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This study investigates the ways young people experience information. Having an understanding of what information means to young people is important for educators and library and information science (LIS) professionals if they are to develop information literacy skills in young people. To date the literature has revealed that scant attention has been paid to this area. This research study addresses a gap in the knowledge. The study used a phenomenographic research approach to elicit and describe the qualitatively different ways in which young people experienced information. A purposeful sample of forty one young people aged eleven to eighteen years participated in the study. The data, which were gathered through drawings and semi structured interviews, were subjected to a rigorous process of phenomenographic analysis. The outcome of phenomenographic analysis is an outcome space consisting of a finite set of categories of description which, with their relationships, explain the different ways people experience phenomena in the world. In this study six ways of experiencing information were identified: knowledge of sources of information; receiving information; process of finding information; store of unprocessed information; processing information; and use of information. The findings highlighted the fact that young people thought about information to a degree that has not always been acknowledged. In addition the findings challenged a number of commonly held assumptions, which have in the past invited criticism, for instance young people's attitude to ‘cutting and pasting' information and their poor evaluation of academic information. The findings also revealed a previously unrecognised type of information behaviour described in sub-category A of Category Two, ‘receiving information knowingly'. As a result of this research a more comprehensive picture of the way young people experience information to that currently available has been revealed, however the research also revealed the incompleteness of this picture and suggests the need for further research.

Genital chlamydia is the most commonly diagnosed sexually transmitted infection. In August 2008, the Scottish government directed its health boards to involve community pharmacies in providing chlamydia testing and treatment for young people. Lothian Health Board envisaged a pharmacy-based chlamydia testing and treatment (CT&T) service to be able to reach deprived population. This research project set out to evaluate the implementation of the CT&T in Lothian, Scotland. However, the Lothian CT&T service suffered from setbacks such as; implementation delays, minimal advertising of the service, low uptake, withdrawal by central government of specific funding to support the service costs, and subsequent termination of the service in Lothian by March 2011. As it turned out, the CT&T service ran in Lothian for only 10 months. As events unfolded, the aims of the PhD research were successively revised so as to undertake an integrated set of studies that provide important insights and generalizable knowledge about the rationale for such a service, the process of implementation, including barriers and facilitators, and the potential to utilise routine data to assess the impact of a new service. An additional component was added, in that I undertook an analysis of an anonymous routine data on chlamydia testing obtained from the microbiology reference laboratory of Lothian to describe the epidemiology of chlamydia in Lothian (2006-2010) and to report an impact of recent policy changes (2008-2009) on chlamydia surveillance activity. Methods The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) framework for programme evaluation was used to guide design the evaluation of the CT&T service, and a subset of ‘strategic’ stakeholders for the service was involved throughout. Four studies were undertaken towards the evaluation, and these employed diverse methods, as follows: (i) A training need survey of pharmacists and their support staff was undertaken in 166 community pharmacies in Lothian, to inform the training session held prior to the CT&T service launch. (ii) A survey of 33 strategic stakeholders in Lothian was undertaken to provide input to the evaluation objectives and to identify their perceptions and concerns in relation to the CT&T initiative and its evaluation. (iii) A survey of potential service users, young people aged 15-24 years, was carried out at the Genito-Urinary Medicine (GUM) clinic and two other sexual health drop-in clinics in Lothian. The survey ascertain their preferences regarding specific aspects of the CT&T service, and their views on issues identified in previous literature as facilitators or barriers with regard to utilising of such a service. (iv) In order to understand the service provider’s perspective on setting up and delivering of the CT&T service, in-depth interviews were undertaken with participating and nonparticipating pharmacists. Eleven pharmacists were purposively sampled from 66 pharmacies invited by NHS Lothian to pilot the service roll-out. Finally, after the Lothian CT&T service had been terminated, 3 strategic stakeholders for Lothian, and a Scottish Government representative were contacted by email, to elicit their views on factors contributing to policy decisions regarding pharmacybased CT&T services. Results The analysis of disaggregated (individual) routine laboratory data showed that age, gender, year of testing and deprivation were associated with the chlamydia testing outcome measures. The before-and-after analysis, with respect to recent major policy/guidance changes (that is, publication of the sexual health service standards for Scotland in 2008, and of SIGN guidelines for chlamydia in 2009), showed that surveillance activity for chlamydia increased only transiently (i.e. in 2009 only). The annual surveillance target for women aged 15-24 years, of 300 tests / 1000 population, was achieved in 2009 only, but targets for males aged 15-24 years (of 100 tests / 1000 population) were not achieved. With respect to the evaluation studies, the training needs survey (i) had a 53% pharmacy response rate from the pharmacies comprised 41% pharmacists, 32% technicians and 26% counter assistants. The survey showed differences in selfassessed training needs between pharmacy staff groups (pharmacists/ technicians/ counter staff). With regard to pharmacist-only competencies, the highest rates of substantial training needs were for clarity regarding the medico-legal aspects (Fraser guidelines), taking a sexual history, criteria for referral and reviewing own and staff competencies for the CT&T service (83% to 77%). With respect to all staff competencies, the greatest self-reported training need was for inter-communicative aspects of providing the service – for respondents overall, 56% to 83% across competencies within this domain. For the stakeholder survey (ii), the response rate was 52% (n=17). Sixteen stakeholders indicated their strong or moderate concern regarding young peoples’ knowledge about the service. The stakeholders also acknowledged the difficulty inherent in promoting the service to those who might benefit from using it. A view commonly expressed by respondents was that sexual health counselling concomitant with testing would be difficult to deliver through the CT&T service, due to: the difficulty in achieving privacy; a busy retail environment; and pharmacists tending not to have the necessary skills. However, they also acknowledged that chlamydia service delivery is problematic everywhere and not just in pharmacies. The key benefits of the service suggested for young people included increase accessibility, normalization of chlamydia testing and its ability of provision of sexual health service to hard-to-reach population. Such a service was perceived to enhance the role of pharmacist in public health provision. The survey also sought input of strategic stakeholders to ensure that the evaluation questions of most importance to them were included. All the proposed evaluation questions were marked as important. Some suggested questions such as client’s satisfaction with the service or related to the service logistical planning could not be incorporated in the later components of the intended evaluation as the service uptake was too low to answer those questions. The survey of potential service users (iii) had an overall response rate of 20% (n=78). Young people who responded indicated that they felt confident that a pharmacy would offer complete confidentiality for testing, provide reliable test results and have knowledgeable staff to provide the service (90% to 93%). That said, these respondents indicated a preference to be tested in GUM clinic (32%) or drop-in clinics (34%), with only 11% indicating a preference for being tested in a pharmacy. Those who had not previously been tested for chlamydia placed more importance on a toilet facility in a pharmacy they would chose for chlamydia testing, whereas younger respondents (≤ 19 years) placed more importance on a less busy pharmacy. Analysis of in-depth interviews with pharmacists (iv) comprising interviews with 11 lead pharmacists (4 respondents from pilot pharmacies and 7 from non-pilot pharmacies) found that pharmacists were enthusiastic about their newly developed public health role. The respondents foresee a shift to pharmacies for being a first port of call for clients. They were also generally positive about the anticipated attitude of general practitioners and pharmacy support staff towards their provision of chlamydia service. From a pharmacist’s perspective, barriers to delivering the CT&T service were identified as workload and lack of adequate physical infrastructure within a pharmacy such as a consultation room and a toilet facility. On the other hand, the assurance of financial incentives for providing the service was a facilitator.

In recent decades, there has been recognition that children and young people have considerable knowledge about their own lives that merits academic attention. The overall aim of this study is to reflexively engage with children and young people who have been affected by parental (or significant carer) alcohol problems and to explore, from their perspectives, the perceived impact on their lives and their experiences of support. Given the common secrecy and potential stigma of problematic alcohol use, the experiences of children and young people living in families where one or both parents (or carers) have an alcohol problem often remains hidden. My interest in using a participatory research approach with children has led to my further aim: to critically explore and develop research methods with children and young people to explore this potentially sensitive topic. As part of my commitment of conducting research with, rather than on, children, I involved two groups of children and young people already accessing support services for parental alcohol problems in the research design. The research built from this foundation and, in total, 30 children and young people aged from nine to 20 years old participated in individual, pair or small group interviews or a group work programme via a range of voluntary support services across Scotland. This study reflexively explores the commonalities, diversities and complexities across and within children and young people’s lives when affected by, to use their own frequently used term, parental alcohol problems. Emergent themes of knowledge, emotion, trust and difference are presented in four findings chapters. Many children and young people had extensive knowledge about the impact of parental alcohol problems on their lives and I describe their own nuanced ways of choosing to communicate this knowledge in the research context. I critically discuss the importance, yet experienced complexities, of understanding children and young people’s emotions about parental alcohol problems. Children and young people’s conceptualisations of trust, whether declared, demonstrated or alluded to, were central in their decisions to talk ‘outside of the family’, including to myself. I consider whether the concept of stigma can sufficiently explain the perceived and experienced differences that children and young people shared. In recognising that knowledge is co-constructed in a particular social context, I demonstrate that a reflexive and critical exploration of research methods and relationships can further contribute to our understanding about the heterogeneity of children and young people’s lives when affected by parental alcohol problems. Finally, I discuss the theoretical, methodological and policy and practice implications derived from engaging with children and young people affected by parental alcohol problems.

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of young people who had attended a residential weekend intervention for bereaved children. Having gained access to Winston’s Wish, the UK’s leading child bereavement organisation, participant observation was undertaken at three camps for different types of bereavement (accident and illness, suicide, and murder), an Outward Bound weekend specifically for bereaved teenagers, and various social-therapeutic events organised by Winston’s Wish throughout the year. Interviews were conducted with key staff members within the organisation and a documentary analysis of the charity’s literature and media presentations was performed. Utilizing purposeful sampling and following University ethical approval, one boy and one girl from the same family who had recently been bereaved through suicide, and one brother and sister who had recently been bereaved through murder were interviewed. An additional 9 young people (5 females, 4 males) who had been bereaved at least ten years ago were also interviewed. Wolcott’s (1994) ‘description, analysis and interpretation’ approach to transforming qualitative data was adopted, which included a content analysis of all the data generated through observational notes, interview transcripts and reflexive journal entries. From the analysis, six key themes emerged: physical activity, expressing emotion, positive adult relationship(s), area of competence, friendships/social support, and having fun/ humour. These were then represented in the format of a wheel, or the ‘Moving Wheel Model’. This arrangement of themes and the use of the word ‘Moving’ was deliberately chosen to reflect the dynamic and inter-related factors that became prominent at different points in the young people’s bereavement journeys. The main body of this thesis explores these themes in greater depth and offers illustrative examples of how these factors played out in the lives of bereaved children. Finally, applications of the model, and implications for research and practice are discussed.

Everyone finds it necessary to make decisions and with every individual the decisions are many and varied. But one of the most important and far-reaching of all the decisions anyone makes is that of choosing an occupation. The significance of such a decision has long been recognized as is evidenced by Cicero's statement made in 106 B.C: "We must decide what manner of men we wish to be and what calling in life we would follow; and this is the most difficult problem in the world." The importance of an individual's job cannot be overlooked by society because it is one 1s job which very largely determines the life he will live. Jobs are very significant in determining the economic status and financial security of most people and the economic factor is so fundamental that one 1s occupation, at least indirectly, determines where he lives, his social standing in the community, his friends and associates, his educational opportunities, his recreational pursuits, and pretty largely his contributions to mankind. Regardless of what one chooses as his life 1s work he cannot help being strongly influenced by the work he does and by those around him who are similarly engaged. Occupations are also important to society and if economic and social progress are to be made it is essential that workers do their work well, that they improve their skills and knowledge, and that they pass on to the rising generation those things they have found to be good. Therefore, a nation must keep its workers occupationally competent and help the individual workers to select and prepare for occupations in which they are interested and can be competent. Here in the United States high value has always been placed upon helping young people develop their capacities to the fullest. Fortunately there is much talent among the youth of this great country, but it cannot be assumed that the seeds of talent have all fallen upon fertile soil. The efforts of all, and especially those engaged in education, must be pooled in an effort to identify the talents of youth and foster their growth.

Thesis advisor: Mary Jo Iozzio / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

The research question is: How do young people experience having a family member in prison? This question is posed within the Scottish policymaking context, in which high rates of imprisonment and reoffending are entrenched problems for the Scottish Government. In relation to children and young people, there has been a focus on the performance measurement of holistic policies accessed through the universal services of health, education and social work. Although there has been a growing awareness of some key issues that affect families affected by imprisonment, concern tends to be focused on parental imprisonment, ignoring wider family relationships. In addition, older teenagers and young adults have largely been overlooked. This stage of development is an important one, because it represents the time when young people make the transition into adulthood. As such, it is highly intertwined with issues relating to self-­‐identity. The thesis addresses the policies that are most relevant to young people, as well as the policies that more generally relate to families affected by imprisonment. It takes an approach informed by critical discourse analysis to critique the construction of young people and families, arguing that Scottish policymaking fails to address the core needs of these young people, and that the Scottish Government only deals with families affected by imprisonment at arms length. This leaves a policy gap, which third sector organisations step in to fill. The research includes empirical data from young people, who described their experience in open-­‐structured interviews. A thematic analysis of the interview data shows the complexity of the emotional state that young people enter when faced with the imprisonment of a parent, sibling or partner. A discussion of the resultant psychological effects, with reference to classic sociology of imprisonment literature, demonstrates that imprisonment is potentially traumatizing, causing feelings of isolation and a sense of being ignored or even silenced. The empirical data also includes semi-­‐structured interviews with professionals from third sector organisations, whose evidence shows that the policy environment presents a number of obstacles that block the way to providing appropriate services to young people. In addition, the topic of family imprisonment is under-­‐explored by the professionals and this increases the risk that young people will feel the need to stay silent. In conclusion, the thesis reviews the theoretical framework, the policymaking environment and the lived experience of the young people and the professionals who work with them to conclude that there is a pressing problem, which is inadequately understood, and which requires the more insightful approach that research such as this can help to inform.