Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in both the United States and worldwide. Twin and family studies have demonstrated that both genetic and environmental factors are important contributors to tobacco use behaviors. Understanding how genes, the environment, and their interactions is critical to the development of public health interventions that focus on the reduction of tobacco related morbidity and mortality. However, few studies have examined the transition from adolescent to young adulthood – the time when many individuals are experimenting with and developing patterns of tobacco use. This dissertation thesis seeks to provide a comprehensive set of studies looking at risk for tobacco use behaviors and nicotine dependence using samples of young adults. The first aim is to examine the joint contributions of genetic liability and environmental contexts on tobacco use in adolescence and young adulthood using classical twin study methodologies. The second goal is to identify genetic variants and quantifying genetic risk for tobacco use in young adulthood and examining their interaction with environmental context across development. Accordingly, the thesis is divided up into the following sections: i) reviews of existing literature on genes, environment, and tobacco use; ii) twin studies of genetic and environmental influences on tobacco use behavior phenotypes; iii) prevalence, correlates, and predictors of tobacco use behaviors; iv) genetic analyses of tobacco use behaviors; v) a commentary on the emergence of alternative nicotine delivery systems and its public health impacts; and vi) plans for an internet-based educational intervention seeking to reduce tobacco use (and nicotine dependence) by providing students attending university with information on genetic and environmental risk factors for nicotine dependence.

In a three stage investigation the relationship between personality type and the use of learning as a coping device during the life transitions of adults was studied. Based on the assumption that a paper and pencil device could be constructed to achieve the same or nearly the same results that have been achieved through interviews with adult learners, the first two stages of this investigation involved the construction and validation of an instrument, the Adult Development Learning Inventory (ADLI), to measure the use of learning during life transitions of adults. The inventory has five subsections: a demographic profile, Life Events, Coping Strategies, Learning Activities, and Adulthood Tasks. Content validity of the ADLI was established through both the theory based in adult learning and developmental psychology and the panel of experts. Construct validation tools included principal component factor analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA with age as the variable of discrimination. The instrument was capable of differentiating among age groups' perception of the tasks in the adult life cycle. For internal consistency, reliability estimates ranged from .83 to .94 for the subsections of the ADLI. Stage III of the investigation explored the relationship between the ADLI and personality as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which was based on the typology suggested by Carl Jung. The findings suggested only limited relationships between personality and the extent of learning activities. Specifically adults with the dominant function of Intuition can be categorized as high activity learners. The results of limited relationships between learning and personality type can perhaps be attributed to the fact that overwhelmingly (98%) these adult samples were involved in some type of learning not in spite of their life circumstances but because of them.

Examined within this study were the relations between two processes within sexual identity development, sexual identity exploration and sexual identity commitment, and risky sexual behaviors. The moderating effects of sexual identity commitment, sexual self-efficacy, and positive condom use attitudes on relations between sexual identity exploration and risky sexual behaviors were also examined. Risky sexual behaviors included the frequency of substance prior to and barrier protection use during sex, multiple sex partners, and the initiation of sex prior to age sixteen. Study participants included 322 college students attending an urban university in the Southeastern United States. All were heterosexual and reported engaging in vaginal, anal or oral sex in the past 30 days. A high percentage of study participants reported at least one risky sexual behavior in the past 30 days, and most reported not using barrier protection during anal and oral sex. No direct effects were found between sexual identity exploration and any risky sexual behavior. Only one direct effect was found between higher levels of sexual identity commitment and lower frequencies of barrier protection use for oral sex. No moderating effects were found for sexual identity commitment, sexual self-efficacy, or positive condom use attitudes on relations between sexual identity exploration and any risky sexual behavior. The findings highlight the importance of examining how to get emerging adults to consistently use barrier protection during any type of sexual behavior. The results also underscore the complexity of sexual risk-taking during emerging adulthood, and the need for continued examination of the ways in which processes associated with sexual identity development may impact sexual risk-taking during emerging adulthood.

Individuals with overweight/obesity have been found to exhibit more negative attitudes toward health care and disproportionate rates of health care delay and avoidance, compared to their healthy weight peers. The present study sought to examine potential mechanisms through which weight status influences health care utilization and attitudes. Six hundred and thirty-three students completed a questionnaire measuring weight status, perceived weight bias, patient-provider relationship, and health care utilization and attitudes. Although the majority of the paths in the proposed theoretical mediation model were supported by the present findings, there was no support for the anticipated link between perceived weight bias and the patient-provider relationship or weight-related embarrassment. Overall, these results corroborated previous findings in a novel sample, but did not provide evidence that perceived weight bias mediates the relationship between weight status and health care outcomes. Possible explanations for these findings are deliberated.

During the whole life people tend to make new relations with other people. Some relationships, based on their character, are closer than others; therefore we call them close relationships. Friendship, which is described in this thesis, is a type of the close relationship. In the theoretic part, the emphasis is put on the description of close, later friendly relationships and on the overview of their development in human's life. Special attention is paid to the adolescence and emerging adulthood and their specifics in the area of friendly relationships. The particular changes in friendly relations at these developmental stages are the subject of the study. The empirical part includes quantitative and qualitative analysis of the differences in friendship in adolescence and emerging adulthood. Based on the study of scientific resources and prior research, characteristics of friendship, respectively of the researched category, were provided. The sample involved 146 respondents between the age 15 to 30. Only small changes in friendship's character in the area of common activities, trust and frequency of contact were discovered. Key words: Adolescence, emerging adulthood, friendship, close relationship.

This thesis compares certain developmental characteristics and value preferences of emerging adult university students and non-student employed young people at the age between 19-25 years in the Czech republic. According to some authors this life stage seems to be a new developmental period between adolescence and young adulthood. In comparison to the USA there has not been much research done on this topic in the Czech Republic. There are some special characteristics of this phase of life that are described in the theoretical part, and tested on a sample of Czech young people which is showed in the empirical part of this thesis. The differences of how students and non- students experience this time of life are compared. It is assumed that student life style brings different impulses than the life style of employed young people. The aim of this thesis was to test the assumption that university students show the features of emerging adulthood more plentifully than people at the same age who work. According to the results of this study the assumption was confirmed. Another focus of this thesis is the topic of value orientation among this sample of young people. Value orientation is influenced by life style and is formed especially during adolescence and young adulthood. Certain types of value...

The main target of this study is to identify the scales in MMPI-2 which could help the differential diagnostic process between Asperger's syndrome and schizophrenia. Adult persons with Asperger's syndrome and adult persons with schizophrenia were examined. The study has a quantitative character, concretely data mining, which offers generating and verifying hypothesis. The results show that configuration of heights of specific scales can be crucial in distinguishing between Asperger's syndrome and schizophrenia. In the concrete we expect increase in 0Si, Sc1, Pa2 and OBS along with medial T-scores in Sc6, Pa1, Psyc and Biz in protocols of people with Asperger's syndrome. People with schizophrenia have increased T-scores in Sc6, Pa1, Psyc and Biz. KEY WORDS  Asperger's syndrome  Schizophrenia  Differential diagnostic  Adulthood  MMPI-2

Cette étude porte sur les relations entretenues entre les modalités de mise en scène de soi au cours des interactions et le processus de construction identitaire individuel. Elle vise à comprendre pourquoi certains acteurs sont plus enclins que d’autres à conformer leurs attitudes aux individus et situations qu’ils sont amenés à rencontrer. Pour ce faire, nous avons eu recours à des méthodes qualitatives comme quantitatives. L’analyse de discours sur soi, fondée sur la lecture d’autobiographies et récits de vie, a permis de souligner la part active des individus dans le processus d’autoconstruction mis en œuvre. La diffusion d’un questionnaire permettant de mesurer leurs capacités à modeler leur face en fonction des injonctions externes (le monitorage de soi) ainsi que leurs particularités identitaires objectives (critères sociodémographiques) comme subjectives (conscience de soi et estime de soi) a révélé, grâce aux scores ainsi relevés et aux traitements de variables qui en ont découlé, toute l’importance des facteurs sociaux dans la définition des comportements individuels. Ainsi, pour comprendre les spécificités individuelles en termes de présentation de soi comme d’identité il importe tout autant d’éclairer les ancrages sociaux des acteurs que la façon dont ils les traitent, ceci afin d’approcher au plus près du phénomène de « subjectivation de l’objectif » qu’ils mettent en œuvre pour se singulariser. Fort de ce résultat, une troisième analyse porte plus particulièrement sur la période d’émergence de l’âge adulte (de 18 à 27 ans) qui est marquée par une rupture avec les injonctions normatives relatives à l’enfance et l’adolescence sans être parfaitement associée aux exigences de l’âge adulte. Cet âge de la vie, qui accorde plus de libertés aux individus en matière d’expérimentations (notamment dans les domaines des études, du travail et des relations), est associé aux scores les plus élevés en monitorage de soi. Ce résultat conduit à établir un parallèle entre les conditions de vie des individus et les modalités d’adaptation de leurs faces. Autrement dit, et pour ce qui concerne la portée générale de cette recherche doctorale, l’expérience de vie au quotidien constitue le facteur principal de la plus ou moins grande tendance des acteurs à adopter et présenter les attitudes qu’ils considèrent comme attendues d’eux. / This study focuses on relations between self-presentation modalities during interactions and individual identity construction process. It aims to understand why certain people are more disposed than other to conform their attitudes to individuals and situations they are led to meet. To do this, we resorted in both qualitative and quantitative methods. The analysis of self-speech based on reading autobiographies and narratives of life led to underline the active part of individuals in the autoconstruction process implemented. The broadcasting of a questionnaire to measure their abilities to shape their face in regard to external injunctions (self-monitoring) and their objective identity peculiarities (sociodemographic criteria) as subjective (self-consciousness and self-esteem) revealed, thanks to the scores thus raised and the treatment of variables that resulted, all the importance of social factors on the definition of individual behaviors. Then, to understand individual specificities in terms of self-presentation as identity, it is equally important to light social anchors of actors as much as how they treat them, in order to approach in closer of “subjectivation of objective” phenomenon they implement to singularize themselves. Considering this result, a third analysis focuses more particularly on the emerging adulthood period (from 18 to 27 years old), which is marked by a rupture with normative injunctions related to childhood and adolescence without being perfectly associated to adulthood requirements. This period of life, which allows more freedom to individuals in terms of experimentations (in particular in the fields of studies, work and relationships), is associated with the highest scores in self-monitoring. This result leads us to establish a parallel between living conditions of individuals and the modalities of adaptation of their faces. In other words, and about the general scope of this doctoral research, daily life experience constitutes the main factor of more or less big tendency of actors in adopting and present the attitudes they consider as expected from themselves.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Jared A. Durtschi / Many individuals in their teens and twenties believe achieving financial self-sufficiency is an important part of becoming an adult (Arnett, 2000); yet the research on this topic is very limited. The level of general responsibility a young adult obtains is related to their general level of self-confidence (e.g., Shim, Serido, Bosch & Tang, 2013). However, the relationship between financial responsibility and self-confidence is currently unknown. Additionally, the relationship between self-confidence and annual income among young adults is largely unknown. This is the first study to advance current knowledge with a large (N = 474) and longitudinal dataset of emerging adults. The goal of this study is to test the underlying process that may explain variation of annual income among emerging adults from the Transition to Adulthood Supplement, a subset of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The study used a structural equation model (SEM) to test three waves of data across four years. Results from the SEM analysis demonstrated that higher levels of financial responsibility were associated with higher levels of self-confidence two years later. Additionally, the findings showed that higher levels of self-confidence were associated with higher levels of annual income after an additional two years. The results suggest the importance of building financial responsibility and self-confidence in emerging young adults.

M.Ed. (Psychology of Education) / The purpose of this study is to determine whether adulthood is indeed influenced by essential family responsibilities. Therefore, an investigation into this facet to adulthood is necessitated.The family unit is responsible for the child's development to adulthood. According to research literature, the responsible parent in the family unit should respectively see to the emotional and material needs of the family on both an individual level as well as a communal level. These responsibilities also include : the creation of a secure environment based on u~conditional love, respect and acceptance; the setting of a good moral example which children may identify with; the emphasis of faithfulness in the marital role; and the creation of and participation in constructive, recreational family activities.These responsibilities will enable parents to fulfill their multi-dimensional educational role. The problem investigated was to ascertain how important these family responsibilities are deemed to be for the development to acceptable adulthood in the Republic of South Africa. Research was therefore undertaken to investigate certain family responsibilities featured prominently in the literature studied. The empirical component of the investigation was based on the implementation of a questionnaire. Concerning validity and reliability, a principal component analysis (PCA) was followed by a principal factor analysis (PFA) in the first order analysis. This was followed by a second order PCA and PFA...