This study explores the relationship between parenting and adolescent outcomes within the context of healthy adolescent development. A motivational model of development provides a framework for understanding adolescent and parent behaviors. Participants in the study were 4,090 students in grade 8-12. Students' self-reported behaviors and perceptions of their parents' behaviors were collected as part of a statewide school survey. The study contributes to the understanding of parenting dimensions that underlie parenting styles through the identification of six parenting dimensions (warmth, structure, autonomy support, rejection, chaos, and coercion) that correspond to the motivational model. In addition, monitoring is identified as a seventh dimension of parenting and found to have an important influence on adolescent behaviors and outcomes. Further, it is demonstrated that parenting dimensions combine to form a set of seven parent types that are deferentially associated with adolescent outcomes and problem behaviors. Means on positive adolescent outcomes (academic competence, commitment to school, social competence, self-worth, and mastery), substance use, and problem behaviors suggested an ordering of parent types. Adolescents with authoritative parents experienced the best outcomes followed by warm authoritarian, permissive, authoritarian, mediocre, rejecting, and indifferent parents. This study also sought to understand the effects of alcohol and marijuana use on adolescent competence. Consistent with other studies that have noted detrimental effects of early alcohol and marijuana use, this study indicated that for 8th graders, any trial of alcohol or marijuana was associated with significantly (p< .01) lower levels of overall competence. For grades 9-10, triers of alcohol were not significantly less competent than nonusers. For grades 11-12, triers of alcohol and triers of marijuana were not significantly less competent than nonusers. These findings partially support Baumrind’s (1991) findings. A search for differences in parenting that might distinguish between triers and more frequent users of alcohol and marijuana indicated that parental monitoring of adolescents was higher among triers than among more frequent users. A third aim of this study was to better understand the mechanisms through which protective factors influence problem behaviors. Findings indicated that parental warmth moderates the relationship between risk factors and problem behaviors.

<p>The overall aim of the study was to determine the opportunities and challenges NGOs encounter when using sport as a vehicle for development within the education system, in post-apartheid South Africa. A case study design has been chosen since it will offer real insight, showing how specific sports programmes work in specific contexts. Two NGOs, Grassroot Soccer (GRS) and the Extra-Mural Education Project (EMEP) constitute the cases, with an in-depth exploration of their work and the challenges they face. The study population includes employees of GRS, EMEP, target groups of the organisations and officials in the Department of Education. Key informants, including the head of research, managing directors, coaching/training staff at each organisation, officials in the Department of Education and community leaders were purposively selected to participate in the study. Data was collected by means of in-depth interviews, document reviews and observations. In-depth interviews were conducted with the head of research, managing directors, coaching and training staff at each organisation, principals and teachers of selected schools and community leaders. The analysis of the interviews started with the transcription of information from audio-tape recordings. Both pre-determined and emerging themes were noted. The results illustrated that although certain challenges were common to both organisations, others are unique.</p>

This thesis examines the way in which youth between the ages of sixteen and eighteen envision their future possible selves with respect to their possible careers and roles in the community. The youth were recruited from members of the Fusion Youth Activity and Technology Centre (a.k.a. Fusion) in Ingersoll, Ontario; population 12,146 (Statistics Canada, 2011). Situated in the context of small-town youth who attend afterschool activities aimed at providing skills in business, the arts, media and technology, the study asked youth to consider what their future possible selves would look like ten years from now. Using Q-methodology, the participating youth were asked to complete a 55-statement Q-sort with statements relating to careers and community roles generated by a focus group of Fusion youth and from the relevant literature. Using identical statements, the sort was conducted under two conditions of instruction; thinking of your hoped-for self in the future and; thinking of your feared self in the future. Factor analysis was conducted on both sets of Q-sorts (hoped-for and feared) and three factors were extracted for each. In keeping with Q-methodology, composite sorts were generated giving three distinct profiles of statement placement for each of the hoped-for and feared selves. Hoped-for profiles included community-minded professionals, independent creatives and no-plan dreamers. Feared self profiles included, disengaged problem citizens, trapped labourers and unhappy average citizens. These six different viewpoints of their possible futures indicate that youth see their futures (both good and bad) very differently and that their career foci and community involvement hopes and fears are far from homogeneous. This opens an opportunity for youth programs like Fusion to develop programming specific to these groups that may help to make hoped-for selves the more probable outcome.

<p>The overall aim of the study was to determine the opportunities and challenges NGOs encounter when using sport as a vehicle for development within the education system, in post-apartheid South Africa. A case study design has been chosen since it will offer real insight, showing how specific sports programmes work in specific contexts. Two NGOs, Grassroot Soccer (GRS) and the Extra-Mural Education Project (EMEP) constitute the cases, with an in-depth exploration of their work and the challenges they face. The study population includes employees of GRS, EMEP, target groups of the organisations and officials in the Department of Education. Key informants, including the head of research, managing directors, coaching/training staff at each organisation, officials in the Department of Education and community leaders were purposively selected to participate in the study. Data was collected by means of in-depth interviews, document reviews and observations. In-depth interviews were conducted with the head of research, managing directors, coaching and training staff at each organisation, principals and teachers of selected schools and community leaders. The analysis of the interviews started with the transcription of information from audio-tape recordings. Both pre-determined and emerging themes were noted. The results illustrated that although certain challenges were common to both organisations, others are unique.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-169)

Thesis (M.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Kinesiology and Health, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-169)

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Business Administration (Entrepreneurship) in the Faculty of Business at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2014 / The world’s population continues to grow, while job creation opportunities shrink, particularly among young people. Youth unemployment is among key global challenges that may continue to persist for many years. Recently, the unemployment rate among youth in South Africa was estimated at 70 percent. This could mean that thousands and thousands of young people are living under poverty conditions in this country, which may result in a generation of poverty if this position remains unobserved. Interestingly, entrepreneurship has been adopted world over as a strategic approach to facilitate economic participation among youth. Their engagement in entrepreneurship helps them to achieve economic independence, increase their self-esteem, improve their standards of living, to reduce their dependence on state welfare and improve their emotional intelligence. At the same time, job creation opportunities and a decline in criminal activities as a result of unemployment, will ensure development of economic growth. Despite the above mentioned entrepreneurship benefits, youth in Khayelitsha, where this study is based, may be reluctant in pursuing careers in entrepreneurship, owing to inadequate entrepreneurship development services among them, which appear to the case. The objectives of this study were to find out specific factors that discourage the youth from pursuing entrepreneurship careers, to investigate particular challenges that inhibit expansion of their entrepreneurial ventures, and to describe specific prospects of youth entrepreneurship development in Khayelitsha. The current study adopted a descriptive research design. A quantitative empirical research approach was employed with the help of self-administered questionnaires. A sample of 132 subjects was randomly drawn from a population of 200 youth entrepreneurs who operate and are formally registered as SMMEs within various industries that are registered on the database of a local organisation known as Khayelitsha Youth In Business (KYIB), which promotes and develops entrepreneurship among youth in Khayelitsha. The data that was collected from participants of the current study was captured and analysed with the help of a Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software, based on 77 questionnaires that were returned. The findings were illustrated in tables, bars and pie charts, and the objectives of the study were achieved. It was found that it was not the case that young people in Khayelitsha do not want to pursue careers in entrepreneurship, but rather it was that youth entrepreneurship development is lacking in this community. The current study also revealed that a major factor that inhibits youth entrepreneurship development was the lack of awareness and inaccessibility of entrepreneurship support structures and initiatives in this community. Interestingly though, this hindrance does not appear to have a negative bearing on the identified growing enthusiasm of youth to engage in entrepreneurial activities. Overall, on the basis of the challenges and prospects revealed, recommendations to improve the current situation were made. This study is an applied research effort and its relevance is linked to the fact that it provides a rare insight into the state of youth entrepreneurship in a large but under-researched township community in the Western Cape. The findings and recommendations therefore bear far-reaching ramifications for all stakeholders who are concerned about developing youth entrepreneurship in this society.

Magister Artium (Sport, Recreation and Exercise Science) - MA(SRES) / The overall aim of the study was to determine the opportunities and challenges NGOs encounter when using sport as a vehicle for development within the education system, in post-apartheid South Africa. A case study design has been chosen since it will offer real insight, showing how specific sports programmes work in specific contexts. Two NGOs, Grassroot Soccer (GRS) and the Extra-Mural Education Project (EMEP) constitute the cases, with an in-depth exploration of their work and the challenges they face. The study population includes employees of GRS, EMEP, target groups of the organisations and officials in the Department of Education. Key informants, including the head of research, managing directors, coaching/training staff at each organisation, officials in the Department of Education and community leaders were purposively selected to participate in the study. Data was collected by means of in-depth interviews, document reviews and observations. In-depth interviews were conducted with the head of research, managing directors, coaching and training staff at each organisation, principals and teachers of selected schools and community leaders. The analysis of the interviews started with the transcription of information from audio-tape recordings. Both pre-determined and emerging themes were noted. The results illustrated that although certain challenges were common to both organisations, others are unique. / South Africa