Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-95) Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-104).

by Matthew Hung Kee Chan. / Title also in Chinese characters. / Includes questionnaire in Chinese. / Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 54-70). / ABSTRACT --- p.i / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vi / LIST OF APPENDICES --- p.vii / Chapter CHAPTER I： --- Introduction --- p.1 / Socialization Agents --- p.2 / TV Advertising as Socialization Agent --- p.7 / Peer as Socialization Agent --- p.11 / TV Advertising Viewing and Peer Interaction --- p.12 / Chapter CHAPTER II: --- Consumer Learning --- p.14 / TV Advertising and Consumer Learning --- p.17 / Peer Interaction and Consumer Learning --- p.20 / "TV Advertising, Peer Interaction and Consumer Learning" --- p.22 / Chapter CHAPTER III: --- Method --- p.27 / Subjects and Procedure --- p.27 / Variables Assessed in the Study --- p.29 / Chapter CHAPTER IV: --- Results --- p.31 / Description of Sample Characteristics / Sex --- p.34 / TV Viewing Time --- p.37 / Exposure to TV Advertising --- p.38 / Peer Interaction about TV Advertising --- p.40 / Consumer Learning Score --- p.42 / Analysis of Variance on Consumer Learning --- p.43 / "by Age, Sex, TV AdvertsingViewing Time, and Peer Interaction about TV Advertising" / Chapter CHAPTER V: --- Discussion --- p.48 / Summary --- p.52 / REFERENCES --- p.54 / APPENDICES --- p.71

Self-injury behavior is identified as the non-suicidal, deliberate infliction of a wound to oneself in an attempt to seek expression. Self-injury is becoming more prevalent in the adolescent population; however, many nursing professionals are unaware of this phenomenon and the implications it holds for nursing. Approximately 12 to 17 percent of adolescents deliberately injure themselves although accurate statistics are difficult to obtain due to the secret and private nature of the behavior. Nurses, especially those who care for adolescents, could benefit from an understanding of the implications of self-injury, the characteristics of adolescents who self-injure, the expressivity of the behavior, and the repetitive patterns of the emotions experienced by adolescents who self-injure. Six adolescent females were interviewed for this study. Their stories were shared in rich, descriptive narratives. Common themes emerged from the words of the participants and these themes described the essence of self-injury by cutting for adolescent females. The themes which emerged were living with childhood trauma, feeling abandoned, being an outsider, loathing self, silently screaming, releasing the pressure, feeling alive, being ashamed, and being hopeful for self and others. The general structure that emerged from a synthesis of the themes was that the experience of self-injury by cutting for adolescent females is one where they are struggling for well-being and hoping for more being by using their skin as a canvas upon which internal pain is expressed as tangible and real. / by Rhonda Goodman Lesniak. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2008. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This study investigated friend influence on school engagement in a sample of 160 stable same-sex friendship dyads (94 female dyads and 66 male dyads) from five senior high schools and four vocational schools in a small city in central Finland. Longitudinal data were collected during the first and second years of upper secondary school, approximately one year apart, and self-reports were available from both members of each friendship dyad. The framework of the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM; Kenny, Kashy & Cook, 2006) was used to estimate friend influence on school engagement in a model that did not distinguish same-sex friends, in a direct-effects model that distinguished friends based on relative levels of school burnout, and in a multiple-group model for distinguishable friends that investigated perceptions of maternal affection as a moderator of friend influence. Results suggest that the higher burnout partner in a friendship dyad influenced a decline in the lower burnout partner's school engagement only when the lower burnout partner perceived low maternal affection. When the lower burnout partner perceived high maternal affection, there was no evidence of negative influence by a higher burnout partner. Patterns of influence did not vary as a function of sex or school track. The importance of distinguishing friends on a theoretically and statistically meaningful basis to learn who influences whom, and of investigating indirect effects models when studying friend influence is also discussed. / by Donna Marion. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

As children enter adolescence, social status within the peer hierarchy gains importance. Variable-oriented research has linked adolescent popularity with both positive and negative adjustment outcomes. Popularity may be better understood with reference to types or subgroups of similar individuals, identified through person-oriented approaches. Resource Control Theory (RCT: Hawley, 1999) posits three distinct types of popular adolescents: coercive, prosocial, and bistrategic. The existence and adjustment correlates of the prosocial and coercive groups have been well-established, but little evidence supports the existence of a bistrategic popular group of adolescents, and even less is known about their adjustment correlates. The present study aims to confirm the existence of the popularity groups hypothesized by RCT and to identify group differences in social adjustment and problem behaviors. A sample of 568 adolescents (n = 288 girls, 280 boys; M age = 12.50) completed peer nomination procedures and self-report questionnaires in the Fall and Spring of the 7th and 8th grades. Longitudinal latent profile analyses classified adolescents into profile groups on the basis of initial physical aggression, relational aggression, and prosocial behavior, and four time points of popularity spanning the 7th and 8th grades. Repeated measures ANOVAs examined profile group differences in social adjustment (peer acceptance, peer rejection, physical victimization, relational victimization, and preference for solitude) and problem behaviors (disruptiveness and delinquency) across the 7th and 8th grades. Results indicate that adolescents fall into one of four distinct groups: aggressive popular, prosocial popular, bistrategic popular, and average. Bistrategic popular adolescents evinced positive social adjustment, exhibiting the highest levels of popularity and peer acceptance and the lowest levels of peer rejection, victimization, and preference for solitude. Despite their social skill advantages, bistrategic popular adolescents were also at risk for problem behaviors. Bistrategic popular adolescents scored above average on problem behaviors, including physical and relational aggression, disruptiveness, and delinquency. Bistrategic popular adolescents successfully navigate the social world in a manner that both offers hope for positive long-term adjustment and concern for the same. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

During a period of increased independence from parents, youth turn to peers for support, and consequently become more vulnerable to peer pressure (Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986). During middle adolescence, vulnerability to peer influence begins to decline (Steinberg & Monahan, 2007). Empirical research has documented this trend in vulnerability to peer pressure across adolescence, but less attention has been afforded to the age-related changes in similarity. To address this, age-related changes in peer similarity in delinquency across the adolescent years were examinded using intraclass correlations. Moderating variables, including gender, reciprocity, and closeness, and control variables, including friendship stability and romantic partner status, were examined. Results indicated an increase in friend similarity in delinquency from 5th to 7th grade and a decrease in similarity from 7th to 9th grade. Implications of this study are discussed in terms of contribution to the field and implementation of the findings. / by Ashley D. Richmond. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Friends have been implicated in the acquisition of adolescent substance use, but little attention has been given to how the origins of substance use similarity vary across groups. The first aim of this study is to examine whether friend selection, de-selection, and socialization differ as a function of friendship group's substance use. The second aim of this study is to extend Simulation Investigation for Empirical Network Analyses (SIENA) by demonstrating how group-level interactions can be included in the mode, and to demonstrate a new method to follow-up statistically significant group-level interactions in SIENA. Participants include 1419 Finnish students (729 females, 690 males) from upper secondary schools in Finland. Two waves of data were collected, starting when most participants were between 15 and 17 years of age. Waves of data collection were separated by one year. Results indicate that friends are selected, deselected, and socialized for substance use. Follow-up illustrations indicate that the magnitude of these processes vary as a function of substance use in the friendship group. / by Dawn DeLay. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Close friends have been shown to influence adolescent problem behaviors, especially alcohol abuse (Urberg, Degirmencioglu, and Pilgrim, 1997). The degree of influence, however varies as a function of individual characteristics such as peer acceptance (Laursen, Hafen, Kerr, and Stattin, 2012) and age (Popp et al., 2008). The present study examines whether differences in influence extend to perceptions of friendship quality. Using a sample of 764 Swedish adolescents involved in stable samesex reciprocal best friend relationships that lasted at least one year, analyses used distinguishable dyad actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) analyses (Kenny, Kashy, & Cook, 2006) to track influence over two years of the friendship. More satisfied friends were more influential than less satisfied friends on intoxication frequency and truancy. The findings of this study indicate that influence accompanies perceptions of quality. Those with higher perceptions of quality exhibit more influence on friends who perceive relatively lower quality. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.

This study explores youth's perceptions and understanding of the social phenomenon of drugs in our society. Sixty-four students (32 fourth graders and 32 eleventh graders), selected from schools in the Portland Public School District participated individually in a one hour interview where they responded to open ended questions that probed for their perceptions of drug use. Participants were also asked to describe their feelings regarding anti-drug messages they view in the media and their comments regarding the "Just Say NO" program. The tape-recorded interviews were transcribed and half were used to develop a code that captured recurring themes in the data. Using the code book, five trained individuals coded the 64 transcripts. Reliability, assessed by computing Cohen's Kappa on half the interviews, ranged from .62 to .75, with an average reliability of .69. Seventeen themes derived from the content analysis were discussed which confirm the dramatic impact the peer group has on drug use as well as demonstrate age differences associated with perceptions of anti-drug messages. One hundred percent of the participants noted that there are peer influences promoting drug use. Eleventh graders were more likely than fourth graders to note that drugs are used as a means to escape, overcome constraints or for pleasurable stimulation. Fourth graders were more positive in their responses to the anti-drug commercials and the "Just Say NO" campaign. This research provides information regarding the perceptions of young people that can potentially broaden the dialogue of program planners as well as increase the effectiveness of anti-drug programs and messages.