Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-130). Also available on the Internet.

Health and social policies identify empowerment as a guiding ideal for health promotion, yet there is little theoretical understanding of youth empowerment. The need for theory to guide practice and research in working with youth in a health promotion context led to this grounded theory study to develop a theory of youth empowerment. A community health nurse acting on BC Ministry of Health's adaptation of the World Health Organisation's Healthy Cities Initiative initiated a community organising project in an inner city community of Vancouver, which merged with the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation Blueprint for Youth Services policy. The study was based on 32 months of participant observation where the researcher was a co-facilitator of a community organising effort aimed at engaging youth in identifying their quality-of-life issues, and developing and implementing their solutions. Of the ,123 youth entering the process, 66 attended at least three meetings of which 18 demonstrated ongoing commitment to the community action process. Partnering between adults and youth as the process of empowering youth emerged as the core category in the analysis, comprised of two sub-processes, Creating an Empowering Environment for Youth and Becoming Empowered. An empowering environment allowed youth to take responsibility in a welcoming social climate with enabling support from adults. The adults demonstrated their belief in the capacity of youth to act in the community, expected youth to take responsibility, cared for youth, and offered encouragement through acting-with interactions with young people. Youth felt welcome and participated in the process, taking responsibility for voicing, decision making and action on their qualityof- life issues. The adults transferred the power to youth by giving up their responsibility for voicing, decision making and taking action. By taking responsibility and acting in the community with enabling support, the youth became empowered by controlling the process and incrementally developing their competence, self-esteem, confidence and understanding, which cultivated their belonging to the community. Participating in an empowering process enhanced their development and set in motion a social change process that raised the consciousness of adults and influenced organisational practice. The theory identifies youth empowerment as an ecological construct and a capacity-building process.

The purpose of this study was to explore the association among risk behaviors, HIV/AIDS knowledge, and cognitive variables in high-risk adolescents. Subjects were 82 youth (50 males and 32 females) residing in a Midwest residential treatment facility for abused, neglected, or delinquent children and adolescents. The mean age of the adolescents was 14.6 years. Self-report measures of AIDS knowledge, invulnerability, self-efficacy, locus of control, sensation seeking, and risk involvement were administered in counterbalanced order. Data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression analysis to examine the relation between risk behaviors and scores on invulnerability, locus of control, self-efficacy, and sensation seeking measures once age and AIDS knowledge were controlled in the initial steps. Although age and knowledge of AIDS were related positively to the likelihood of behavioral risk taking, the combination of cognitive variables explained an additional 23% of the variance in risk behaviors and accounted for the largest proportion of shared variability. Therefore, adolescents' risk behaviors appeared to be determined by their cognitive beliefs to a greater degree than by their knowledge of the consequences of such behavior. The importance of cognitive factors in the apparent behavior choices that adolescents make suggests that educational prevention programs need to consider more than just the sharing of knowledge in addressing issues of risky behavior. Instead, the perceptions of adolescents toward sensation seeking and other cognitive characteristics also must be considered. / Department of Educational Psychology

Despite usual onset during adolescence the cause of low bone density in adolescent onset anorexia nervosa is incompletely understood. Puberty is known to be a crucial time for the development of peak bone mass, due principally to growth plate bone formation and modelling on preformed surfaces. This results in bone formation uncoupled from bone resorption leading to increased bone size due to increase in matrix and bone mineral content. It was hypothesized that low bone density in adolescent anorexia nervosa was caused by malnutrition during puberty suppressing normal bone matrix formation at all sites of bone formation thus arresting bone mineralization. Method 49 female adolescents with anorexia nervosa and 109 healthy female adolescent controls were studied. 22 of the anorexia nervosa subjects were studied again a year later. Bone area, mineral content and density were measured using Dual Xray Absorptiometry at the spine, hip and whole body sites, including body composition assessment. Estimated volumetric bone density was calculated using published equations in order to study bone density independent of bone size. Height, weight and Tanner stage in puberty were measured. Dietary intake and physical exercise were assessed using questionnaires. In a subset of anorexia nervosa and control subjects bone age was measured. In a subset of anorexia nervosa subjects bone formation was assessed using serum bone specific alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin, and bone resorption was assessed using urine N-telopeptide.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, School of Population Health, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 226-266).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: p. 302-322.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 1998. / Title from document title page. "October 1, 1998." Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 124 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-87).

Thesis--University of Helsinki, 1990. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted.

Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.