This study examined 11 programs designed to prevent violence in youth intimate relationships with a focus on programs for male youth currently or recently used in Ontario. The BIAS FREE Framework was used to reveal hierarchies and biases in the program materials and to help formulate solutions to the identified problems. Gender, race, class, geographic location and at risk factors were considered. Most programs maintained and denied gender hierarchies by failing to examine differences and using double standards, mainly due to second person and gender neutral language. Programs for mixed-sex audiences were found to be biased in favour of male, urban audiences. Programs for male youth were biased in favour of urban audiences. Most programs examined contained many useful elements. Recommendations include the need for gender inclusive practices, audience-specific intimate violence prevention program content, particularly for male youth, communication across involved sectors and consistency in related definitions and terminology.

This study examined 11 programs designed to prevent violence in youth intimate relationships with a focus on programs for male youth currently or recently used in Ontario. The BIAS FREE Framework was used to reveal hierarchies and biases in the program materials and to help formulate solutions to the identified problems. Gender, race, class, geographic location and at risk factors were considered. Most programs maintained and denied gender hierarchies by failing to examine differences and using double standards, mainly due to second person and gender neutral language. Programs for mixed-sex audiences were found to be biased in favour of male, urban audiences. Programs for male youth were biased in favour of urban audiences. Most programs examined contained many useful elements. Recommendations include the need for gender inclusive practices, audience-specific intimate violence prevention program content, particularly for male youth, communication across involved sectors and consistency in related definitions and terminology.

Anthropologists have frequently used music in general and popular music in particular as a means to gain a perspective into everyday realities of young Africans lives. Attempting to place myself amongst this range of researchers, I use the position of Rwandan hip-hop as a point of departure to examine how young men in Kigali relate to and shape their realities in terms of politics, freedom of expression, and the creation of space and opportunities in the Rwandan society. My study is based on two and a half months of fieldwork in Kigali during the period between August and October of 2013. The empirical material upon which my arguments rely consists of interviews with young hip-hop Rwandans located in Kigali, who were almost exclusively male. It is also drawn from classical anthropological methods of participant observations and daily partaking in the lives of my informants. My analytical understanding of this material is mainly based upon notions of agency and structure, and contextualized within contemporary Africanist scholars’ research on modern music and youth. By looking at the historical context of Rwanda, the current state of youth in Kigali, and the contemporary atmosphere of politics and hip-hop music, I seek to understand the contradictive role of music as an arena for youth to express themselves. Through the stories of young hip-hop men, I describe and communicate their perceptions of constrains related to historical and socio-political sensitivities, feelings of fear connected to outspokenness, and alternative means to voice their opinions. I illustrate how these young men use innovative strategies and metaphorical language as a way to negotiate with some of these constrains as well as to influence each other and embody senses of oppositional opinions and collective empowerment. I also examine how national politics and governmental initiatives have increasingly become intertwined with the music and how it is trying to take advantage of its attractiveness as a youth medium. Ultimately, I discuss how the impact of Rwandan hip-hop can be seen as double-ended, serving the interests of both governmental policies and the youth who in different ways are trying to liberate themselves from political constrains, and how this affect the empowering potential of the music.

The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the vulnerability to HIV of rural male youth with regard to their beliefs, sexual attitudes and behaviour. The study took place in the Waterberg, a district of Limpopo in South Africa, and provided insight into and understanding of the youths’ attitudes to and intentions regarding HIV prevention and their perceptions of how they were influenced by the Boys2Men programme. The Theory of Reasoned Action and the Social Constructionist Theory provided a framework for the study. Nine participants between the ages of 19 and 26 were purposefully selected, and data was collected via individual face-to-face and focus group interviews. A number of semi-structured questions were used to guide the study, and data captured from the interviews was analysed by thematic content analysis. / Sociology / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / The following study aimed to explore the development of resilience within male youth, despite exposure to numerous factors traditionally classified as high-risk. The research focussed on the developmental process of six male youth who engaged in positive coping through actively seeking protection in a high-risk environment, in the form of a non government organization within their community. The study assumed that the active seeking of a protective environment by high-risk youth is an indication of resilience. A phenomenological approach was used to understand the processes that aided the development of resilience within the individuals, through semi-structured in-depth interview guides. Qualitative thematic analysis was utilized to attain and understand common themes. An ecosystemic approach was used in conceptualizing the findings of this research. Indications of resilient development within male youths, relating to systemic factors, which contributed to resilience were explored. The major findings of this research were congruent with past research, both in South Africa and internationally. Three primary themes of support, control, and security emerged from the analysis. The research findings indicated that individuals possessing an internal locus of control were able to cope with adversity and had hence developed resilience. The participants in this sample were confident in their abilities, possessed motivation and belief in success. Systemic factors that were elicited as important in the optimal development of resilience were belief in the youth’s ability, and faith in their capacity to achieve,as well as providing support and guidance to youth when needed. The research found that if youth were faced with factors understood as high-risk, and were able to overcome them, these risk factors served to further enhance resilience. This research offers researchers and community organizations further insight into effective intervention programs to promote optimal youth development in high-risk areas.

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Many risk factors have been put forward to account for the significant increase in adolescent male suicide over the last 20 years, and the pronounced sex difference in suicide statistics. In particular, hopelessness has been shown to be a strong indicator of suicidality. This study investigated the relationship of gender role, stress, and coping to hopelessness in a normal adolescent population. It was hypothesized that stress, coping and a masculine gender role would contribute to hopelessness. 288 adolescent students between the ages of 15 and 18 were surveyed using the Adolescent Stress Scale, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, the Australian Sex Role Scale, and the Adolescent Coping Scale. Contrary to expectation, having a masculine gender role was not related to hopelessness; students with an undifferentiated gender role had higher levels of hopelessness than androgynous, masculine, and feminine students. However, the majority of students who had an undifferentiated gender role were male. Hopelessness was also associated with high levels of stress and the use of avoidance coping strategies. The results are discussed within the transactional stress model and the stress-diathesis model.

Effective citizenship practice in the United States has several important characteristics, which can provide the foundation for young people to access opportunity in employment and education. A continuum of policies, programs, and strategies meant to alleviate poverty have central themes of providing education and vocational opportunities, and yet large numbers of young minority people remain disenfranchised with no chance to succeed. There is even greater loss in the population of African American males who otherwise could achieve stable and strong economic life styles. Large unemployment and under-employment of African American males is documented through U.S. data sources where declining rates of labor force participation of black males is starkly evident (U.S. Census 2000). Geographic influences for minority youth also increase limited access to educational and employment opportunities (Slack & Jenson, 2002). What is clear is that minority youth are faced with a disproportionately difficult access to educational and employment opportunities as a result of diminished community social support, which should be the encouraging force in directing their goal achievements. Resiliency, as a strengths-based perspective, gained convincing prominence through the 1970s and 1980s. Initiative, self-control, self-esteem, and attachment are four protective factors of resiliency. Risk and protective factors are vital for intervention practices with individuals, families and communities. This study utilized protective factors that promote the skills and abilities necessary for encouraging resiliency and creating effective citizenship. iii Resiliency and the awareness of citizenship practices may bolster African American male youth successes in educational and employment opportunities. Youth who consistently and routinely engage in employment can increase the well-being of themselves, their families, and their communities. This study utilized a self-administered survey design to obtain responses from rural African Americans male youth, between the ages of 12 and 19 inclusive, to determine their resiliency skills and their awareness of citizenship practices (p=.005, one-tailed). In a pre-post test for significance, participants were asked to take a citizenship practices survey after the viewing of the video. This paired t-test displayed statistically significant results (p= .0015, t= 2.998, df =98). It is important to examine resiliency in rural African American male youth and how that resiliency interacts with the awareness of citizenship practices. There is little known about how rural African American, male youth perceive effective citizenship based on their level of resiliency. African American youth are better served toward successful employment and education through programs that are designed to increase citizenship practices awareness. There is reason to believe that citizenship practices, by way of training and community affirmation, with an infusion of resiliency skill techniques modeling, could open the doors wider for African American male youth who, for some, suffer from poverty, but for most suffer from the lack of free and open educational access which inhibits viable entry level employment opportunities.

MA (Psychology) / Department of Psychology / Recidivism refers to re-offending behaviour, and recidivists are usually individuals who were arrested repeatedly for the same or different offences. The aim of this study was to explore the psychological effects of recidivism amongst male youth in Musina. This study employed the qualitative research approach because it required elaborated information which this paradigm promotes. This research adopted an exploratory design. The participants were selected through the use of purposive and snowball sampling. Data was gathered using semi-structured face to face interviews. The researcher used a voice recorder and a note pad to record the collected data. The findings of this study indicated that peer pressure, lack of education and unemployment, substance abuse, poverty, child neglect, parenting and supervision were the most common factors contributing to recidivism. The results of this study indicated that recidivists often commit petty crimes. The participants stated that these crimes included pick-pocketing, mugging, shoplifting and house breaking. Serious crimes were not common amongst the recidivists because only few of them committed serious crimes. The participants also reported that recidivism has negative impacts on their own personal lives, their families as well as on their education.