No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The teen pregnancy rate in the United States has been rapidly and steadily declining across all ethnic groups and races over the past two decades and is now at an all-time low. Most academic studies attribute this decline to increased and consistent use of contraception. Despite this good news, instead of or in addition to focusing on evidence-based advocacy in their prevention efforts, many social institutions, including public health entities and private sector organizations, continue to use representations of teen pregnancy and motherhood that stigmatize young mothers – or construct narratives of failure – as part of their communication interventions. The advent of social media, however, has given young mothers the means to challenge these mainstream representations and create positive social identities – or construct narratives of success. My research focuses on how images used in prevention campaigns construct or resist representations of teen pregnancy. My methodological framework consists of a combination of textual analysis and qualitative interviews with the image-producers. Theories related to language as an important tool for constructing and resisting representations, communication for social change as a rights-based framework and social media as a site to build identity and interject voice in public discourse are also explored and should be of interest to communication for development practitioners.

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of emotional intelligence in predicting parenting self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy, academic achievement, and school attendance among a sample of adolescent mothers. A battery of instruments was administered to a sample of 108 high school students who were enrolled in the Employment Leading to Education and Career Training (ELECT) Program. The students ranged from 16- to 21-years of age and were enrolled between the 10th and 12th grade. Emotional intelligence was assessed with the Bar-On Emotional Quotient: Short Version (EQ-i:S), and self-efficacy variables were measured with the Self-Efficacy for Learning Form-Abridged (SELF-A) and the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC). Moderate and significant correlations were found between emotional intelligence and both parenting and academic self-efficacy measures. Despite a positive relationship with academic self-efficacy, emotional intelligence was not found to correlate with student achievement or school attendance, with the exception of Social Studies achievement. The investigation of length of time parenting revealed no relations with parenting self-efficacy beliefs or school outcome variables such as grade point averages or attendance. Results also indicated that the level of involvement from the child's father did not correlate with this sample of adolescent mothers' perception of parenting satisfaction. However, parenting satisfaction and school achievement were negatively correlated with their satisfaction with available social support networks. / School Psychology

After a nightmare where her best friend is killed by a terrifying creature, a teenager girl, wakes up to find that not only is he missing in real life, but no one in the perfect town of Fallmore seems to remember he ever existed...