Individuals who engage in excessive reassurance seeking (constantly seeking reassurance that one is needed and valued) have higher rates of internalizing disorders. However, little research has examined excessive reassurance seeking among adolescents, particularly in a non-clinical population. Furthermore, research has not examined how close relationships in adolescence, such as best friends and romantic partners, view an adolescent?s use of excessive reassurance seeking behavior. This is particularly interesting, as best friends and romantic partners may be the primary recipients of this behavior. The current study sought to (a) examine the association between excessive reassurance seeking and internalizing symptoms among adolescents, (b) examine the agreement between adolescents? and close peers? ratings of excessive reassurance seeking as well as potential moderators of concordance, and (c) examine the association between peer ratings of excessive reassurance seeking behavior and adolescents? internalizing symptoms, both concurrently and prospectively over time. Participants included 465 adolescents (61% girls), ages 15-20 years, 64.3% Hispanic, 19.1% White non-Hispanic, 6.3% Black and 10.3% other. Participants completed the Excessive Reassurance Seeking subscale of Depressive Interpersonal Relationships Inventory, the Youth Self Report (YSR) and the Network of Relationships Inventory ? Revised. Of this larger sample, a subsample of 44 adolescents (68% female), ages 15-18, 59.1% Hispanic, 31.8% White-non-Hispanic, 2.3% Black and 6.8% mixed ethnicity or other, was used to test hypotheses related to close peer?s assessment of excessive reassurance seeking behavior. Participants also completed the YSR two months later. Data were collected as part of a larger study of adolescent peer relationships during class periods at public high schools in an urban area of the Southeast US. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear regression techniques, controlling for demographic variables and testing the unique contributions of study variables. Regarding the first study aim that sought to examine associations between excessive reassurance seeking and adolescents? internalizing symptoms, results indicated that excessive reassurance seeking was related to internalizing symptoms concurrently, but not prospectively. Age, gender and ethnicity were found to also be significant predictors of adolescents? internalizing symptoms concurrently, but only ethnic differences emerged prospectively. Regarding the second study aim, examining the concordance between self and peer reports of excessive reassurance seeking, the agreement between self and peer reports was significant. However, further analysis revealed this association was moderated by friendship quality and informant type. Specifically, relationships with high positive quality showed concordance, as opposed to those low in positive relationship quality. Furthermore, romantic partners showed concordance in reports, but not best friends. Regarding the third study aim that sought to examine whether both self and peer reports of excessive reassurance seeking were related to adolescents? internalizing symptoms, results indicated that both self and peer reports were uniquely related to internalizing symptoms concurrently; however this was not the case prospectively. These findings suggest that certain peer informants (romantic partners, high quality relationships) may be reliable indicators of adolescents? excessive reassurance seeking behavior. This has potential implications in the assessment of adolescent internalizing symptoms and interpersonal behaviors associated with these symptoms. However, as results did not emerge in the current study over time, future research is needed to examine the developmental pathways between excessive reassurance seeking and internalizing symptoms.

This study documented the creation and initial validation of the Perceived Adolescent Social Support: Cystic Fibrosis (PASS-CF) inventory. The inventory was developed from semi-structured interviews of adolescents with cystic fibrosis (CF) and measured both supportive and non-supportive behaviors provided to adolescents by their family and friends. This study reports the findings from these interviews, results of the pilot testing of the measure, exploratory analyses of the utility of individual items, and the relationships between supportive and non-supportive behaviors and important clinical outcomes, such as treatment adherence, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and other health outcomes. In particular, the study compared two measurement models suggested by popular definitions of social support. The "perceived support" model emphasized adolescents' cognitive appraisals of the support provided to them by family and friends, and the functional support model emphasized the utility of specific behaviors in managing CF. Results provided support for both models and provided insights into important next steps in the study of social support in adolescents with CF.

The Healthy Start Summer Program (HSSP) is a seven-week summer program that strives to provide health and wellness education in a manner that is applicable to everyday living. The primary goal of the HSSP is to improve physical fitness levels and the psychosocial variables associated with exercise in a minority adolescent population, while providing the tools necessary for students to maintain these changes for four months after the program. Participants and control subjects were evaluated at the beginning and end of their respective summer programs, then followed up four months post-program to evaluate the maintenance of these changes. The students who participated in both the HSSP and the control summer programs were primarily of Hispanic, African-American, or Haitian descent and were recruited from high schools that serve low socioeconomic areas. Participation in the HSSP was associated with improved physical fitness levels that remained elevated at the follow-up evaluation; however, physical fitness improvement during the program was negatively associated with maintenance after the program. In general, the expected associations between physical fitness and psychosocial variables were not found in our population, nor did psychosocial variables change significantly during or following the program. Findings indicate that the expected associations between physical and psychosocial variables are either not present or that the tools used to measure them were not sufficiently sensitive in this minority population. However, the fact that cardiovascular fitness remained elevated above baseline four months after the program represents an improvement from interventions previously reported in the literature. Future research should be conducted to more fully understand the factors related to the maintenance of physical fitness.

In this thesis coping shortly after diagnosis and psychosocial function during the acute and extended phase of survival was investigated for individuals struck by cancer during adolescence. Sixty-one participants were recruited and data were collected from four to eight weeks (T1) up to four years (T7) after diagnosis. Study I: the aim was to describe how participants (n=56) cope with cancer-related distress in response to closed and open-ended questions. In response to closed-ended questions, the majority reported emotion-focused strategies, and in response to open-ended questions they reported meaning-based and problem-focused strategies. Study II: the aim was to investigate nurses’ and physicians’ ability to identify which coping strategies participants (n=48) use. Neither nurses nor physicians were successful in identifying which strategies participants used, although physicians were somewhat better. Study III: the aim was to identify participants’ (n=61) psychosocial states. Three states were identified: poor (A), average (B), and good (C). From 18 months after diagnosis more participants than expected by chance were in state C. At T7 77% were in State C and 15% in State A. Female gender, divorced parents, and using distracting to cope was related to State A and B. Study IV: the aim was to describe negative and positive cancer-related consequences reported (n=32) three and four years after diagnosis and to establish whether using certain strategies at T1 was related to reports of certain consequences at T7. The majority reported negative and positive consequences and a relation between using distracting to cope at T1 and reporting bodily concerns at T7 was established. In conclusion: it is difficult for nurses and physicians to identify how adolescents recently diagnosed with cancer cope with distress; the majority of individuals diagnosed with cancer during adolescence experience a state of good psychosocial function during the extended phase of survival, and distress and personal growth often go hand in hand after cancer during adolescence.

Bakgrund: Det finns i nuläget inget svenskt self-efficacy instrument för barn och ungdomar med smärta. Den här undersökningen syftade till att översätta samt reliabilitets- och validitetstesta en engelskspråkig self-efficacy skala för barn och ungdomar med smärta. Metod: Urvalet bestod av 62 elever från tre olika klasser i Uppsala. Skalan översattes till svenska och ett frågeformulär utformades för att möjliggöra en utvärdering av test-retest reliabilitet samt kriterie- och ögonblicksvaliditet. Resultat: Värdena på viktad kappa för överensstämmelsen av två skattningar (S1 och S2) med self-efficacy instrumentet (SEIS) varierade mellan Kw= 0,37 -  Kw=0,75. Sambandet mellan Functional disability inventory (FDI) och SEIS beräknades med Spearmans rangkorrelation där rs = 0,364 (p<0,05). Ögonblicksvaliditeten för SEIS beskrevs som att den var lättförståelig, innehöll vardagliga aktiviteter men att vissa aktiviteter saknades. Konklusion: Slutsatsen av denna undersökning var att frågorna i SEIS bör omarbetas för att bli mer specifika och kunna användas. Det kan även utarbetas nya aktiviteter till instrumentet eftersom resultaten av undersökningen visade att vissa aktiviteter saknades. På grund av urvalets karaktär var resultaten troligtvis inte generaliserbara.

The purpose of this study was to describe how adolescents aged 12-18 years with inflammatory bowel disease experience their illness and what coping strategies they use to manage their illness and improve their wellbeing. The method used was a descriptive literature study, and the result of the study included 15 scientific articles. Our results showed that IBD affected the adolescent’s everyday life and social life with friends, family and activities. The adolescents also reported that they experienced a feeling of vulnerability, altered body image and that they saw themselves as different from healthy subjects. Adolescents with IBD have been shown to use the same coping strategies that healthy adolescents are using, that is, confrontational, evasive, independent and optimistic coping. The avoidance coping is more prevalent in adolescents with IBD, as the use of such strategies is specific for IBD because of illness symptoms. There is a need for more research directed at young people with IBD, since previous research is based mostly on adults' experiences of illness.

D. J. Pepler et al. (2006) fann en högre benägenhet att utsätta andra för mobbning på gymnasiet än på högstadiet till skillnad från T. R. Nansel et al. (2001) som fann motsatta resultat. Studien undersökte, med hjälp av enkäter, om högstadieelever och gymnasieelever skiljde sig i tillvägagångssätt och upplevelse av mobbning, samt skillnader i medvetenhet om skolans mobbningsprevention. Vidare undersöktes könsskillnader och elevers inställning till skolan. Resultatet visade att högstadieelever upplever sig mer utsatta för mobbning. Pojkar upplevde både att de utsattes och utsatte andra för mer direkt mobbning än flickor. Högstadieelever var mer medvetna om att det fanns anti-mobbningsgrupper på skolan. Detta kunde bero på att gymnasieelever ansågs kunna ta hand om sin situation och söka hjälp själva.

The aim of this study was to describe how adolescents experiences their quality of life, and to compare if there are any differences in how they experiences their QOL depending on where they live, big town or smaller town. The aim was also to examine how adolescents experienced their schooling. The study is empirically, quantitative with a descriptive and comparative design. To measure quality of life a tried and tested instrument – Life Satisfaction Questionnaire (LSQ) was used. The questionnaire was distributed and collected by the authors.142 students participated, 79 from the larger city and 63 from the smaller city. The results of this study showed that adolescents, 16-19 years, rated their overall QOL as high and that there were no significant differences between the cities regarding on how the adolescents experienced their overall QOL. There were significant differences in some of the sub factors. There were significant differences in the factors ”physical symptoms”, influence of illness” and “Experience of every day meaningful activities”. Adolescents from the larger city experienced higher levels of meaningful activities, and adolescents in the smaller city experienced less physical symptoms and influence of illness. The results also showed that the adolescents rated their ability to manage their studies as high, and that there were few that felt depressed or/and bullied. The adolescents in this study felt that their schooling was represented of both a positive and a negative adjective. Funny and instructive recurred frequently, but also tough occurred often.

Adolescents intentions to behave in both reactive and instrumental aggression were assessed using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB; I. Ajzen, 1985). Along with examining the TPB, perceptions of self-efficacy (A. Bandura, 1982) towards both types of aggression were also assessed. Self-report questionnaires were administered to 162 grade 10 to 12 students in two independent school districts. Using Path Analysis, the TPB was shown to significantly explain both instrumental and reactive aggression. In the context of reactive aggression, attitudes were found to have the greatest influence on intentions to behave aggressively. As for instrumental aggression, self-efficacy was found to have the greatest influence on intentions. Overall, the results of this study provide support for using the TPB to explain adolescent aggression. In addition, this study further demonstrates the value of distinguishing between reactive and instrumental functions of aggression.

This study examined parent-adolescent conflict and the attributions for conflict. Adolescent participants (29 ADHD; 22 Comparison) aged 13-17 and their mothers and fathers completed questionnaires. Adolescents with ADHD have conflicts over more issues with their parents according to self and parent report. Adolescents who believed that the conflict occurred in many contexts and that their parents were responsible for that conflict reported that they had conflict over more issues. Attributions were not predictive of conflict according to mother report. ADHD status moderated attributions in predicting father reported conflict. Among fathers who believed that conflicts were their son or daughter’s responsibility, fathers of youth with ADHD were less likely to report more issues involving conflicts than fathers of youth without ADHD. Conversely, among fathers who believed conflict was pervasive across contexts and time, having a son or daughter with ADHD was associated with more issues involving conflict.