachment anxiety, problems in the dyadic relationship (inadequate support, conflict, and felt rejection and anxiety about acceptance), and putative disinhibitors (stress and alcohol consumption) would be directly linked to risk for perpetration of all forms of aggression and interact to predict risk for partner aggression. Hypotheses regarding partner support, conflict, and felt regard were also tested. Specifically, I hypothesized that ratings of partner support fit, hurt as a result of conflict, and daily felt regard would differ for more insecurely attached versus more securely attached individuals. Following application of exclusion criteria, data from 98 participants were analyzed using multilevel modeling in Hierarchical Linear Modeling (Raudenbush et al., 1995). The results from this dissertation underscore the importance of attachment anxiety as an individual risk factor for IPV and identified more proximal risk factors that fluctuate on a daily basis. Attachment anxiety, felt rejection, and conflict were related to risk for all three forms of IPV. Unexpectedly, attachment avoidance was linked to decreased risk for coercive control. Anxiety about acceptance was uniquely associated with risk for psychological IPV, and inadequate support fit was uniquely associated with risk for coercive control. Greater attachment anxiety interacted with high conflict to predict greater risk for coercive control. No other significant two-way interactions between attachment anxiety and problems in the dyadic relationship emerged. Contrary to hypotheses, stress and alcohol consumption were linked to decreased risk for coercive control. Stress also appeared to suppress the link between dyadic problems and risk for psychological IPV on a given day, and dyadic problems paired with alcohol consumption was related to a decreased risk of coercive control. High stress and greater dyadic problems interacted to predict greater risk for coercive control as expected. No conclusions could be drawn about 2-way interactions between stress and dyadic problems and alcohol consumption and dyadic problems when predicting relational aggression, as the model did not converge. This study did not find support for the “perfect storm theory” of aggression (in which a 3-way interaction between risk factors is associated with greatest risk of IPV) when predicting psychological IPV. The “perfect storm theory” could not be tested in relation to coercive control and relational aggression as these models did not converge. The findings from this study contribute to our knowledge of why some people perpetrate IPV and not others, and why people perpetrate IPV on some days and not others. These results inform the multiple possible points of entry for prevention and interventions aiming to promote healthy relationships in emerging adults. / Graduate

<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>The world-wide globalisation that has taken place over the past decades has led to a revolution on the stock markets. Nowadays, it is more simple, cheap and convenient to access financial information. As a result investing in mutual funds has increase.</p><p>There has been a renewed interest to investigate the performance of the mutual fund industry. The researcher has chosen to perform a comparative analysis of the performance of Swedish mutual funds invested in Sweden and, Swedish mutual funds invested in emerging markets.</p><p>The primary aim of this research is to examine whether the investment in mutual funds is more profitable in Sweden or in the Emerging markets. The research endeavors to answer the following questions:</p><p>Considering risk and return factors, is it more profitable to invest in Swedish equity funds or invest in equity funds from emerging markets?</p><p>Was the Swedish mutual funds performance better than the performance of the Swedish index?</p><p>Was the Emerging markets mutual funds performance better than the performance of the emerging markets index?</p><p>A quantitative method with a positivistic epistemology was used for the research. 4 mutual funds investing in Sweden and 4 mutual funds investing in emerging markets were studied in this research. To estimate the performance of the mutual funds, historical data from Jan. 2000 to Sep. 2007 was analyzed using:</p><p>(i) Treynor’s index</p><p>(ii) Sharpe’s index</p><p>(iii) Jensen’s index</p><p>Descriptive statistics were obtained using the Statgraphs program, the excel program and the Metastock program. The results showed that the Emerging markets funds had a better performance during the period studied.</p><p>The result showed, in addition, that the Swedish funds outperformed the Swedish MCSI index whereas the Emerging markets funds under performed against the Emerging Markets MCSI index.</p>