Despite decreasing rates of teen pregnancy within the U.S., rates remain high for African American girls (Guttmacher Institute, 2006). Comprehensive youth development programs aim to address teen pregnancy. This study examined the role of natural mentors in relation to participation in Cool Girls, Inc. and girls’ sexual efficacy among middle school girls. Furthermore, the quality of natural mentor relationship was assessed. Results provide no support that participation in the program and the presence of a natural mentor significantly affects sexual efficacy. Furthermore, the quality of natural mentor relationship did not significantly increase girls’ sexual efficacy. However, while not explicitly hypothesized, older girls reported significantly higher sexual efficacy. Limitations and strengths of the study are discussed. Directions for future research and intervention are suggested.

Observations of adolescent's language in upper secondary school in Sweden. Do teenagers stule-shift when speaking in different communicative settings; that is the core of this essay. Five informants have been observed in three different speaking sessions, and their language is analyzed, discussed and compared to secondary sources.

This case study investigates how a situated learning model can contribute to positive youth development as seen through a youth focused, community-based arts program, Creative Teen. Creative Teen is a seven-month collaborative mentorship program, which pairs twelve professional artists with twelve high school students. The partnerships work together one-on-one over the course of the program to become more knowledgeable on a given art medium and to ultimately collaborate on an artwork for the culminating Creative Teen exhibition. I sought to determine how this mentorship model would not only foster artistic development amongst youth, but how participation in the Creative Teen program would contribute to the overall development of the young adults involved. I accomplished this by limiting observational research and supplemental interviews to the interactions of one mentor partnership, Jessica and Carly. Over the course of the program, I attended their weekly meetings and watched them as they worked together to develop a large-scale installation, Lydia the Tattooed Ladies, for the culminating exhibition. Initially it was unclear to me the extent to which involvement in the Creative Teen program would have on the development of youth participants. However, through conducting this case study, I was able to identify various developmental characteristics that were cultivated through participation, which include artistic, social, and professional development. In addition to personal developmental characteristics, many practical skills were developed and exercised during the course of the Creative Teen program, which include time management, communication, financial management, public speaking, commitment to a long term project, and working with others. / text

Despite decreasing rates of teen pregnancy within the U.S., rates remain high for African American girls (Guttmacher Institute, 2006). Comprehensive youth development programs aim to address teen pregnancy. This study examined the role of natural mentors in relation to participation in Cool Girls, Inc. and girls’ sexual efficacy among middle school girls. Furthermore, the quality of natural mentor relationship was assessed. Results provide no support that participation in the program and the presence of a natural mentor significantly affects sexual efficacy. Furthermore, the quality of natural mentor relationship did not significantly increase girls’ sexual efficacy. However, while not explicitly hypothesized, older girls reported significantly higher sexual efficacy. Limitations and strengths of the study are discussed. Directions for future research and intervention are suggested.

This dissertation examines the rhetorical function and social implications of the "dominant narrative of teenage pregnancy"--that is, the popular depiction of young motherhood as the tragic downfall of a woman's life. I employ feminist poststructuralist and visual rhetorical critique to analyze historical and contemporary teenage pregnancy prevention materials as well as journalistic representations of young mothers. Building from this analysis, I argue that the dominant narrative pathologizes teenage mothers, prevents a focus on structures of inequality and poverty, sustains racialized gender ideologies, and encourages practices that perpetuate disparities for pregnant/mothering young women. In addition, this project explores strategies for resisting this discourse. Specifically, I review scholarship that has contested the dominant narrative and identify counter-rhetorical practices that some young mothers use in their published first-person narratives. Finally, drawing on focus groups I conducted with 27 young mothers, I illustrate that visibly young pregnant and parenting women are often publically confronted by strangers because they embody an urgent and much-debated social issue. I offer the concept of "embodied exigence" as a way to understand how discursive and material realities of the body may construct rhetorical situations and how the body may function as a site of constrained agency. Building from rhetorical theories of agency, exigence, and feminist work on the visibility of motherhood, I assert that in moments of embodied exigence, marginalized young mothers may seize the opportunity to resist dominant rhetoric and act as rhetors in their own right.

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of former teen talking circle participant’s experience with the practice of compassionate listening in talking circles and to explore compassionate listening as a form of spiritual activism. This study explored the use and effect of compassionate listening within the facilitator training materials developed and used by the organization Teen Talking Circles as well as the use and experience of compassionate listening within the teen talking circles. For the purpose of this study, I interviewed seven former female teen talking circle participants. Open ended semi-structured interviews were the means of data collection. Data were analyzed thematically and after reviewing the transcripts from all seven interviews, the five strongest themes to come out of the interviews were: increased communication skills, increased awareness, less judgment of self and others, deeper relationships and an increased sense of empathy.

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of former teen talking circle participant’s experience with the practice of compassionate listening in talking circles and to explore compassionate listening as a form of spiritual activism. This study explored the use and effect of compassionate listening within the facilitator training materials developed and used by the organization Teen Talking Circles as well as the use and experience of compassionate listening within the teen talking circles. For the purpose of this study, I interviewed seven former female teen talking circle participants. Open ended semi-structured interviews were the means of data collection. Data were analyzed thematically and after reviewing the transcripts from all seven interviews, the five strongest themes to come out of the interviews were: increased communication skills, increased awareness, less judgment of self and others, deeper relationships and an increased sense of empathy.

Teen pregnancy in New Zealand has been constructed as a multifaceted problem, which has prompted scrutiny into the lives of pregnant and parenting teens and their children. Research largely presents teen mothers as ‘at risk’ parents and high school drop outs, with high rates of welfare dependence. Teen parents are considered unlikely to achieve the educational and economic success of their non-parenting peers. This research considers the impact of the experience at a Teen Parent Unit (TPU) on the ways pregnant and parenting teens understand and achieve success. Using a qualitative case study of a Teen Parent Unit in an urban setting in New Zealand, this thesis documents the experiences and perspectives of four young women. Its aim is to detail, explain and interpret the ways these pregnant and parenting teens understand their developing identities as successful students and parents. Drawing on social constructionist perspectives, the views of the young women participants, and of the researcher have been analysed through a conceptual lens of culturally responsive pedagogical theory. Comparisons are made between the culture of success that has been developed in the Teen Parent Unit setting and that of schools which have engaged in Māori culturally responsive pedagogical practice. This thesis offers a strengths-based analysis of an environment which, by reframing expectations of success, presents a challenge to negative academic and societal expectations of pregnant and parenting teens. Its goal is to provide educators, social support agencies, education and social policy makers with an analysis of approaches that have made important differences in the lives of the young women and their children.

This study focused on the pastoral guidance of the emotional wounded teen on the basis of a number of broad markers from the book Ecclesiastes. From the basis–theoretical research (Chapters 2 and 3) it was clear that it is a major challenge to come to a proper understanding of the nature and problems of the teen and his experiences.It there is the necessary understanding of all the relevant aspects and if these are handled correctly, it can promote the growth process of the teen developing an intimate relationship with God, and eventually also lead to the experience of a true sense of life and joy. From Ecclesiastes a number of guidelines were identified which can assist in giving the teen the necessary perspective about his daily life struggles. Answers to the search for sense and joy in life do not lie in people and things under the sun, but in a living and intimate relationship with God, in other words in that which is above the sun (to use the imagery of Ecclesiastes). The meta–theoretical section focused on contributions from the adjacent disciplines. Here it was clear that the emotional wounding of the teen results in damage to the forming of identity and self–esteem.When the teen, in a changing environment, does not experience safety and security within healthy relationships, it quite often leads to an identity crisis and to more wounding. From the empirical research it transpired that, as a result of the burden of unresolved emotional baggage from the past, teens are inclined to have a very negative view of the challenges of life and also to experience life as senseless and without joy. In the establishment of an own identity and self–esteem they displayed a strong need for personal relationships. Their negative and weak self–esteem can furthermore be traced to the lack of role models. Another consequence of this lack is a weak relationship with God and other people, as well as an inability to make decisions and to handle crises and trauma. In the practice–theoretical section, through a hermeneutical interaction between basistheoretical guidelines and meta–theoretival perspectives, the formulation of an adapted practice theory, on the basis of guidelines from Ecclesiastes, about the pastoral guidance of the emotional wounded teen was attempted. This model, aimed at pastoral practice, presents parameters for the pastoral guidance of all unresolved trauma and the emotional pain of teens, which are aspects that inhibit spiritual advancement and emotional healing. Only then will the teen be able to truly focus on the enjoyment of life under the sun, in the light of the principles and guidelines from Ecclesiastes. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This study focused on the pastoral guidance of the emotional wounded teen on the basis of a number of broad markers from the book Ecclesiastes. From the basis–theoretical research (Chapters 2 and 3) it was clear that it is a major challenge to come to a proper understanding of the nature and problems of the teen and his experiences.It there is the necessary understanding of all the relevant aspects and if these are handled correctly, it can promote the growth process of the teen developing an intimate relationship with God, and eventually also lead to the experience of a true sense of life and joy. From Ecclesiastes a number of guidelines were identified which can assist in giving the teen the necessary perspective about his daily life struggles. Answers to the search for sense and joy in life do not lie in people and things under the sun, but in a living and intimate relationship with God, in other words in that which is above the sun (to use the imagery of Ecclesiastes). The meta–theoretical section focused on contributions from the adjacent disciplines. Here it was clear that the emotional wounding of the teen results in damage to the forming of identity and self–esteem.When the teen, in a changing environment, does not experience safety and security within healthy relationships, it quite often leads to an identity crisis and to more wounding. From the empirical research it transpired that, as a result of the burden of unresolved emotional baggage from the past, teens are inclined to have a very negative view of the challenges of life and also to experience life as senseless and without joy. In the establishment of an own identity and self–esteem they displayed a strong need for personal relationships. Their negative and weak self–esteem can furthermore be traced to the lack of role models. Another consequence of this lack is a weak relationship with God and other people, as well as an inability to make decisions and to handle crises and trauma. In the practice–theoretical section, through a hermeneutical interaction between basistheoretical guidelines and meta–theoretival perspectives, the formulation of an adapted practice theory, on the basis of guidelines from Ecclesiastes, about the pastoral guidance of the emotional wounded teen was attempted. This model, aimed at pastoral practice, presents parameters for the pastoral guidance of all unresolved trauma and the emotional pain of teens, which are aspects that inhibit spiritual advancement and emotional healing. Only then will the teen be able to truly focus on the enjoyment of life under the sun, in the light of the principles and guidelines from Ecclesiastes. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.