The thesis anatomizes issues of habit-forming substances using among secondary school students who have tendencies to behave dangerous in relation to drugs and content of their leisure time. The thesis is divided into practical and theoretical part. The aim of the theoretical part is to describe the views on the sense and role of leisure time, the forms of spending leisure time and the risk behaviour at this age group. The attention is also paid to the ways of prevention. The practical part contains the description and analysis of spending leisure time among secondary school pupils and the risk behaviour of this age group in the relation to the habit-forming substances using. The author tries to prove potential connection between spending leisure time and the usage of habit-forming substances. On the basis of gained experience the author can recommend possible ways of organization of free time activities and related prevention to secondary schools where the research was provided.

The issue of sexually transmitted diseases is not only a matter of health but also a social one and it poses a major problem especially for teenagers and young adults, who start their sexual life, because sexually transmitted diseases and their complications can permanently damage the reproductive health. Adolescents{\crq} sexual behaviour differs from the sexual behaviour of previous generations in many aspects. The trend now is, among others, shifting the age of sexual life initiation to lower ages than ever before. Therefore, it is important that young people know the risks threatening them in connection with sexual life initiation and how they can prevent them. This paper maps the attitudes of adolescents to the issue of sexually transmitted diseases and to contraception. The theoretical part deals with the characteristics of adolescence, the history, occurrence and description of various sexually transmitted diseases and their prevention with a focus on sex education and proper condom use, and it presents a comprehensive overview of this issue. This project work was realized in the form of a quantitative research, using a questionnaire survey, and the examined sample consisted of 200 secondary school students aged 15 to 18 years. As a partial method, a secondary analysis has been applied to the statistical data concerning the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases in adolescents aged 15-18 years in České Budějovice between 1999 and 2008. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the use of contraception to prevent sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents aged 15 to 18 years in České Budějovice, and this objective has been achieved. Practical use of this paper is in providing the text as a teaching material for the Faculty of Health and Social Studies and for publication in professional journals; the data obtained will be provided to the directors of the participating schools as a basis for the implementation of sex education and primary prevention programmes.

The topic of this thesis is evaluation of primary prevention activities in elementary schools in the Příbram region. The issue of risk behavior is still an up-to-date topic discussed throughout society and the only truly effective solution to this undesirable phenomenon is its prevention. The aim of primary prevention is to discourage pupils from their involvement in risk behavior or to put the risk behavior off until later age. Those that exercise primary prevention activities are the family and school. Now schools and educational facilities are required to develop the so-called minimal preventive program according to the Methodological instructions of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The chapter ``The current status{\crqq} is based on professional literature. The terms of risk behavior, school primary prevention, adolescence and also individual forms of risk behavior are described. In the practical part the objectives are defined, the research process is described and discussions with authors I drew inspiration from are mentioned. The main objective of this thesis was to survey the spheres of primary prevention activities in elementary schools. At the same time, according to timeliness and the presence of a selected type of risk behaviour, it is possible to assess the effectiveness of primary prevention. Another objective was to monitor the incidence of risk behavior in pupils of ninth grade of elementary schools. To obtain the research data a quantitative method using anonymous questionnaires for elementary school pupils was applied. In the thesis qualitative research was also used, the data collection technique was the content analysis of basic prevention programs.

This thesis deals with selected educational problems of pupils accommodated in a particular youth home. It explains the function and content of the youth home. It defines the life period and associated developmental tasks that help us explain and understand the behavior and manners of adolescents. Then there are characteristics of educational problems and risk behavior of adolescents. The longest part of the thesis describes some selected types of risk behavior. The theoretical part is complemented by the practical part. It is based on qualitative research that mentions the most common behavioral problems, for these there are analyzed selected case studies.

Magister Public Health - MPH / Background: Alcohol consumption among adolescents is increasing due to the general availability of alcohol in many community settings. Binge drinking (defined as drinking 5 or more drinks per occasion) (Parry, 2000) is considered the most common type of harmful alcohol consumption among young people. The United States Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance report proposes that patterns of health risk behaviours are established during youth (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention,2006). The abovementioned report highlights behaviours such as alcohol misuse, drug use and risky sexual behaviour that have the potential to undermine the health and development of youth. Adolescent developmental theories recognise risk behaviours as central to normal adolescent development but there are complex predisposing risk factors that can cause these behaviours to compromise the healthy development of our youth. In order to design and implement effective intervention schemes, we need to understand the dynamics of alcohol use among local youth better, as these play out in their specific social environmental and personal contexts.Aim: The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of what influences the patterns of alcohol use among adolescents in a peri-urban historically disadvantaged community in the Western Cape. The study identified some of the factors that promote and inhibit drinking within the study community from the perspective of the adolescents themselves and a few of the adults who work with adolescents. The study also determined some of the harmful consequences to drinking as described by the adolescents.Method: This was an exploratory study using qualitative research methods. Four focus group discussions were conducted with adolescents aged between 14 and 19 years that were both attending and not attending school. Three key informant interviews with adults who were involved with the youth were conducted.Convenience sampling was used for the non-school attending participants and snowball sampling was used for the school attending youth. The adults in the study were purposively sampled. The study was conducted within the study setting during March and April 2009. Thematic and content analysis was used to interpret the data.The descriptive data was coded and categorised according to themes that emerged during analysis.Results: In general the youth of this study are drinking on weekends. They spend their time on the streets and access alcohol from the many illegal taverns in their neighbourhood. Some of the reasons why adolescents drink include just for the fun of it and because their friends drink and to cope with stress or boredom (risk factors for problem behaviour). Those who don’t drink generally have strong parental role models, have observed some of the harmful effects of alcohol use and seem able to resist peer pressure (protective factors for problem behaviour). There were no significant differences between the perceptions of male and female adolescents regarding alcohol consumption. The black adolescents in general appeared to be more affected by poverty than the coloured adolescents, a factor that influenced their choices around alcohol use. Risky sexual behaviour, rape and fighting seem to be some of the harmful consequences to drinking that are described by the youth of this study. The social environment in which the adolescents of this study live seemed to play a significant role in their attitudes toward drinking. Factors such as a lack of infrastructure for leisure, poverty and a tolerance for public drunkenness are community factors that affect these adolescents but over which they have little or no control.Conclusion: The potential for problem behaviour as perceived by the participants is determined by the balance of risk and protective factors that emanate from their social environment, the community itself and their own personality. Those fortunate enough to have cohesive families with interested adults around them are more likely to be protected from problem behaviour due to drinking.Recommendations: Recommendations from this study include engaging with the youth directly when designing intervention programmes; using peer-led programmes to effect change and to help adolescents to clarify their values; equip them with skills to plan for the future in order to develop their self-efficacy to make the right choices when it comes to alcohol consumption. It is also recommended that intervention programmes address relationships within the community itself such as strengthening parent-child communication; building positive adult role models and empowering community members to challenge issues such as illegal tavern owners serving alcohol to minors.

Problemformulering: Kunskap om ledarskapets inverkan på riskbeteende och genusföreställningar som framträder i det riskförebyggande arbetet är begränsad och flera studier föreslår att forskningen ska utökas. Genom att undersöka första linjen-chefers uppfattningar av riskbeteenden för att se vilka föreställningar om kvinnor och män som framträder kan en ökad förståelse nås för hur chefer själva upplever att de påverkar, upprätthåller eller förändrar riskbeteenden i arbetsmiljön i förhållande till genus och maskulinitetsnormer. Studien kan ge viktiga implikationer för chefer att arbeta med ur ett genusmedvetet perspektiv för att främja en trygg säkerhetskultur inom mansdominerade branscher. Syfte: Syftet var att undersöka och beskriva, ur ett genusperspektiv, första linjen-chefers uppfattningar av riskbeteenden inom yrket fordonsmekaniker och -reparatörer. Metod: Semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med tio första linjen-chefer inom fordonsmekaniker och -reparatörbranschen. Datainsamlingen analyserades med en fenomenografisk analys. Huvudresultat: Analysen resulterade i sex beskrivningskategorier som gemensamt beskriver första linjen-chefernas uppfattningar av riskbeteenden inom branschen ur ett genusperspektiv. Chefernas uppfattning var att informella ledare, jargong och kvinnors riskbeteende påverkar riskbeteende och därmed säkerhetskultur i branschen. Chefernas uppfattning var också att de påverkar riskbeteenden och säkerhetskultur genom att vara förebilder och ledare samt genom att använda informella ledare som hjälp. Slutsats: Det framgår av resultatet att cheferna beskriver en situation där riskbeteenden påverkas av informella ledares riskbeteenden och där kvinnor och mäns riskbeteenden beskrivs bero på det biologiska könet. Arbetsmiljöarbete med ett genusperspektiv kan bidra med kunskap om att genus är socialt konstruerat och att män och kvinnor inte beter oss olika för att vi har biologiskt olika kön, utan på grund av socialt konstruerade förväntningar på hur vi bör bete oss. Resultatet går i linje med studiens teoretiska ramverk, att kvinnor och mäns riskbeteende beskrivs som olika på grund av det biologiska könet vilket kan påverka riskbeteende. / Aim: The aim was to investigate and describe, from a gender perspective, first-line managers' conceptions of risk behavior in the profession of automotive mechanics and repairers. Method: A semi-structured interview study was conducted on ten first-line managers. The data collection was analyzed with a phenomenographic analysis. Main results: The analysis resulted in six description categories: The managers' conceptions were that informal leaders, jargon and women's risk behaviour affect risk behaviour and thus safety culture. Managers also believed that they influence risk behaviors and safety culture by being role models and leaders, and by using informal leaders for help. Conclusion: Managers describe a situation where risk behaviours in the industry are mostly affected by the risk behaviours of informal leaders and where women and men's risk behaviours are described as due to the biological sex. Promoting occupational health from a gender perspective in male dominated industries can contribute with knowledge that risk behaviour is affected by socially constructed expectations of how we should behave.

The aim of the diploma thesis is to find out the occurrence and the main causes of pupils' truancy at secondary school and the overall description of this negative phenomenon. The thesis is a case study of a particular secondary school. The name of the secondary school is not mentioned in the thesis for ethical reasons. The diploma thesis is of a theoretical- empirical character. The thesis describes truancy as a socially pathological phenomenon and its definition is not missing here. The causes and factors of truancy are also mentioned in the theoretical part. The legislative framework, the solution of the truancy problem and mainly the prevention, which is a part of the thesis, are not left out. The methods of a questionnaire and interview were used in the empirical part of the thesis. In the empirical part there is a subsequent evaluation, analysis and evaluation of the overall situation of the truancy occurrence at a particular secondary school. The research respondents were both pupils and teachers of the relevant secondary school.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / In general, peers have a tendency to influence others positively and negatively. In the main, transition from school to higher education causes some students to experience stress; to respond negatively to new conditions; and to engage in risk behaviour, which hinders epistemological access, negatively affects performance, and often delays graduation. Nonetheless, participation in peer group activities has advantages and potentialities, which are often neglected in popular scholarly discourse. The main research question of the study was to investigate the experiences of peer pressure among first-year students? This study adopted a mixed-method research design and presents findings for both quantitative data which was collected through an electronic survey and qualitative findings from focus group interviews with three different groups: females, males, and, mixed gender. The population comprised first-year students living in two residences of a selected South African university. The qualitative data was analysed through thematic analysis, while the quantitative data was analysed through descriptive statistics and inferential statistics such as Spearman’s Rank correlation was used in the study. In consideration with the transition theory, social learning theory, and student involvement theory. Findings reveal that first-year students join different groups and they encounter both positive and negative experiences. Positive experiences were observed in relation to academic performance and sense of belonging. Negative experiences indicate that peers influence others to adopt anti-social behaviour, experience undue materialistic pressure, have poor class attendance, and depend on peers for decisions. Overall, it is found that academic success depends on students’ interconnectedness, sense of belonging, peer support, acceptance, and recognition. The findings can be utilized to inform practical strategies and policies to empower first-year students to deal productively and progressively with peer pressure within the higher education sector. The study recommends the implementation of a First-year Student orientation programme which is called University 101 that can assist first-year students with better transition to higher education and can increase retention output. The programme should address the crucial areas that will assists the first-year with better transitions such as diversity, well-being, self-esteem, academic excellence and peer pressure.

The main aim of this thesis was to investigate decision making from a broad developmental perspective to clarify the role of the underlying mechanisms influencing it. Problem solving and cognitive inhibitory capacity were chartered initially through the use of hypothetical vignettes depicting socially relevant situations and through the use of the Stroop task, to tap into automatic inhibitory capacity. Initial assumptions that prefrontal cortical refinement would denote enhanced social problem ability were not confirmed. Experience emerged as distinct factor in problem solving/decision-making, with the youngest participants equally as effective in producing solutions to situations that they had the most experience in. A shift in development is observed with maturation denoting greater experience and this being applied directly to problem solving and decision-making situations. Education was identified as a possible contributory factor in decision-making and this was explored in a cross-cultural study that tapped into a non-schooled population. The results reinforced the centrality of experience in shaping decision-making. Decision-making in regards to the use of experience was then looked at through real life decision-making situations, where adolescents were asked to provide their knowledge or experience of situations where risk was involved. Adolescents possessed the necessary knowledge to distinguish between optimal and sub-optimal decisions in terms of the consequences that risk behaviours carried with them. However, many still chose to engage in risky behaviours. This paradox could also be explained by actual experience, with the suggestion that positive experience in a peer group was serving as a pool from which adolescents drew to make future decision-making. If risk behaviours were not experienced adversely, the likelihood of their repetition was high. Taken together the findings suggest that adolescents are well equipped with the cognitive skills to make decisions. Compared to younger children, they have more experience of a greater range of situations from which to extrapolate responses from. They also have a great deal of knowledge and information about the negative consequences associated with a range of challenging situations and risk-taking behaviours. However, when faced with decisions in the social domain, the behaviour of friends and perceptions of what other people are doing are powerful influences on adolescent decisions.

Topic of my thesis covers the analysis of programmes, related to primary prevention within the Liberec region. Theoretical part of my thesis comprises the identification of basic terms that are related to the development of socio-pathological phenomena and risk behaviour of children and youth. Furthermore, the thesis depicts the prevention system, which is focused on primary prevention of the risk behaviour. An important part of the thesis is the primary prevention as a part of the upbringing process. The theoretical part of my thesis ends with a chapter that is dealing with the community planning process of villages. By means of an empiric investigation, practical part of the thesis analyses the situation within the primary prevention at elementary schools, information on the number of providers and programmes for primary prevention are investigated in the thesis as well. Another important output lies within the needs and attitudes of the villages in the given region.