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This study examined differences of how females and males were represented in three top teen magazines. Depiction of female and male bodies in the magazines was explored by the cropping of the photographs. The images were examined to determine if emphasis was placed on the face or the body. The researcher used the Body Index Scale coding instrument. A simple random sample of 1200 images in the three top teen magazines was analyzed. The study did not show any statistical significance on hypotheses one, which stated that photographic images of females will be cropped lower on the body than images of males. However, there were significant findings on how images were cropped in relation to story type. The significance of this study was showing how images of females and males are cropped differently in teen magazines. This finding could affect the way adolescent girls think and feel about their appearance.

Parent and teen communication combined with relationship skills, and their ability to resolve conflict, need extensive research to help understand if effective intervention can lead to short-term and long-term success in terms of continued crime and delinquency prevention and relationship endurance. This researcher conducted a short-term study by holding a parent and teen communication and conflict resolution intervention program for teens and parents in crisis called Family Reunion. Five classes were held with 102 research subjects. Pre and post treatment questionnaire surveys were administered containing both fixed responses and open-ended questions. Quantitative analysis of the fixed response items indicated positive results of the treatment and analysis of the open-ended items indicated satisfaction with the program for both parent and teen respondents. The research did not address long-term results. In order for long-term effects to emerge, families must continue to practice the skills learned in the communication and conflict resolution skills program.

Teen films generally highlight typical high school stereotypes, with jocks being one of the most prevalent characters. Through a content analysis, this study seeks to determine the portrayal of male athletes in comparison with their fellow teenage characters in the top-grossing teen films from the 1980s through the 2000s to help understand the role of films in reinforcing stereotypes. The study found that male athletes are significantly more likely to be portrayed as more physically or verbally aggressive, unintelligent and popular than their peer counterparts. They were not depicted to be any more sexually active, illegal substances users, or physically attractive than their male peers.

The media is littered with various portrayals of aggression. This aggression has been shown to influence the attitudes, beliefs, and subsequent behaviors of its viewers (Bushman & Anderson, 2001). Relational aggression is a newer concern for researchers and has become more prevalent in recent research. Relational aggression is prevalent in the lives of adolescents. Using social cognitive theory (Bandura 2002), information processing theory (Huesmann, 1988), and the general aggression model (Anderson & Bushman, 2002) to justify how adolescents might be developing these relationally aggressive behaviors, this study seeks to expand the literature by evaluating the portrayals of relational aggression in popular teen movies; a genre primarily watched by adolescents. This thesis is a content analysis of the top 30 grossing teen movies for the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s for a total of 90 movies. The study examines three types of relational aggression—direct, indirect, and nonverbal. The following variables were coded for each act of relational aggression: initiator and victim age, gender, sociometrics, attractiveness, SES, and role, their relationship to each other, the context, humor, and consequence of the act of relational aggression. Analysis revealed that relational aggression is extremely prevalent (94.4%) in teen movies. Direct relational aggression is more prevalent in teen movies than both indirect and nonverbal relational aggression. Results indicate that females are portrayed as the primary initiators of relational aggression in teen films. Initiators and victims of relational aggression are primarily portrayed as characters of average attractiveness, average popularity, and as having middle class incomes. Acts of relational aggression are portrayed as not justified and not humorous. However, acts of relational aggression were portrayed as rewarded. No significant differences across decade were found for amount of relational aggression shown or for what type of relational aggression was portrayed. Results showed there were more male aggressors in the 1980s than expected and more female aggressors in the 2000s than expected.

The purpose of this study was to determine if there are differences in birth weight of infants, tobacco use during pregnancy, and Apgar scores of infants between pregnant adolescents who successfully complete a healthy pregnancy curriculum and those who do not and to further examine the adolescent mothers' perceptions of the major concepts included in a healthy pregnancy curriculum. The study involved the collection and analysis of retrospective data to determine differences in birth weight of infants, tobacco use during pregnancy, and Apgar scores of infants. Additionally, a questionnaire, focus group discussions, and follow-up interviews were conducted with former students of the healthy pregnancy curriculum to examine the adolescent mothers' perceptions of the major concepts in the healthy pregnancy curriculum. The participants answered questions regarding how important they thought each major concept is for inclusion in the healthy pregnancy curriculum, how much they learned about each major concept, and how helpful that information was in their own experiences. Analyses of the data did not show statistical differences between adolescents who successfully completed a healthy pregnancy curriculum and those who did not complete a healthy pregnancy curriculum regarding differences in birth weight of infants, tobacco use during pregnancy, and Apgar scores of infants. These findings of non-significance may be due to the small number of participants (n=50), non-participants (n=149), and the limited duration of the study data (1999 to 2003). A larger population over a longer period of time might yield different results. The findings from the qualitative data provided by the seven former students suggest that pregnant adolescents who successfully complete the class perceive the components of the healthy pregnancy curriculum as valuable and important. Topics that were indicated as particularly important were The Birth Process, Nutrition, Decision Making, and Family Planning. Participants further indicated changes in their attitudes for all ten topics and changes in behaviors in the areas of Human Reproduction, Nutrition, Health-Care Practices, Environmental Effects on the Unborn Baby, and Decision Making.

Sex education policies and programs in Florida are largely dominated by the abstinence-only approach. This paper makes the case that abstinence-only education is a failing policy in Florida, and evaluates strategies advocates may use in order to accomplish reform. Three different strategies are evaluated: countywide school district reform, statewide rejection of federal abstinence-only funding, and statewide standardization of sex education via legislation. Contrasts are drawn between all three strategies with regard to their potential impact on sex education policy in Florida, viability, and the challenges they present to advocates. This paper concludes that statewide standardization of sex education in Florida represents the best way to remedy the problem of insufficient sex education, but is unlikely to occur without increased bipartisan support in the Florida legislature. Statewide rejection of Title V federal abstinence-only funds remains an important policy goal for the purpose of accomplishing an end to federal abstinence grants but would likely achieve very little for Florida's students. Countywide sex education changes are thus far the only substantive victory for sex education advocates in Florida and should be instituted across the state with advocates taking special care to engage teachers, medical professionals, parents and local community leaders.

The high teen birth rate in Holyoke, Massachusetts is a complex problem. The teen birth rate is over five times the state‘s rate and nearly three times the national rate. Since a majority of these births are to Latinas of Puerto Rican descent it is important to include the perceptions of Puerto Rican teens in approaches to prevent teen pregnancy and reduce the birth rate. Although there is a plethora of research on the topic of teen pregnancy and births, there is scarcity in the area of perceptions held by teens of Puerto Rican descent about teen pregnancy and births, future consequences faced by teen parents, contributing and protective factors of teen pregnancy, and potential preventive interventions. This qualitative study used a series of eight focus groups to gather data and examine perceptions held by Puerto Rican teens living in Holyoke about teen pregnancy and birth. The Ecological Model of Health Behavior provided the theoretical framework. Findings indicate that Puerto Rican teens in Holyoke perceive that: teen pregnancy is largely unintentional and a problem with negative outcomes, a lack of information on sexual health and reproduction contributes to this problem, sexual and reproductive health education should be provided to all teens, social factors may either contribute to or prevent teen pregnancy teens, and they want their ideas heard. These findings suggest that teen pregnancy and birth is a complex public health problem in need of a comprehensive approach recognizing that interventions focused on individuals are not likely to have powerful or sustained effects. Rather a combination of interventions addressing individual, interpersonal, community and societal levels are needed for risk reduction and effective behavior change

Due to the continuous use and rise of social media sites among teens and worries about their safety while using these sites, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers have been working together with teenagers using methods such as participatory design/co-design to study their social media usage, along with the risks they encounter and their behavior online. However, this comes with several constraints such as power imbalances, conflicting schedules of teenagers, and lack of attendance. To work towards engaging teens in online safety research without being bound by these constraints, we recruited 7 teens between the ages of 15-17 years old to be a part of a year-long Youth Advisory Board (YAB) for the Socio-Technical Interaction Research (STIR) Lab. We conducted online activities with the teen participants in our YAB within an Asynchronous Remote Community (ARC), which is an online group where communication and activity participation occur asynchronously between researchers and participants. To collect our data, we first organized a synchronous Zoom meeting with the teens about the ARC research method, discussed how the method relates to them, and talked about the topics and activities that they would like to partake in within an ARC. Then, we conducted activities with the teens to discuss their social media usage and their perceptions of algorithms used to provide content on social media. Our participants were interested in discussing topics that were related to safety on social media platforms and doing research activities that could best be implemented through the ARC research method such as giving feedback on research design, suggesting solutions to online safety prompts, and designing apps based on an online safety prompt. We also found that our participants' social media platform usage heavily depended on their goals as users, and they were weighing the privacy affordances and risks that came with using the platforms to decide which platform is best for their goals. Finally, our teen participants were aware of the positive and negative impacts that algorithms on social media platforms have on their online safety. They were skeptical of social platform algorithms due to their safety and privacy concerns, though they understood the benefits and wanted to learn more about how these algorithms operate. Overall, our participants appreciated the ARC methodology for exploring online safety perspectives, as it does allow them enough time to take part in activities and collaborate in discussions with each other. Our findings suggest that ARC can be an effective method for co-designing research studies to understand teens' social media usage, the risks they encounter online, and ways to mitigate such risks on social media.

Troup County, Georgia has been afflicted with elevated teen pregnancy and subsequent teen pregnancy rates. As a result, Circle of Care was developed to reduce the subsequent teen pregnancy rate within Troup County. Circle of Care works with pregnant and parenting teens and their families to enhance their quality of life. A case manager provides information, education and support to enable the teens to stay in school, prevent subsequent teen pregnancies, and prevent child abuse and neglect. This study evaluates the effectiveness of Circle of Care by determining if intensity and duration of program participation have an impact on achieving the desired outcomes for program participants. The results of this research suggest that Circle of Care is reducing subsequent teen pregnancies, increasing educational attainment and decreasing child abuse and neglect among program participants.