The dramatic increase in the masculine practice of tattooing among girls in Western societies is an area of interest for feminist researchers and visual culture educators. Girls’ tattoos are perceived as diverse practices of conformity, resistance, reclamation, and empowerment, and/or as contemporary markers of femininity, sexuality, and desire. Eleven adolescent girls with tattoos from the Central Okanagan region of British Columbia were interviewed during a 12 month period in 2007/2008. Discourse analysis was employed as a method to interpret and deconstruct girls’ narratives with respect to understanding why girls have adopted traditional Western male practices of tattooing as expressions of individuality or identity. Secondly, responses were examined with respect to girls’ knowledge of potential risks involved with tattooing. The majority of participants had strong attachments to their relatives and their tattoos signified a desire to maintain that close family relationship. Research findings indicated girls’ mothers were influential in their daughters’ decisions to get tattooed and in the type of image tattooed. Girls were adamant that popular media figures with tattoos and advertisements of models with tattoos could influence or encourage girls to engage in body art. Knowledge of potential risks was learned primarily from tattoo artists and relatives, with infection indicated as the main associated risk. Participants suggested the distribution of pamphlets in school counseling centres could inform students of potential risks and provide information related to safe body art practices. Participants believed societal norms respecting girls’ behaviors and practices were different than those experienced by their mothers. However size, placement, and image of their tattoos, their own biases, and their experiences with older relatives including grandmothers and some fathers indicate that traditional Western attitudes regarding femininity and the female body continue. In spite of this, girls believe that they have the freedom to choose how they enact femininity and assert their individuality, and they believe “if guys can do it, so can girls”. As visual culture educators we need to listen to and respect the voices of girls to achieve a greater understanding of how girls experience and perform gender through their everyday practices within the popular visual culture.

The capital, material resources, equipments, organizational employees, and technological resources are the key points for a business to maintain competitive. Amongst these, ¡§human resources¡¨ are the main body for allocating the resources; and within the human resource system, environmental factors such as the organizational climate and sense of inspiration are the most significant causes of the employees¡¦ behaviors. Moreover, apart from the market competitiveness and beneficial abilities, the unity amongst the employees and their working attitudes are also main factors depending on which the business would succeed or not. Whether the employees are willing to work hard and grow with the company would be depending on how the company treats its employees. The personal needs and preferred risk differ from person to person; some work for money, whilst some work for work; thus, for some people, an inspirational measure might be very important, for it would inspire them to work hard, whilst for others, the measure might be of no inspirational effect at all. As for the organization, to effectively meet this goal, the business executives would need to understand associated topics of inspiration, and design effective and strategic inspirational combinations focusing on the needs and expectations of the employees, so as to attract and keep excellent human talents, inspire the potentials of the employees, and consequently elevate the organizational promises and the work achievements. The developing staffs, business sales persons and the administrative staffs of listed companies in Taiwan were used as the study population in the present research, with the risk preference as the independent variable, the organizational promise as the dependent variable, and the awareness of the organizational climate as the moderator variable; the associations and influences between the variables were studied. Moreover, the inspirational factor was further included as the confounding variable for studying its confounding effects on the other variables. A total of 1,322 surveys were sent out, and 269 of which were completed and returned. Through differential analysis, correlational analysis, and multiple regression analysis, the empirical findings of the present study are as the following: 1.Risk preference, awareness of the organizational climate, inspirational factor, and organizational promises differed depending on the different individual attributes. 2.Risk preferences and organizational climate were correlated with the promises the employees made for the organization. 3.the employees¡¦ awareness of the organizational climate had influences on risk preference and the promises for the organization 4.The relationship between risk preferences and the awareness of the organizational climate and the relationship between organizational climate and organizational promise are confounded by the inspirational factor.

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on December 29, 2009). Thesis advisor: Dr. Bruce D. Bartholow. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Economics, August 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2000. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-72). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ67735

Adolescents engage in more risky behavior when they are with peers and show heightened susceptibility to peer influence relative to children and adults. Recent experimental studies suggest that peer influence on adolescent risk-taking may be mediated by activity in reward-related regions of the brain (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005; Chein et al., 2011). Because reward-related regions are modified by the hormonal changes of puberty, it is possible that the heightened influence of peers on adolescent risk-taking is more closely linked to pubertal development than chronological age. The current study examined whether the effect of peers on risk-taking was moderated by pubertal status. Participants (62 youth, ages 11-16) completed a performance-based measure of risky decision-making, once alone and once in the presence of two peers. Pubertal timing was assessed using self-report. Adolescents made riskier decisions in the presence of peers, and more advanced pubertal development predicted greater risky decision-making, controlling for chronological age. However, the relationship between pubertal timing and risk-taking was only apparent when adolescents completed the task alone. The effect of peer presence on risky decision-making was attenuated for adolescents with more advanced pubertal development. These findings suggest that the presence of peers may override biologically-based individual differences in propensity for risk-taking. / text

Despite adolescence and emerging adulthood being a time of peak physical ability, it is marked by a dramatic increase in morbidity and mortality, primarily driven by poor behavioral and emotional control (Dahl, 2004). Multiple lines of recent research are now focusing on how maturation of decision-making impacts risk-taking, and more specifically, what role emotion regulation plays (Weinberger et al., 2005; Steinberg, 2007). Rather than avoiding risk factors, a call is made for strength and skills-based approaches to risk-taking interventions. The purpose of the current exploratory study was to assess the efficacy of an experiential learning (EL) intervention designed to increase participants’ emotion regulation skills and decrease risk-taking. Twenty-eight emerging adults participated; 15 were assigned to the experimental group and presented with two separate sessions on emotional regulation and risk-taking using EL methodology (low and high element activities). The control group’s 13 participants were presented with two separate powerpoint lectures on emotion regulation and risk-taking. Participants’ difficulty with emotion regulation and risk-taking were assessed prior to the first session, between sessions, and one week following the second session. Qualitative interviews assessed participants’ understanding of how emotions and risk-taking are connected and process measures assessed the emotional impact of the intervention activities. While hypotheses were not confirmed, results revealed a significant decline in difficulty with emotion regulation across time for all participants. Unexpectedly, however, there were no significant differences between the groups on emotional regulation and the group x time interaction was also not significant. Additionally, risk-taking significantly increased across time. The control group reported more risk-taking across the three time periods than the experimental group. The time x group interaction approached significance [F(2,56) =2.68, p =.07], showing consistent increases for the control group but relatively low levels for the experimental group. Qualitative data revealed that participants had clear notions of how emotions drive risk-taking, how the thrill of risk- taking can be used to displace negative feelings, and how one’s need to connect to others can lead to risk-taking. Experimental group participants demonstrated a shift from global thinking about emotions and risk-taking to more specific thoughts about emotional awareness as a key skill. / text

Background: Adolescent risk behaviors are important public health problems worldwide. They can lead to significant mortalities and morbidities. Common and important adolescent risk behaviors include tobacco smoking, alcohol drinking, drug abuse, dating, sexual activity, suicide, participation in fighting and gambling. Various factors were studied on the association with youth risk behaviors. Families, schools and communities play important roles. Having meals with families have been shown to be associated with less risk behaviors in youths in other studies. However, there is no study on the association between family dinner and youth risk behaviors in Hong Kong. Objectives: The objectives of the current study are to test for any association between the frequency of family dinner and youth risk behaviors and to raise the public awareness of the importance of youth risk behaviors and the associated factors. Methods: The data in the current study was extracted from the Child Health Survey (CHS) conducted in 2005/2006. The CHS was commissioned by the Surveillance and Epidemiology Branch Centre for Health Protection under Department of Health. Children in the age group of 11 to 14 years old were included in this study. In CHS, self-administered questionnaires including Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) which were validated were completed by the parent. For children of 11 to 14 years of age, except those who were mentally handicapped, data on quality of life, psychological assessment and risk behaviors were collected through a separate face-to-face interview and a self- administered questionnaire in Chinese. The association between number of family dinners per week and youth problems including smoking, alcohol drinking, drug abuse, dating, sexual experience, suicidal ideation, participation in fighting and gambling were tested using univariate analysis. Risk behaviors found to be significantly associated with frequency of family dinner were further tested by adjustment of possible confounders using logistic regression. Results: Family dinner of 3 times or more per week was associated with less alcohol drinking, dating and participation in fighting. Alcohol drinking, sexual experience and peer smoking were significantly associated with youth smoking. Youth alcohol drinking was found to be associated with smoking, dating, gambling and externalization problem. Smoking and alcohol drinking were significantly associated with dating. Alcohol drinking, drug abuse, participation in fighting, anxiety and depression problem were associated with suicidal ideation. Suicidal ideation, gambling, anxiety and depression problem, and externalization problem were significantly associated with participation in fighting. Factors associated with youth gambling included alcohol drinking, suicidal ideation and participation in fighting. Conclusion: Family dinner is likely to be a protective factor against certain youth risk behaviors, including alcohol drinking, youth dating and participation in fighting. It should be promoted to all families in Hong Kong. Youth risk behaviors were inter-related. Detection of one youth risk problem should prompt the detection of other risk problems. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

Individual variation and limited plasticity in behavior are factors that have been shown to shape populations and determine how well individuals are doing in different stages of life. When salmon transform from parr to smolt and start the migration out to sea many factors together make an individual successful. The hypothesis of this study was that the boldness of individual smolt (1 and 2 year olds) is correlated to their inclination to migrate downstream. The study also investigated difference in boldness and migration tendency between 1- and two year old smolt. Today, some hatcheries release smolt as both one and two year old and it is important to know whether there is any difference in behavior and migration intensity between age classes in order to make stocking programs more effective. To determine if the individuals differed in boldness, and/or displayed a bold behavioral type, two assays were performed in different contexts (novel environment and simulated predatory attack). Downstream migratory intensity was, after behavior assays, quantified in an artificial stream. I found that: i) the one year old smolts tended to be bolder in a predatory response assay than two year old smolt, ii) one year old smolts migrated less in the artificial stream compared to two year old smolt. Being bolder can have an effect on several aspects connected to fitness in the salmon life cycle and could affect the survival of a smolt migrating out to sea, even though no correlations to inclination to downstream migration were found in this study.

Adolescence is a time associated with increased risk taking and peer relations. Research has shown that adolescents are more vulnerable to peer pressure compared to adults, leading to exacerbated risk taking. Preclinical research suggests that these findings may also be applicable to adolescent rodents, which find social interaction rewarding and are prone to risky behavior. There is, however, little research on the effect of social interaction on rodent models of risky decision-making. This thesis utilized social chambers, which consisted of adjacent operant chambers separated by wire mesh. Adolescent rats performed a risky decision-making task in which they had a choice between a small and large reward (associated with a mild footshock, which increased in probability across the session). Experiment 1 determined if the presence of peer altered performance on the task after stability. Experiment 2 determined if the presence of a peer altered performance on the task during acquisition. Results of Experiment 1 revealed no significant changes. Results from Experiment 2 revealed a significant increase in preference for the risky reward in the group of rats that had daily exposure to a social peer. These results provide evidence that social influence on risk taking can be modeled in rodents.