Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 1999. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-130). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ43417.

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Thesis (Psy.D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in School Psychology." Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-145).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-130).

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Lehigh University, 2003. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 214-241).

7049 unaccompanied children seeked asylum in Sweden during 2014 and 15% of them were girls. The aim of the study was to highlight unaccompanied girls arriving in Sweden and examine their views on integration and belonging. Interviews were undertaken with five former unaccompanied girls in the age of 18-24 through a qualitative approach. The result was analyzed abductively through Rainer Bauböcks’ (1996) Model of Civil Society, David Morgans’ (2011) concept of Family Practices and through Steven Vertovecs’ (2001) concept of Transnational Social Room. Four out of five respondents described that they felt included in the Swedish society. However, according to Bauböcks’ model, the respondents were rather in the process of becoming integrated, since they did not yet fulfill all criteria for integration. Furthermore, the respondents expressed that education was of high value in order to get a job, get integrated and to become independent. Relationships with significant people was also a strong contributing factor to their sense of belonging. The position in transnational social rooms varied among the respondents.

This study uses an integration of ethnographic and case-study qualitative analysis to help explain early adolescent and caregiver perspectives of an increased prevalence of depression in Mexican American girls. This phenomenon has been replicated in numerous other studies and it is important to obtain more information to inform understanding, enhance treatment, and initiate intervention and prevention strategies. The combination of these methods of qualitative inquiry allowed for the triangulation of multiple pieces of data including participant observation, interviewing, and archival research. Retrospective child and caregiver verbal accounts were compared with one another as well as with prior assessment of functioning and participant observation. Fourteen Mexican American or bi-ethnic early adolescents and one of their caregivers were interviewed using an unstructured interview process. Transcribed interviews were analyzed qualitatively. Findings suggest that both girls and caregivers focus on the contribution of negative life events, interpersonal relationship stress, personal characteristics, gender discrimination, and biology on the increased prevalence of depression. It is noteworthy that each of these factors is strongly correlated with the family socio-cultural environment. This study concludes with a proposal to integrate the work of Zayas, Lester, Cabassa, and Fortuna (2005) regarding Latina suicide attempts and the work of Hyde, Mezulis, and Abramson (2008) regarding the increase in girls’ rates of depression during early adolescence to explain the increased prevalence of depression in Mexican American girls yielding additional affective, biological, and cognitive vulnerabilities as well as particular negative life events. / text

In 1999, Austin-based Rude Mechanicals theatre ensemble created Grrl Action, an autobiographical writing and performance program for teenage girls, one of many advocacy and empowerment programs focused on female youth nationwide. Still today, Austin-area girls come together each summer to generate original performances based on their own life experiences. Their final collaborative production, which combines solo work with group pieces and covers topics as disparate as body image and illegal immigration, illuminates the ways that girls perform different, multiple, and shifting identities, both collectively and individually. This dissertation posits Grrl Action--part of a more general trend towards collective autobiography in girls' cultural production--as an ideal lens through which to examine the complexity of teenage girls' identity performance(s) in the United States today. I situate Grrl Action as an embodied site where girls deliberately play with (and among) multiple selves onstage and, in effect, challenge commercial constructions of female adolescence and expand the very definition of girlhood. As a former Program Director and Instructor for Grrl Action, I build on what Dwight Conquergood might call my role as ethnographic "co-performer" to examine not only live theatre events, but also the material circumstances that create them. My introduction provides an overview of identity performance discourse outside of theatre settings and posits my study of Grrl Action as a means of borrowing back the language of performativity for girls exploring their identities in theatrical settings. Chapter One focuses on girls' performances of non-normative sexuality to examine how Grrl Action might be considered a new kind of feminist theatre collective. Chapter Two looks at girls' I- and you-statements to analyze the ways that female youth cast both themselves and their audiences in nuanced "definitional ceremonies." Chapter Three centers on girls' tears and traumatic testimony to situate Grrl Action as a site of affective transference between girl-performers and women-spectators. My conclusion is self-reflexive, as I suggest ways that women who work with girls might put their own identity performances on the line both inside and outside programs like Grrl Action. / text

Hostile attribution of intent (HAI) is a social information processing pattern that reflects a distorted interpretation of ambiguous social situations as overly negative, personal, and aggressive, leading to further aggression. Previous research has documented the existence of HAI in connection with relational aggression among adolescent girls, but little is known about the role of HAI and physical aggression in this population. This qualitative study explored the experiences of adolescent girls involved in physical fights with another girl in order to determine the types of provocation that led to physical aggression. Participants were 11 girls, ages 15 to 17 years, and 7 parent participants of the girls. School disciplinary records were used to identify participants for the study. All girls who had a disciplinary record for engaging in a physical fight with another female student were invited to participate. A semi-structured interview was conducted, and the parents were given a single-question survey related to socioeconomic status. Data were analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research as described by Hill, Thompson, and Williams (1997). The study participants reported that relational provocations, such as “talking mess” and “mean mugging,” led to physical aggression. They also noted that the type of help offered by adults to reduce conflict was not effective. Many participants reported receiving messages from adults implying it was acceptable to fight, provided that the participant won the fight. Finally, participants reported that disrespect is an acceptable and expected reason to get into a physical fight. / text