For many Latino immigrant children the transition from adolescence to adulthood and more specifically from high school to college or the workforce can be a daunting experience. Scholars have identified contextual factors such as family, culture, and access to academic and financial resources contribute significantly to the academic and career decision making of Latino immigrant youths (Chaves et al., 2004). Vocational psychology research literature has been criticized for the exclusion of diverse populations, particularly inner city youth (Medvide & Blustein, 2010) from career development theories. Using consensual qualitative research (CQR), the current study broadens the understanding of the career development of Latino immigrant youth by gathering 15 participant narratives from current NYC high school students. These interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using CQR methods (Hill, Knox, Thompson, Williams, Hess, & Ladany, 2005). The results of the study illustrate how culture, family support, access to financial and academic resources, and perceived barriers impact the career decision-making of Latino immigrant youth. More specifically, results indicate Latino immigrant youth highly value family relationships and teacher support in their career decision-making, and feel these supports are essential for their career success. Additionally, participants’ internalization of their social status and access to financial and academic resources critically influence their career decisions. Recommendations for research and clinical practice were presented with an emphasis on expanding multicultural competency and culturally responsive counseling interventions provided to students and families in order to reinforce students’ academic, social, and cultural strengths.

Given the growing population of undocumented Latina/o/x immigrants who came to the United States as children, there is a need for research that explores the risk and protective factors of their experiences growing up in the United States. As they transition through adolescence, they emerge as adults in a very different world. No longer protected from deportation, they must take more serious risks with employment. Without access to federal financial aid, they face the reality that they may never be able to utilize their college education in the United States. Against these odds, and with the temporary protection of DACA, an increasing number of undocumented childhood arrivals are civically engaged in the immigrant rights movement. Employing a qualitative method based on constructivist and feminist frameworks called Consensual Qualitative Research, this study sought to explore the impact of activism in Latina/o/x DACAmented immigrants’ thwarted transition to adulthood, highlighting the ways in which Latina/o/x cultural values mitigate the impact of activism. The sample consisted of 12 Latina/o/x DACAmented activists, eight women and four men, ages 18-32, from Mexico (n = 10), Guatemala (n = 1), and Dominican Republic (n = 1). The findings in this study not only suggested that protective migration factors, DACA-related privileges, and strong coping skills contributed to Latina/o/x DACAmented immigrants’ decision to become activists, but they also noted that activism has been a protective factor in and of itself. The results also showed the ways in which Latina/o/x cultural values helped them make sense of their unique experiences and were consistent with the values within their activist communities. Existing clinical recommendations, resources, and research methods were highlighted as ways in which mental health providers can apply these findings in their clinical, training, and research practice.

Phase two was a large scale survey, whereby a convenient sample of 1319 junior secondary school students were recruited from five schools in the main study. A total number of 1211 students aged 11 years and older completed the questionnaires. The results of the main study showed that the three occurrences of bullying stressors which occurred most frequently were "Bullies make fun of my physical appearance unpleasantly", "Bullies insult me in front of other people" and "Bullies intentionally trick me". Findings also indicated that adolescents often appraised bullying as being "Physical harm or emotional hurt" and "Threaten of getting harm or loss". In particular, the highest levels of stress experienced by adolescents were in incidents where "Bullies gain peer support that I deserved to be bullied", "Bullies make fun of my physical appearance unpleasantly" and "Bullies insult me causing me to lose emotional control". Elaborating further on the Chi-square analysis measuring on the frequency of bullying behaviors, the results indicated that there were significant gender differences with regard to types of bullying behaviors such as "Being hit, beaten and punched", "Made fun of me and treated me badly", and "Being threatened to be beaten". In general, it was discovered that adolescent boys were more inclined to be involved in different types of direct and indirect bullying behaviors than girls. / Significant findings of regression analyses showed that only appraisals of school bullying to be a mediator in the relationship between levels of stress and psychological distress of school bullying. Emotional focused coping strategies and parental-support were found to be the partial mediators. Moreover, appraisals of school bullying and emotional focused coping strategies were also found to be partial mediators in the relationship between levels of stress and social distress. More importantly, appraisals of school bullying and parent-adolescent closeness were also shown to play a moderating role in the link between levels of stress and psychological distress arising from school bullying. In contrast, only problem-focused coping strategies, friendship support and parent-adolescent closeness were seen to play a moderating role in the relationship between levels of stress and social distress. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) / The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of Hong Kong adolescents involved in school bullying and to examine the stressors, perceived levels of stress, appraisals, coping strategies, coping resources and psychological consequences arising from school bullying. / The T-test analysis also highlighted the disparity between boys and girls with regard to direct bullying, indirect bullying, and levels of stress, emotional-focused coping strategies, parental support, parent-adolescent closeness and psychological distress of school bullying. The F-value of the one-way ANOVA showed that there were statistically significant grade differences in problem-focused coping strategies and parental support for the three grade groups. According to the results of correlation analyses, the levels of stress was found to have positive significant correlations with appraisal of threat, appraisal of harm, emotional focused coping strategies, social distress and psychological distress. Moreover, psychological distress was positively associated with appraisal of harm, appraisal of threat and emotional-focused coping strategies but negatively related to family support. Social distress was also found to be positively associated with appraisal of harm, appraisal of threat and emotional-focused coping strategies, however social distress was only negatively related to parental-support. / This study attempted to link the two bodies of "Bullying" and "Cognitive-transaction coping" knowledge to conceptualize "coping with stress of school bullying" as being a complex interplay between the person and the environment. This involved incorporating a cross sectional study of the quantitative approach which was comprised of two phases: Phase one was essentially the conducting of a pilot test to ensure the reliability and selection of measuring scales which would be used for the purposes of conducting the main study. These scales included "School Bullying Behavior" scale, "Levels of Stress" scale, "Appraisals of School Bullying" scale, "Adolescent Coping of Bullying" scale, "Coping Resources of Bullying" scale and the "Psychosocial Consequences of Bullying" scale. Based on a convenient sample of sixty known-case adolescent victims, the six instruments selected for the main study, were shown to have reliability coefficients exceeding 0.70 and thus only minor modifications to measuring scales were made. Based on the pre-test findings, a questionnaire comprising 170 items was developed to measure the perceptions of adolescents toward school bullying behaviors, the levels of stress encountered and appraisals of school bullying. The questionnaire also measured coping strategies adopted by students, coping resources used, psychosocial consequences of school bullying and the social demographic profile of the main study. / Law, Kin Man. / Adviser: Ma Lai Chong. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 71-01, Section: A, page: 0333. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 354-387). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Includes bibliography.

This study is an attempt to better understand the experience of self-destructive behaviour in First Nations adolescent girls by telling their stories, discussing factors that may contribute to the behaviours, and providing counselling insight. Not every Native girl experiences self-destructive behaviour, however those that do require more effective solutions to their problems. There is ample literature regarding non-Native girls and their experiences with self-destructive behaviour. This is not the case with Native girls, and this study is an attempt to fill the literature gap, and at the same time provide insight into counselling practice. Many factors may contribute to the experience of self-destructive behaviour in First Nations adolescent girls (e.g., gender, developmental stages, parenting, cultural norms and values, and discrimination). The combination of these issues compounds each other and creates the context for the experience of self-destructive behaviour specific to Native girls. This reality puts them at risk for truancy, juvenile delinquency, teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harming, and ultimately suicide. In order to understand the circumstances or events that lead to a young Native woman's experience with self-destructive behaviour I interviewed three women using in-depth, semi structured interviews. When answering the open-ended questions I asked, the interviewees revealed a story with a beginning, middle, and end. This story reflected the different stages in their lives, childhood, adolescence, and eventually young adulthood. Analysis of the interviews through theme identification revealed common threads through each woman's life. Although each woman had unique experiences, their stories revealed many commonalties. These common themes reflect factors that counsellors should consider when counselling First Nations girls who are experiencing self-destructive behaviour. The results of the study suggest that counsellors should not isolate factors that lead to self-destructive behaviour. For example, First Nations girls experience not just racism or neglectful parenting — they experience both of the factors. The contributing factors begin early in life and compound one another as the girl's life progresses. Hopefully, this study contributes to the betterment of individual Native girls, also to the betterment of the families' and communities' health.

In this study, the relationship between personality type, perfectionism, and stress was examined in gifted adolescents attending the Indiana Academy for Mathematics, Sciences, and Humanities in Muncie, Indiana. A sample of 120 of these gifted individuals completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS) and the Profile of Mood States (POMS). Results for participants were then matched with archival data of their Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality types. Results from a path analysis indicated that perfectionism is significantly positively associated with negative mood state, or stress. Results failed to indicate a significant relationship between MBTI personality type and perfectionism, or MBTI personality type and stress in these gifted adolescents. The mediator model was found to best explain the relationship among the variables in this study, indicated by the use of Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC). Clinical implications and possibilities for future research are discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Adolescents in a children’s home are exposed to unique experiences from an early age. These adolescents develop in a system with early deprivation experiences, which may result in developmental and adjustment problems that impact on several spheres of their lives, including their career development. Given the lack of South African career research on adolescents, the present study aimed to explore and describe the career development of adolescents in a children’s home. Specifically, this exploration takes the perspective of the systems theory framework of career development which is comprised of three interrelated systems, namely the individual, social, and the environmental/societal systems. The research approach was exploratory and descriptive in nature and was conducted both within a qualitative and quantitative framework. A workbook titled My System of Career Influences (McMahon, Patton, & Watson, 2003a), was used to collect the data. A non-probability, purposive sampling technique was employed to obtain the sample which consisted of 16 English-speaking adolescents, aged between 13 and17 years. Age, gender and culture were not considered in this study. The qualitative data was subjected to content analysis to identify themes, while frequency counts were used for the quantitative data. The results indicate that the present sample of adolescents is presently in the process of exploring and crystallizing their career choice, therefore fitting well within Super’s (1990) theoretical career stage of Exploration. The majority of the adolescents indicated that their present career situation involves making choices regarding schools, subjects, and participation in activities. Quantitative findings indicate that all influences within the three interrelated career systems have an influence on the career development of adolescents in a children’s home. Based on frequency counts, individual system influences such as personality, health, interests and abilities were identified as prominent influences. Within the social system, prominent xi influences included parents, friends, teachers and reading. Within the environmental/societal system, influences such as financial support, location of universities, availability of jobs, and opportunities to work overseas were identified as prominent influences. In addition, adolescents were able to reflect on their personalized diagram of system influences and thus to examine the inter-relatedness of the three systems. The present study highlights the applicability of both the systems theory framework and the My Systems of Career Influences measure in exploring and describing the career development of adolescents in the unique contexts within which they live. Limitations and recommendations for future research based on the present findings are suggested.

This study is an attempt to better understand the experience of self-destructive behaviour in First Nations adolescent girls by telling their stories, discussing factors that may contribute to the behaviours, and providing counselling insight. Not every Native girl experiences self-destructive behaviour, however those that do require more effective solutions to their problems. There is ample literature regarding non-Native girls and their experiences with self-destructive behaviour. This is not the case with Native girls, and this study is an attempt to fill the literature gap, and at the same time provide insight into counselling practice. Many factors may contribute to the experience of self-destructive behaviour in First Nations adolescent girls (e.g., gender, developmental stages, parenting, cultural norms and values, and discrimination). The combination of these issues compounds each other and creates the context for the experience of self-destructive behaviour specific to Native girls. This reality puts them at risk for truancy, juvenile delinquency, teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harming, and ultimately suicide. In order to understand the circumstances or events that lead to a young Native woman's experience with self-destructive behaviour I interviewed three women using in-depth, semi structured interviews. When answering the open-ended questions I asked, the interviewees revealed a story with a beginning, middle, and end. This story reflected the different stages in their lives, childhood, adolescence, and eventually young adulthood. Analysis of the interviews through theme identification revealed common threads through each woman's life. Although each woman had unique experiences, their stories revealed many commonalties. These common themes reflect factors that counsellors should consider when counselling First Nations girls who are experiencing self-destructive behaviour. The results of the study suggest that counsellors should not isolate factors that lead to self-destructive behaviour. For example, First Nations girls experience not just racism or neglectful parenting — they experience both of the factors. The contributing factors begin early in life and compound one another as the girl's life progresses. Hopefully, this study contributes to the betterment of individual Native girls, also to the betterment of the families' and communities' health. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Receipt of resource specialist services and possible resulting low self-esteem -- Gender, grade, age, placement criteria.

The purpose of this study was to explore the lives of overweight/obese adolescent boys. A qualitative case study focused on depth of understanding. Four boys volunteered to participate in the study. Findings further our understanding of the adolescent boys’ lifescapes; viable and non-viable recruitment strategies among this population; ethical obligations of ending research after establishing trust and rapport; and “Avoidance” as an Idiom of Distress among this sample of boys. Suggestions for future research are addressed in the study. / vi, 102 leaves ; 29 cm