published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

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It has been argued that contemporary Euro-Canadian teaching practices conflict with traditional Aboriginal teaching practices resulting in the current widespread lack of academic achievement for many Aboriginal students. Of particular concern is the area of print literacy, as achievement in this area has been linked to academic success. This is an area where Aboriginal students in British Columbia score well below their non-Aboriginal counterparts on tests such as the Foundation Skills Assessment. By reviewing traditional Aboriginal ways of transmitting knowledge, it is possible to understand the reason why contemporary Euro-Canadian teaching practices may be inappropriate for Aboriginal students. Drawing on Delpit’s ‘codes of power’ and educational interpretations of Bakhtin’s literary theory, I explore the notion that it is possible for Aboriginal students to be academically successful within the Euro-Canadian system while retaining their traditional Aboriginal identity and ways of knowing. Findings from this exploratory case study, which occurred at a secondary school in a remote Aboriginal community in northern British Columbia, are shared. Interviews with six Aboriginal adolescent students and three non-Aboriginal teachers, as well as personal reflections are also considered. By reexamining the assumptions and beliefs about contemporary Euro-Canadian teaching practices and seeking to learn more about traditional Aboriginal teaching practices, it is anticipated that educators can integrate the strengths of both approaches into their teaching. It is believed that this will enhance success for Aboriginal students in both Aboriginal and Euro-Canadian contexts.

The extant research on the experiences of lesbian/gay, bisexual, and questioning —unsure- (LGBQ) youth shows that they have a lower sense of belonging and safety a tschool, are more likely to be victims of various types of bullying and to skip school, and use drugs and alcohol than their straight peers. Lately, however, a shift in direction towards examining the protective factors, which promote the well being of LGBQ youth, is happening. Extending the emerging research on this shift, the present study investigated the role of supportive adults at school in predicting LGBQ youth sense of safety and belonging. Also, this study examined whether adult support moderated the relationship between sexual orientation victimization and skipping school for LGBQ youth separately. The participants in this study (N = 19,551) were students (grades 8 through 12) enrolled in high schools that took part in a district-wide survey in a large, ethnically and economically diverse urban school district in British Columbia. Results showed that perceptions of adult support played a significant role in predicting the safety and belonging of LGBQ youth. Adult support significantly moderated the relationship between sexual orientation victimization and skipping school for bisexual and questioning youth but not for lesbian/gay youth. The implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed in the last section of this thesis.

The physical and social environments of a neighbourhood can cause and/or reduce stress for residents. However, we know relatively little about the neighbourhood-level stressors and stress-relievers experienced by adolescents, and in particular adolescent girls. This study explores how adolescent girls (15-17 years) living in one neighbourhood in Halifax, Nova Scotia perceive key characteristics of their neighbourhood’s environments as affecting and/or reducing their stress. Using a qualitative methodology, data were collected from eight participants using face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Photo elicitation technique was also used for data collection. A key finding of this research was that participants experience a strong ‘sense of community’ within their neighbourhood that makes a significant contribution to their stress relief. At the same time, participants reported a number of neighbourhood-level forces that are threatening this sense of community including violence, conflicts, and stigma. This study demonstrates the complexity of the relationship between neighbourhood-level characteristics and residents’ stress.

The main objective of the present research was to contribute to the literature by examining relational aggression and friendship quality in a late adolescent sample. Specifically, these two studies sought to determine whether relationally aggressive behaviour is associated with both costs and benefits with respect to friendship quality for an older sample of adolescents. In the first study, a total of 1600 university students (74.7% female) responded to an online survey assessing their perceived friendship quality (comprised of positive and negative features) and their level of self-disclosure (i.e., intimacy) with a close same-sex friend. In addition, each participant rated their experience and use of relational aggression, in general (i.e., relational perpetration), within the friendship (i.e., relational victimization), and directed towards others outside of the friendship (i.e., dyadic aggression). Results indicated that both relational perpetration and relational victimization were predictive of negative outcomes for the friendship. A unique pattern for dyadic aggression was demonstrated in that it was associated with positive outcomes for the friendship. Self-disclosure moderated the relation between relational aggression variables and friendship features. The second study sought to investigate and identify associations between the same relational aggression variables, friendship quality, self-disclosure, and an additional measure of satisfaction in the close same sex friendships of 242 older female adolescents using a dyadic approach to account for interdependence in friendships. In contrast to Study 1, the results of the second study highlighted more costs than benefits when relational aggression is used within the friendship context. Specifically, for 121 female friendship dyads, the three forms of relational aggression were typically associated with poor outcomes for friendship quality. Analysis of similarities between friends demonstrated that dissimilar ratings of relational aggression resulted in better outcomes for the friendship. Dyads who reported greater similarities in self-disclosure were more satisfied, yet also rated their friendships as higher in negative features. These findings partially support conceptions of relational aggression as having both adaptive and maladaptive functions at the relational level for older adolescents and point to the importance of addressing issues of interdependence within friendships.

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Adolescents experience heightened emotional arousal and difficulty regulating that arousal. Adolescent girls have emotion regulation difficulties particularly associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety. In adults, the emotion dysregulation associated with depression and anxiety has been linked to not accepting emotions. Emotional non-acceptance is the act of judging certain emotional experiences as inadmissible and trying to avoid, suppress, or ignore those experiences. In adults, non-acceptance is thought to paradoxically lead to amplified emotional arousal and difficulty regulating arousal. Previous research supports this idea for the subjective experience of emotion but not the physiological response. The goal of the current study was to elicit these differences in physiology in order to better understand the effects of emotional non-acceptance on emotion regulation. Eighty-two adolescent girls were asked to perform a spontaneous speech while physiological and subjective responses were measured. These same measures were taken before and after the speech. Trait-like emotional non-acceptance was also measured. Although trait non-acceptance predicted differences in one aspect of physiology, there were no other effects of emotional acceptance or non-acceptance on physiological response. In line with previous research, emotional acceptance and non-acceptance had their effects on the subjective experience of emotion, both in reaction to, and recovery from, the speech. Interestingly, in the current sample, induced non-acceptance had no effects on arousal or regulation. Also, greater effects were found for self-reported positive emotion than any other measure of emotional response. Results support the idea that emotional non-acceptance and acceptance affect the appraisal of emotional experiences but do not affect the emotional arousal itself. Also, the findings of this study suggest that emotional non-acceptance has more qualities of a trait than a state. The implications for the model of emotional acceptance and the effects of puberty on emotion regulation are discussed. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2009-09-29 14:18:38.431

The goal of this study was to investigate the real self-image, ideal self-image, and self-image disparity of maltreated adolescents, both acting-out and nonacting-out, as compared to nonmaltreated adolescents. Participants included 58 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 with groups approximately matched for age, IQ, and mental age. The maltreated group consisted of children who had been neglected, physically abused, and/or psychologically abused. Children in both maltreated and nonmaltreated groups were classified as acting-out or nonacting-out based on reports of truancy, substance abuse, disrespect for authority, violent outbursts, and trouble within the legal system. The primary findings of the study were that maltreated as compared to nonmaltreated individuals displayed lower real self-images and larger self-image disparities. However, the lowest real self-image scores were displayed by the acting-out adolescents regardless of their maltreatment status. In a comparison between the acting-out maltreated adolescents and the acting-out nonmaltreated adolescents, the real self-images were comparable, suggesting that the experience of maltreatment does not exacerbate the negative effect of behavioural difficulty. In addition, the acting-out maltreated children displayed higher ideal self-images than the acting-out nonmaltreated children. Both experiences of maltreatment and acting-out behaviours appear to be related to negative effects of self-image in adolescents. This highlights the importance of investigating the influence of experiential factors on self-system processing.

The purpose of this study was to validate an abbreviated interview schedule for the assessment of adolescent life stress based on the original Life Events and Difficulties Schedule (LEDS) by Brown and Harris (1978). The main objective of the abbreviated instruments was to elicit the severe stressors shown to be of etiological significance for predicting psychiatric disorder without requiring two hours to administer. A non-clinical sample of 58 adolescents (mean age = 15.67 years) completed the Childhood Depression Inventory (Kovacs, 1982), the Abbreviated Life Event and Difficulty Schedule - Adolescent version (ALEDS-A), and the full-length LEDS-Adolescent Version (LEDS-A). The abbreviated instrument elicited significantly fewer minor stressors, while retaining its ability to solicit the most severe stressors in a 30-minute time period. Results are interpreted with reference to Brown and Harris's (1978) sociological theory of major life stress and depression.