Abstract Adolescent males are being suspended or expelled at high rates. Faith-based organizations have developed programs to address these problems by using adult male volunteers to mentor high-risk youth; however, recruiting sufficient mentors is a problem because organizers lack an understanding of the factors that motivate men to volunteer. If this problem can be alleviated, then faith-based organizations will be better able to recruit volunteers to serve students. Guided by the functionalist theory, the purpose of this study was to determine what demographic characteristics and motivating factors discriminated between volunteers and non-volunteers. A causal comparative design was employed and the Volunteer Function Inventory was administered to determine differences between volunteers (n = 112) and non-volunteers (n = 202) in terms of motivating factors, demographic characteristics, and future intentions to volunteer. In alignment with the functionalist theory, multivariate analysis of variance revealed that volunteers were more motivated by social, value, understanding, and self-enhancement factors than were non-volunteers. Descriptive data analyses indicated that volunteers were older, unmarried, employed full time, and less educated than non-volunteers, and revealed no difference in future intentions to volunteer. Based upon the findings of this study, it is concluded that faith-based organizations recruit and retain adult males as role models who exhibit social, value, understanding, and self-enhancement factors to provide support for adolescent males. It is recommended that faith-based leaders use the Volunteer Function Inventory as a screening tool to identify volunteers who would mentor high risk male students. This practice may enable male at risk students to remain in school, graduate, and lead fulfilling lives, thus resulting in positive social change.

This thesis examines the persuasiveness of anti-smoking television advertisements aimed at teens and produced by Philip Morris's Youth Smoking Prevention Program and the American Legacy Foundation's truth campaign. The advertisements are analyzed rhetorically using Kenneth Burke's dramatistic approach, supplemented by theory related to persuasive advertising, characteristics of at-risk adolescents, persuasive attack, and persuasive defense (apologia). The analysis indicates that strong central themes present in both the Philip Morris and truth campaigns act as a means of rhetorical persuasion, but are not necessarily rhetoric designed to persuade adolescents not to smoke cigarettes. The truth campaign advertisements contain both strengths and weaknesses. The weakness of the truth ads is related to an over-reliance on allegory-type scenarios meant to communicate anti-smoking sentiments and the theme of manipulation. Truth ads that contain clearer messages conveyed by appealing central characters are a more effective means of communicating not only an anti-smoking ideology, but also the theme of adolescent empowerment. This thesis's analysis more alarmingly indicates that the Philip Morris ads are in no way an effective means of smoking prevention. The Philip Morris campaign acts as a persuasive defense with the intended purpose of image repair and may encourage adolescents to think of Philip Morris and their tobacco products in a positive light. Conclusions suggest that due to the vast impact of media the glorifies smoking and other self-injurious behaviors; infrequent appearance of pro-social media appeals; insidious coercive tactics of the tobacco industry; possible limitations in determining the effectiveness of pro-social media appeals due to adolescent self-perception (or third person effect variables); and lack of attention paid to more vulnerable or at-risk youth, the real need may not be better pro-social media campaigns, but rather media literacy campaigns. In doing so, youth may become empowered, critical thinkers able to make life choices based on personal preference and the desire for self-fulfillment, instead of being coerced into a belief system induced by the bombardment of media.