Thesis advisor: Katherine Hutchinson / Lower urinary tract (LUTS) storage symptoms, including overactive bladder (OAB) and urinary incontinence (UI), are common conditions among women with significant health and economic consequences. Much of the existing literature on LUTS focuses on older, often postmenopausal women, and there is limited research available about prevalence, incidence and severity of LUTS in young women. For many young women in the United States, the period from the late teens through early twenties coincides with the period of emerging adulthood and college enrollment. The unique factors influencing women at this stage of development may be influential in understanding prevalence and correlates of OAB and UI later in the life-course. The purpose of this cross-sectional descriptive survey-based study was to explore and describe the experience of urinary storage symptoms, specifically OAB and UI, among female undergraduate college students, and to identify associated factors. Qualtrics online platform was used to create and distribute the survey to a sample of 1,800 female college undergraduate students at a private Catholic university in the northeast. Two instruments previously used to assess LUTS, the ICIQ-FLUTS and LUTS Tool, were combined into the Urinary Symptoms Scale with a one-week recall. Twelve items assessed LUTS storage symptoms of OAB and UI. The final sample consisted of 456 female undergraduate college students with a mean age of 20.3-years-old. The sample was predominantly White non-Hispanic. Most commonly reported symptoms included urgency (47.6%), frequency (52.6%), urinary incontinence (21.3%), stress urinary incontinence (28.8%), and urge urinary incontinence (16.4%). Total severity scores were low and highly skewed towards the lower range (M = 3.31; SD = 3.91). Participants with symptoms, most commonly reported experiencing symptoms rarely or sometimes during the past week. Perceived bother from urinary symptoms mean scores were low (M = 1.77) but extended the full range on a 0 to 10 scale. In this study, perceived bother from urinary symptoms as well as perceived impact of urinary symptoms on activities of daily life (ADLs) were significantly associated with care-seeking and use of self-management strategies. Interestingly, LUTS storage symptom severity was not significantly associated with care-seeking, but it was related to use of self-management strategies in this population. Perception of overall health, history of constipation/IBS, sexual activity, delayed toileting behaviors, and premature toileting behaviors were significant in multivariate analyses when controlling for other factors. Further research on the relationship of these factors and LUTS storage symptoms is needed. This study represented a first step in understanding college women’s experiences with LUTS storage symptoms and identifying the unique personal, behavioral and environmental factors associated with LUTS. The study found that OAB and UI symptoms are common among female college undergraduates. In addition, a number of personal and behavioral factors were found to be associated with LUTS storage symptoms. Given that many health-related behaviors established during college years may persist later in adulthood, identifying experiences and influences of young women’s LUTS storage symptoms is important in informing future research and practice recommendations. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing. / Discipline: Nursing.

Teaching mathematics for social justice or critical mathematical literacy is said to have the potential of providing all students with equal access to mathematics education. The researcher used a case study approach to investigate the factors that affect female students’ development of sociopolitical consciousness and social agency through reading and writing the world with mathematics (RWWM). In conducting a 3-week study in an all-girls high school in New York, NY, students (N = 5) completed three mathematics lessons that addressed issues relating to racial profiling, education versus income earnings, and HIV/AIDS in Canada. This study contributes new insight into female students’ learning outcomes and dispositions. In doing so, this study contributes to the research relating to students’ development of sociopolitical consciousness and sense of agency as students “read and write the world” with mathematics. The results indicated that although some students had some previous knowledge of social justice issues, the incorporation of social justice educated them about the most pressing issues of today, thereby creating an increased awareness. Although the majority of the participants revealed that they developed a motivation to learn mathematics through a sociopolitical lens, some participants expressed negative feelings as a result of a social justice awareness. When investigating how students develop sociopolitical consciousness through reading the world with mathematics, participants reported using data as evidence of the severity of current social justice issues, relating mathematics to the issues in the real world, and an overall effect of developing a strong connection with the social justice issues. In participating in this study, participants noted the following positive aspects that encouraged them to use mathematics to write the world: having hard proof or evidence on the existence of social injustice, making mathematics more understandable and interesting, and developing an understanding of the real purpose of statistics. As for what prevents participants from developing social agency, students indicated that the lack of teacher guidance on how to take actions added to their not being clear about how to “write the world” with mathematics.

Magister Artium - MA / My research involves a nuanced exploration of 'citizenship', through examining the liberatory potential of young women's use of social media and performance of embodied subjectivities in the post-Apartheid imaginary. By tracing expressions of self, specifically women’s highly imaginative efforts to represent what selfhood means to them and how it shapes their realities, I question conventional understandings of civic participation. The forms of communication and self-expression that many young women in Cape Town pursue are often considered apolitical, frivolous or trivial. By comprehensively exploring self-expression as a participant, I show that it is often richly but complicatedly politicized. My analysis is based on four women’s narratives and meaning-making processes, although my methodological approach involves detailed attention to my own location and interactions with participants. Guided by feminist explorations of the relevance of standpoint theorizing, I seek to understand the various visual and textual ways in which a small group of young women in Cape Town is currently making sense of their social identities, understandings of freedom and potential as social actors. I also draw on methodological work that questions the tendency, even among many feminist researchers, to reduce the knowledge of their participants to manageable data. In so doing, my aim is to try to make sense of the content and forms of young women's knowledge making on their own terms.

The purpose of this qualitative and empirical study was to study a group of young women and how they shaped their identites through their experiences and selfrealisation in the suburb Tensta. The main focus of the study was to find what significance and impact the environment had and how much it effetct the individuals’ self image and place in society. Further more the study was done through semi-structured interviews. The different kinds of theories used in this study were mainly Goffman's theory on stigma, Link and Phelan’s explanation model for the process of stigmatization, Skegg’s theory on effeminately as a norm, and the author Sobring etc. as the source to understand the different identity concepts. With the help of these explanation models we learned to comprehend and get a better view of what these young women felt in their stigmitized area called Tensta and how it affected their identity and behaviour. Also, in how they saw themselves and their self image we could draw real life conclusions and what we found out was that these women had ambitious feelings about the future with a general positivity despite their location. Even though they have been and are still being discriminated and stigmitized against, they still keept a postive outlook on life. / Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie var att studera unga kvinnors upplevelser av identitet och självuppfattning i uppväxtmiljön Tensta. Studiens fokus ligger främst på vilken betydelse uppväxtmiljön har för individens självbild och vidare undersöktes fenomenet genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Olika teorier som tillämpats i denna studie är Goffmans teori om stigma, Link och Phelans förklaringsmodell för stigmatiseringsprocessen, Skeggs teori om kvinnan som norm samt författaren Sorbring m.fl. som förklaring på identitetsbegreppet. Med hjälp av dessa förklaringsmodeller kunde vi tolka och förstå hur unga kvinnor som är bosatta i ett stigmatiserat område som Tensta upplever sin identitet och självbild. Utifrån det empiriska materialet kunde vi dra slutsatsen att unga kvinnor bosatta i Tensta visar sig ha en mer positiv självuppfattning fastän de utsätts för stigmatisering och diskriminering.

Reducing the percentage of unwanted pregnancies has been one of the top objectives of the national health promotion "Healthy People" since the early 1980s. As the increase of unwanted pregnancies continues, research is necessary to uncover factors that influence the decisions women make about their contraceptive methods. The current study examines the topics and the sources of memorable messages regarding LARCs. To address the research questions, this study will analyze interviews conducted with young women about memorable messages regarding LARC methods. This study is a formative research of memorable messages in the context of contraceptive methods, specifically long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs). This study gives insight into characteristics to better target young women when promoting contraceptive methods, especially LARCs. Debunking myths and misconceptions about LARCs and improve overall health literacy about these methods among young women and their mothers should be a top priority.

The thesis focuses on the issue of informing young women about lifestyle changes during pregnancy. The main goal is to find out how informed young women are about lifestyle changes during pregnancy. The presented work consists of two parts - theoretical and practical. In the theoretical part, there are described the possibilities of finding pregnancy and the overall development of the mother and child throughout the pregnancy. It builds on the care of a pregnant woman, where the importance of a counseling center for pregnant women, all the examinations a pregnant woman is expecting and details of a pregnancy card and its importance are discussed. Following is a section about appropriate nutrition and sports for a pregnant woman and about risk factors in pregnancy. The final part of the theoretical part of the thesis deals with the financial situation during pregnancy and after childbirth and the change in the psyche of a woman during pregnancy. All theoretical knowledge is based on available literary sources. The practical part of the thesis, there is described the preparation, implementation and results of interviews. The practical part investigates how informed young women are about lifestyle changes during pregnancy. The first part consists of interviews with young mothers who became pregnant...

A dramatic decline in physical activity levels occurs from adolescence to young adulthood. Those who were sedentary as adolescents tend to maintain a sedentary lifestyle. Women are particularly vulnerable to the effects of a sedentary lifestyle because of the risk for cardiovascular disease. The purpose of this research was to test a theoretical model of exercise in adolescent and young adult women using the theory of unpleasant symptoms with social cognitive variables and then to test a revised model that was determined a priori. The central hypotheses were that the relationships as depicted in the proposed theoretical models would be reproducible in data from adolescent and young adult women of ages 18 to 25.

This study seeks to attain understanding of attempted suicide in young women from non-English speaking backgrounds, constructing meaning(s) of attempted suicide and eliciting information about sociocultural influences and guided by philosophical hermeneutics and narrative inquiry using life story methods. Thematic analysis was used to explicate from the text 30 sub-themes, five themes (being in a gap between cultures and creating space for themselves, being traumatised and diminished by abuse, surviving dangerous relationships, suffering psychic pain, expressing the self by attempting suicide), and a meta-theme (paradoxically asserting the indefinite self). Interpretation was predicated on the belief that life stories are statements about self-identity, and represent coming into being through the interaction of coherence (the ability to establish connections between events, unifying themes, frames of reference and goal states), continuity (a longitudinal and sequential perspective on life) and connectedness (intrapersonal, interpersonal and transpersonal relationships). The paradox is that being unable to overcome the uncertainties of incoherence, discontinuity and problematic connectedness, participants were predisposed to act against self as a means of asserting agency. This understanding of attempted suicide represents a hermeneutic narrative reconceptualisation of the phenomenon, which places it outside discourses that sanction the language of psychopathology and provides a basis for developing alternative nursing theory and informing education and practice / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Problem: En problematik i sjukvården är att psykosociala problem sällan eller aldrig fångas upp av vårdpersonalen, att vara ung är en riskfaktor för att drabbas av psykosociala problem. Det är därför av vikt för sjuksköterskan att ha kunskap om den psykosociala påverkan som unga kvinnor med bröstcancer upplever. Syftet: var att belysa unga kvinnors upplevelser av sin bröstcancer ur ett kosocialt perspektiv, relaterat till omvårdnad.</p><p>Metod: En litteraturstudie, där 14 kvalitativa och kvantitativa artiklar som svarade mot studiens syfte användes. Resultat och konklusion: Bröstcancern påverkade kvinnans relationer med de anhöriga både positivt och negativt. De kroppsliga förändringar som uppstod till följd av bröstcancern skapade funderingar kring reproduktion, sexualitet och femininitet. De unga kvinnorna upplevde brist  på anpassad information och anpassat stöd, de upplevde även att de förlorade sin identitet. Rädslan för att dö eller återinsjukna präglade kvinnornas liv. En ångest att överge sin familj vid en eventuell bortgång var vanligt förekommande hos kvinnorna.Implikation: Det finns behov av att förbättra information och psykosocialt stöd speciellt anpassat för unga kvinnor som drabbats av bröstcancer. Även behov av vidare forskning om hur psykosociala problem identifieras hos unga kvinnor med bröstcancer.</p><p> </p><p> </p> / <p><p>Problem: In health care the psychosocial problem rarely or never is noticed by nursing staff, being young is a risk factor for suffering from psychosocial problems. It is therefore important for nurses to have knowledge about the psychosocial impact that young women with breast cancer experience.<p><p><p><p><p><p><p> The purpose: was to illustrate young women´s experiences of their breast cancer from a psychosocial perspective, related to nursing.</p><p><p><p><p><p>Method: It was a literature study, where 14 qualitative and quantitative articles that responded to the study´s purpose were used.</p><p><p><p><p><p><p>Results and conclusion: Breast cancer influenced women´s relationships with the families both positively and negatively. The physical changes that occurred as a result of breast cancer created concerns about reproduction, sexuality and femininity. They felt that there was a lack of personalized information and tomized support for the young women. The women felt that they had lost their identity. The fear of dying or recurrence imprinted the women´s life. Anxieties to abandon the family in the event of a possible death were commonly occurring in the women.</p><p><p><p><p><p><p><p><p><p><p><p><p>Implication: There is a need to improve information and psychosocial support ecially modified for young women with breast cancer. Also there is a need for further research on how psychosocial problems are identified in young women with breast cancer.</p><p><p><p><p><p><p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p>

<p>Syftet med föreliggande studie var att jämföra stressupplevelsen hos unga kvinnor som har bott i växelvis boende med unga kvinnor som har bott i kärnfamilj. Två fokusgruppsintervjuer genomfördes där sammanlagt tio kvinnor medverkade i åldern 16-20 år. Med hjälp av en intervjuguide, som innehöll frågeställningar vilka behandlade begreppet stress, upplevelsen av kvinnornas vardag och boendeform samt kvinnornas kontakt med föräldrar, syskon, släkt och vänner, besvarades frågeställningarna. Utgångspunkten för analysen har förutom tidigare forskning varit Aaron Antonovskys teori KASAM vilket ansågs relevant då känslan av sammanhang grundläggs i barndomen och fokuserar på god hälsa. Resultatet visade bland annat att de unga kvinnorna vilka hade bott i kärnfamilj endast gav uttryck för en skolrelaterad stress medan kvinnorna med erfarenhet från ett växelvis boende uppgav att deras stress var kopplad till både boendeform, fritid och föräldrarelationen. Studiens slutsats var att dessa kvinnor upplevde fler stressfaktorer i sin omgivning, där framförallt föräldrarnas konfliktnivå och lojalitetskonflikten var avgörande. Därutöver framkom att syskonstödet kunde vara mer betydelsefullt än föräldrastödet för kvinnorna med erfarenhet av ett växelvis boende.</p> / <p>The main objective in this study was to examine if womens’ experience of stress differs depending on their form of living, core family as compared to living alternatingly with mother and father. The method chosen was focus group interviews with two groups with ten young women in the age of 16 to 20 years. The interviews were designed to elicit a discussion on the topics given in the interview schedule. This schedule contined questions about the concept of stress, how the participants experienced their form living and contact with parents, siblings, relatives and friends. The starting point of the analysis has, among other research, been Antonovskys theory of KASAM. The theory was considered to be relevant because the basic idea in the theory is that the founding of “a sense of coherence” develops during childhood and focuses on good health during this period. The results showed, among other things, that the informants in core families only expressed school related stress while the informants in the group alternating between the parents stated that their stress was more connected to their living arrangement, spare time and the relationship with their parents. Moreover, this group also expressed the conflicts between their parents and the sense of loyalty towards the parents as stressfull. In addition to that the study showed that support from siblings could be of more crucial importance compared to parental support for the young women in the “alternating living” group. To sum up, the conclusion of this study is that the women in the “alternating living” group experienced more stress factors in their surroundings.</p>