Approximately 18% of adolescents are obese. Attitudes about Food is a cross sectional study that seeks to identify lifestyle factors associated with adolescent obesity such as fast food consumption, physical activity, attitudes about fast food, and weight perception. The novel aspect of this study is that it seeks to understand how the respondent perceives the health attitudes and behaviors of their closest friends. Subjects were recruited from four youth organizations for a total of 25 participants between the ages of 12-17 years. Respondents completed a 71 item questionnaire, and height and weight were measured by trained interviewers to calculate BMI. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 19.0), and hypotheses were assessed using correlation coefficients. Obese respondents were more likely than non0obese participants to consume at least three fast food meals in the last week (P < .05). Consuming fast food in the last week of the study was associated with exercising one hour a week or less (P < .01). Agreeing that eating fast food is fun was associated with BMI >= 85th percentile (P < .01). Reporting that friends think eating fast food is healthy was associated with eating fast food three or more times in the last week (P < .04) and exercising one hour a week or less (P < .01). Individuals who reported exercising at least four days a week were likely to agree with the statements "eating fast food will make me fat" (P < .03) and "will increase total fat" (p < .05). Finally, overweight adolescents were more likely to underestimate their weight status compared to normal weight and obese respondents. These findings indicate a clustering of risk factors for obesity. Frequent fast food consumption and infrequent physical activity were associated in the present study which could tip the scales of energy balance. Health professionals could focus on raising awareness of the overall diet quality of adolescents who frequently consume fast food while encouraging healthy, fun alternatives to fast food. Screening for overweight status and eliciting peer support for healthy eating are key elements in reducing adolescent obesity.

Susceptibility to smoking has been widely measured in an effort to detect those teens who lack of a firm commitment to not smoke. This measure, however, has not been applied to Chinese-Canadian adolescents. The overall goal of this study was to understand susceptibility to smoking among Chinese-Canadian non-smoking teens. The dissertation includes three papers, each of which has addressed one of the three primary aims of this study. The first paper aims to document the prevalence of susceptibility to smoking among a sample of non-smoking teens in British Columbia, Canada, and to examine the factors that explain the variation in susceptibility to smoking. I employed a quantitative secondary analysis of data from the BC Youth Survey of Smoking and Health. More than one quarter of the respondents were found to be susceptible. The Chinese-Canadian adolescents appeared to have a similar rate of susceptibility to smoking as their White/Caucasian counterparts, even though the smoking prevalence was lower among Chinese-Canadian group than in White/Caucasian group. In the second paper, I explored non-smoking Chinese-Canadian adolescents’ views about the protective factors and the risk factors that might lead them to be susceptible to smoking. In this paper I report an analysis of four qualitative focus groups which included 24 Chinese-Canadian participants. Negative attitudes toward smoking, befriending non-smoking teens, being peer pressured not to smoke and a collectivist cultural perspective were identified as protectors that helped Chinese Canadian teens remain tobacco free in their adolescence. The teens argued that authoritarian parenting had both positive and negative effects on Chinese teens’ susceptibility to smoking. These findings enhanced our understanding of the role that an ethnic group’s culture might play in adolescent smoking. In the third paper, I use Chinese-Canadian teens’ perspectives to reconsider the operationalization of the measure of susceptibility to smoking. Avoiding absolute answers was viewed by the participants as a unique cultural style among Chinese-Canadian teens. They also commented on the ambiguity of using the term “smoking” in the smoking susceptibility measure. Further research is needed to gain a better understanding of the operationalization of the measure in this cultural group.

While numerous studies have linked family routines to pediatric asthma outcomes, it remains unclear how family routines come to be associated with these outcomes on a biological level. The current study investigated whether longitudinal trajectories of inflammatory markers of asthma could be predicted by levels of family routines in youth with asthma. Family routines were assessed at baseline through parent questionnaires and peripheral blood samples obtained from youth every 6 months (total number of assessments = 4) over the course of an 18 month study period. Youth with more family routines in their home environment showed decreases in mitogen-stimulated production of a cytokine implicated in asthma, IL-13, over the course of the study period. In turn, within-person analyses indicated that at times when stimulated production of IL-13 was high, asthma symptoms were also high, pointing to the clinical relevance of changes in IL-13 over time. A variety of potential explanations for this effect were probed. Parental depression, stress, and general family functioning could not explain these effects, suggesting that family routines are not just a proxy for parent psychological traits or family relationship quality. However, medication use eliminated the relationship between family routines and stimulated production of IL-13. This suggests that family routines do impact asthma outcomes at the biological level, possibly through influencing medication adherence. Considering daily family behaviors when treating asthma may help improve both biological and clinical profiles in youth with asthma.

This is a study of the constitution of adolescents' identity through authentic assessment experiences in my Grade 8 homeroom English class in a rural school in Nova Scotia, Canada. It combines postructuralist theory with practitioner research and examines how young people, through authentic assessment, constitutioned identities in my classroom to be assessed.

Experiencing sibling conflict is a fact of life for most children, and this study investigates which form of sibling conflict is more likely to lead to adjustment difficulties such as anxiety and depression. Questionnaires enquiring about sibling relationships, anxiety and depression were administered to 121 students of Westland High School aged between 13 and 18 years. The correlations and multiple regressions performed indicated that adolescents with a positive sibling relationship have significantly lower levels of depression. In addition, emotional conflict between siblings was found to be a significant predictor of depression, whilst jealousy was found to be a significant predictor of anxiety and social phobia. Implications for intervention regarding disciplining emotional aggression and controlling for jealousy are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of adolescents with traumatic brain injury on a written persuasive discourse task. Nine adolescents with TBI (mean age = 14 years 4 months) and nine age, gender and education matched peers completed a written essay on the topic of whether trained animals in circuses should be allowed to perform for the public. Language measures included productivity (number of words, number of T-units and mean length of T-unit) and complexity (number of clauses, clause density and clause breakdown). Pragmatic measures were drawn from the developmental persuasive discourse literature and included essential elements of argument (claim, number of reasons, number of elaborations, conclusion, irrelevancies, repetition of information and attitude). In comparison to their age-matched peers, the TBI group produced significantly fewer reasons to support their claims, significantly more repetitions of information and failed to take alternative perspectives on the topic. There were no significant differences on any measures of language productivity or complexity, however the TBI group performed consistently below their peers on these measures. The results are discussed alongside current literature in the field of discourse production and persuasion. Implications for clinical practice and future directions for research in this area are also offered.

Although group treatment is often advocated for survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), few studies have examined the effects of such treatments, particularly with adolescents. Yet adolescence is an important time for survivors of CSA as this is when they may truly begin to process what it means to have been sexually abused as a child (Berliner, 1991; Thun, Sims, Adams, & Webb, 2002). Consequently, this study sought to evaluate and develop best practice evidence for group treatment of adolescent girls who have experienced sexual abuse. The study used both a developmental intervention research approach to guide the development of a best practice intervention; and an action research, mixed methods program evaluation to achieve detailed examination of a small number of client cases so as to ethically assess the effectiveness of the intervention. In keeping with the intervention research approach and with the aim of providing specific knowledge about treatment for CSA survivors that was unattainable through reviewing treatment outcome studies, an initial study was undertaken which retrospectively and prospectively assessed a locally available treatment program for adolescent girls. This study found the locally available treatment approach was unlikely to have been effective at alleviating distress associated with CSA but that past participants and their mothers felt that such a program is important. Recommendations were made on the elements necessary to construct a more clinically responsive and effective treatment. A 16 week Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioural group treatment program was then developed. This pilot treatment program was evaluated in Study 2, using both formative and summative program evaluation methods with four adolescent girls (aged 13-18). The summative findings support the utility of the treatment program and positive benefits were noted for each group participant, including reductions in symptoms of depression, anxiety and PTSD. The formative findings indicated that the treatment program was in need of further refinement. This included altering some session content, placing more focus on group process and including parents in the treatment. The recommendations of Study 2 were subsequently implemented and the revised treatment program was evaluated by experts in the field to enhance its content validity. The treatment program was then further evaluated in Study 3 using similar evaluation methods with five girls aged 12-15. Clinically significant changes were obtained for four of these five participants, as indicated by triangulation of data from the participants, their parents and group facilitators. Formative findings indicated that the program used in Study 3 was a significant improvement on the program used in Study 2. The major curative factor for participants appeared to lie in the group process and attendance at the program. Treatment was found to have a high degree of acceptability according to participants, parents and facilitators and was implemented with integrity, although flexibility and individualisation were important. The benefits of the research approach in terms of critical reflection, functionally relevant data, within and across case analysis and contextualisation are discussed. As the findings of this series of studies highlight, positive benefits were apparent for each participant and thus it is concluded that group treatment is a viable option for adolescent survivors of CSA.

Mémoire de maîtrise (M.A.Th.)--Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. / "Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maître ès arts (M.A.) en théologie - études pastorales" CaQCU Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thèse (M.Th.Pr.) -- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, programme en extension de l'Université de Montréal, 2005. / Bibliogr.: f. [84]-86. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thèses (M.A.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 1997. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 20 juin 2006). Publié aussi en version papier.