Thesis advisor: Ruth McRoy / Thesis advisor: Linnie Green Wright / Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevalence rates have risen dramatically over the past decade and boys are five times more likely to be diagnosed than girls. Prior research on children with ASD includes samples that are overwhelmingly male, but does indicate that girls with high-functioning ASD may have distinct needs and profiles. This study begins to address this gap in the research through a qualitative study of eleven families with an adolescent daughter with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. The family is the primary unit of analysis and the study focuses on the following: (a) families' experience with the diagnostic process (b) families' management of their daughter's adjustment to adolescence, and(c) the impact of the ASD on family well-being. Family stress theory was the conceptual framework used to guide the study. Using grounded theory with a supplemental quantitative data strand, the study involved forty in-depth semi-structured interviews. Parents completed the Stress Index for Parents of Adolescents (SIPA) and a demographic questionnaire. Findings indicate that parenting a daughter with ASD could be categorized as a chronic stressor. The majority of parents endorsed clinically significant levels of stress on the SIPA. The mean age of ASD diagnosis was 8.7 years, well above the most recent (2014) Centers for Disease Control findings (6.3 years). Delayed and misdiagnosis for girls with ASD resulted in significant stress for families and reduced access to appropriate intervention. A shift in perception of the ASD from an acute to a chronic stressor allowed families to move toward acceptance and adaptation. The study findings support the need for a family centered model of assessment and intervention. Social workers in schools and in early intervention programs can play a critical role in providing education and support for families. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.

Esta pesquisa é um estudo etnográfico realizado em duas escolas públicas do segundo ciclo do ensino fundamental (6º a 9° anos), de duas capitais, São Paulo e Salvador. Tendo como objetivo compreender o papel do bullying no processo de construção da identidade de gênero entre as meninas, foram utilizadas as seguintes técnicas metodológicas: observação participante, conversas informais individuais e grupais com jovens de ambos os sexos e entrevistas em profundidade com garotas, na faixa etária de 11 a 15 anos. A instituição escolar constitui um espaço basilar de poder que regula, normaliza e inculca modelos de feminilidade e masculinidade e da sexualidade heterossexual. Nesse processo de aprendizado social das identidades de gênero, o grupo de pares exerce papel fundamental na reprodução e/ou ressignificação das normas, práticas e discursos relacionados à feminilidade. O bullying cumpre um importante papel como mecanismo cultural estruturado para a prescrição de formas de produção e modelagem dos sujeitos. Tomando como ponto de partida as práticas interacionais cotidianas de inclusão/exclusão social, interpreta-se o bullying entre garotas como uma forma de sociabilidade, assentada em um jogo de diferenças e oposições. As disputas cotidianas entre as meninas associam-se à regulação da sua sexualidade e conformam um processo feminilizante através do controle e da punição de condutas socialmente reprovadas. Por meio dessas interações de regulação e controle da sexualidade são coproduzidas categorias de identidade de gênero, mediante a demarcação e negociação de posições e papéis na hierarquia social / This research is an ethnographic study carried out in two public schools of the second cycle of primary education (6th to 9th grade), from two Brazilian states capitals, São Paulo and Salvador. In order to understand the role of bullying in the process of constructing gender identity among girls, the following methodological techniques were used: participant observation, individual and group informal conversations with both sexes and in-depth interviews with girls in the range age from 11 to 15 years. The school institution is a basic space of power that regulates, normalizes and inculcates models of femininity and masculinity and of heterosexual sexuality. In this process of social learning of gender identities, the peer group plays a fundamental role in the reproduction and/or re-signification of norms, practices and discourses related to femininity. Bullying plays an important role as a structured cultural mechanism for the prescription of forms of production and modeling of subjects. Taking as a starting point the daily interactional practices of social inclusion/exclusion, it is interpreted bullying among girls as a form of sociability, based on a game of differences and oppositions. The daily disputes among girls are associated with the regulation of their sexuality and conform a feminizing process through the control and punishment of socially disapproved behavior. Through these interactions of regulation and control of sexuality, categories of gender identity are co-produced by demarcating and negotiating positions and roles in the social hierarchy

This thesis examines the expression of anger and aggression in interactions of 6 black and 4 white female siblings on family sitcoms from the 1980s, 1990s and the 2010s. The interactions were examined to determine whether black girls on TV sitcoms were depicted as more conflictual than their white counterparts, whether the content of the portrayals of black girls differed from white girls based on racialized gender stereotypes related to female anger and aggression, whether these depictions changed over three eras of television ranging from the 1980s-2010s, and finally, whether birth order and relationship to the girl (family vs. non family) determined whether relationship context influenced conflict. The findings revealed that by race and across time black girls are less conflictual than their white counterparts. This contradicts the acceptance of solely black girls as representations of the violent and aggressive “bad girl.” / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This thesis explores the educational experiences of 17 Scottish Gypsy/Traveller girls supplemented by some 30 other informants involved with education and related areas impacting Gypsy/Travellers. It incorporates published and unpublished literature on the topic and sets out a theoretical framework informed by intersectionality. The girls’ stories are highlighted and juxtaposed alongside the general problems encountered by Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland to reveal a complex narrative. This research attempts to address a gap in the literature in which Gypsy/Traveller girls’ experiences are misrecognised and erased through non-recognition. My thesis offers space for the voices of Gypsy/Traveller girls to be heard and highlights their agency in the private spaces of home and the public spaces of education. Interpretations of the image of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland are riddled with stereotypes and racialised misperceptions and assumptions. The stubborn persistence of these negative views appears to contribute to policies of neglect, inertia or intervention that largely seeks to ‘civilise’ or further assimilate Gypsy/Travellers into the mainstream settled population. The Scottish Government's Race Equality Statement (2009) accepts that Gypsy/Travellers are ‘a particularly discriminated against and marginalised group’. Within education, research by Wilkin et al. (2009) indicates that Gypsy/Traveller children are the lowest achieving minority group in the United Kingdom. There is currently no research that explores how girls and young women from Gypsy/Traveller communities fare in Scottish schools, and what they think of their experiences. It is against this backdrop that this qualitative inquiry seeks to explore how Gypsy/Traveller girls frame their educational experiences. I argue that traditional unidimensional approaches to investigating experiences of discrimination are inadequate, particularly within marginalised communities. Interview data collected for this doctoral study was analysed, identifying common themes that characterise the experiences of the Gypsy/Traveller girls and the ways in which their experiences differ and various subordinations intersect.

Major depressive disorder is one of the most common mental health conditions in the world while obesity, a condition tied to numerous chronic conditions throughout the lifespan, is at epidemic levels throughout most of the world. Adolescence is a crucial transition period for physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development. Adolescents, particularly girls, are at high risk of developing depression and obesity. Some studies suggest that obesity is a risk factor for the development of depression while others suggest that depression alters health habits, thereby leading to obesity. The overall goal of this work is to examine both of these questions in adolescent girls and further to explore whether the relationship between obesity (and other related risk factors) and depression is a bi-directional one. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Growth and Health Study (NGHS) is an observational study of 2379 adolescent black and white girls. Height and weight was measured annually (and used to estimate body mass index) over 10 years from early to late adolescence. Diet and other risk factors were also measured longitudinally over 10 years. Depression was measured twice using the Centers for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D): first at exam 8 and then at the final exam (exam 10). Multivariable logistic regression and longitudinal (repeated measures) mixed models were used to control for potential confounding by age, socio-economic status, physical activity, hours of television/video watching per day, and dietary factors. The first objective was to determine whether young adolescent girls who were already overweight or obese had a higher risk for developing depression during the follow-up exams in later adolescence. Overall, the prevalence of moderate (or worse) depression was much higher in girls who were classified as obese (474% with depression) than either overweight (37.8%) or normal-weight (34.3%) girls. After adjusting for baseline age, race, SES, television/video hour per day), physical activity level, diet quality (using Healthy Eating Index scores), and percent of energy from protein, obese girls had a 68% increase risk of subsequent depression (95% CI: 1.17 to 2.39) compared with normal weight girls. There was no increased depression risk for overweight girls. The risk of incident depression associated with obesity was the same for blacks and whites in the study. Finally, after controlling further for a measure of self-worth (using the Harter Scales), the effect of obesity was somewhat attenuated. The second objective of the study was to explore other risk factors for depression in these adolescent girls. In these analyses, several factors from the early adolescent years predicted the development of later depression (moderate or worse). These included hours spent watching television (risk increased by 6% for each additional hour watched per day), white race, SES, obesity, and self-worth score. While the self-worth score ranged only from 1 to 4, there was nearly a 60% reduction in risk for each increase of one point in the score. Thus, self-worth was a particularly important predictor, with higher self-worth scores protecting these girls from incident depression. The final objective of this work was to examine the change in behavioral risk factors associated with prevalent depression at exam 8. Depressed (vs. non-depressed) girls who were not obese at exam 8 were approximately 75% more likely to become obese by exam 10. The results of this study support a finding of a bi-directional relationship between obesity and depression in adolescent girls.

Protection from violence, and access to formal education, are fundamental human rights for girls in conflict-affected societies. And yet, war exposes girls to an increased risk of exposure to violence, and serves as a well-known barrier to their involvement in school. While these risks are widely recognized within the fields of international education and humanitarian affairs, significant gaps exist within the peer-reviewed literature. Existing studies tend to focus generally on violence against girls in conflict-affected societies without accounting for issues of education. Or, studies focus exclusively on violence in and around school settings, although only investigate violence against students who are currently in school. As a result, the differential experiences with violence among girls based on varying levels of involvement (or lack thereof) in formal education are not well known. In light of these issues, this dissertation examines the relationship between girls’ level of participation in formal education, and exposure to violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), while accounting for Ecological factors (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) in girls’ lives, families, and communities. A quantitative survey was conducted with girls (ages 10-14) and caregivers across 14 sites in South Kivu. Findings suggest that higher levels of participation in formal education were associated with lower rates of violence among girls. Child marriage— itself considered a form of violence according to human rights norms— was seen to disrupt the protective relationship between education and violence, and expose married girls to higher rates of violence overall. Further, equitable gender norms on the part of girls and their caregivers emerged as significant factors contributing to girls’ involvement in higher levels of formal education. Taken cumulatively, findings from this research suggest a need to engage in Ecological interventions with girls, families, and communities in order to prevent the occurrence of violence and ensure that girls have access to formal education that is protective, of good quality, and promotes their overall development and well-being. In addition to filling vital gaps in the literature, these findings hold the potential to inform program and policy development not only in the DRC, but in conflict-affected societies more broadly.

In recent years there have been a number of pieces of research published which suggest that the phenomenon of self-harm in adolescence is increasing (Hall & Place, 2010, Beauchaine et al.,2014, Garcıa-Nieto et al., 2015). Heath et al., (2006) found that a majority of school teachers shared this view. In their study, 74% of teachers reported a first-hand encounter with self-injury. The subject of self-harm is also receiving more media coverage in mainstream newspapers and magazines (Dutta, 2015 & Money-Coutts, 2015), suggesting a rise in public consciousness about mental health issues such as self-harm. The extent of mental health problems amongst adolescents has also been publicly acknowledged by the Department of Health, who state that “Over half of mental health problems in adult life (excluding dementia) start by the age of 14 and seventy-five per cent by age 18” (2015:9). Research into adolescent self-harm has suggested that the most likely age for adolescents to commence self-harm is within the 10-15 years age bracket (Garcıa-Nieto et al., 2015 & Hanania et al., 2015) demonstrating that many adolescents are self-harming at an age where they are expected to be in school for the majority of their time. However, in studies of teachers, a ‘patchy' awareness of self-harm has been demonstrated (Best, 2005a; 2005b), and a lack of ability to know how best to deal with the situation, should it present itself, has been acknowledged by teachers in a number of research articles (Hall & Place 2010; Heath et al. 2006 and Kidger et al., 2010). This issue was discussed further in my Critical Analytical Study (Margrett, 2014). This study is guided by two main questions; firstly, “what are the experiences of independent school staff of pupil disclosures of self-harm?” and secondly, “how well equipped do independent school staff feel to deal with pupil disclosures of self-harm?” Interviews with four subject teachers, two housemistresses, and a school matron were conducted as a participant researcher within one girls' independent boarding school. The interviews were analysed through the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers and Larkin, 2013) and findings were synthesised with some of the key concepts found in the work of Foucault (1982; 1977/1991) concerning discourses of power, knowledge and truth. Five main superordinate themes emerged from the analysis of the data: knowledge and awareness of self-harm; reasons why pupils have self-harmed; the hidden nature of self-harm; personal responses to self-harm disclosure by staff; lack of training and support; and reasons for participating. The study finds that within the small sample interviewed, the participants demonstrated a lack of confidence in their own understanding of the term ‘self-harm', but a wide experience of pupil self-harm disclosures. It suggests the need for the training of all staff, not just key pastoral staff, in dealing with pupil disclosures of self-harm; and the requirement for schools to develop a self-harm policy (Robinson et al., 2008) and clear guidelines for referral and follow-up of disclosures of self-harm. It also supports the concept of supervision style meetings for school staff to have the ability to discuss their own anxieties and concerns about pupil behaviour (Best, 2005a & 2005b). Finally, the study examines how staff and parental avoidance of self-harm can lead to the development of concentric circles of complicit secrecy surrounding the pupil who is self-harming. It considers how ‘over-parenting' and ‘spoon-feeding' of educational concepts may be damaging pupils' ability to manage their fear of failure and suggests that this may lead to a lack of resilience and a lack of an ability to deal with problems effectively (Lahey, 2015) particularly when pupils feel that they do not conform to the accepted norms of society (Foucault, 1977/ 1991).

Esta pesquisa é um estudo etnográfico realizado em duas escolas públicas do segundo ciclo do ensino fundamental (6º a 9° anos), de duas capitais, São Paulo e Salvador. Tendo como objetivo compreender o papel do bullying no processo de construção da identidade de gênero entre as meninas, foram utilizadas as seguintes técnicas metodológicas: observação participante, conversas informais individuais e grupais com jovens de ambos os sexos e entrevistas em profundidade com garotas, na faixa etária de 11 a 15 anos. A instituição escolar constitui um espaço basilar de poder que regula, normaliza e inculca modelos de feminilidade e masculinidade e da sexualidade heterossexual. Nesse processo de aprendizado social das identidades de gênero, o grupo de pares exerce papel fundamental na reprodução e/ou ressignificação das normas, práticas e discursos relacionados à feminilidade. O bullying cumpre um importante papel como mecanismo cultural estruturado para a prescrição de formas de produção e modelagem dos sujeitos. Tomando como ponto de partida as práticas interacionais cotidianas de inclusão/exclusão social, interpreta-se o bullying entre garotas como uma forma de sociabilidade, assentada em um jogo de diferenças e oposições. As disputas cotidianas entre as meninas associam-se à regulação da sua sexualidade e conformam um processo feminilizante através do controle e da punição de condutas socialmente reprovadas. Por meio dessas interações de regulação e controle da sexualidade são coproduzidas categorias de identidade de gênero, mediante a demarcação e negociação de posições e papéis na hierarquia social / This research is an ethnographic study carried out in two public schools of the second cycle of primary education (6th to 9th grade), from two Brazilian states capitals, São Paulo and Salvador. In order to understand the role of bullying in the process of constructing gender identity among girls, the following methodological techniques were used: participant observation, individual and group informal conversations with both sexes and in-depth interviews with girls in the range age from 11 to 15 years. The school institution is a basic space of power that regulates, normalizes and inculcates models of femininity and masculinity and of heterosexual sexuality. In this process of social learning of gender identities, the peer group plays a fundamental role in the reproduction and/or re-signification of norms, practices and discourses related to femininity. Bullying plays an important role as a structured cultural mechanism for the prescription of forms of production and modeling of subjects. Taking as a starting point the daily interactional practices of social inclusion/exclusion, it is interpreted bullying among girls as a form of sociability, based on a game of differences and oppositions. The daily disputes among girls are associated with the regulation of their sexuality and conform a feminizing process through the control and punishment of socially disapproved behavior. Through these interactions of regulation and control of sexuality, categories of gender identity are co-produced by demarcating and negotiating positions and roles in the social hierarchy

The effects of the Home and Hospital Program upon entry, as contrasted with termination, on the neurotic tendencies and attitudes of pregnant school-age girls were studied using a sample of 25 pregnant junior and senior high school students in the Ogden City School District. Of the Four areas tested for neuroticism no difference was found between the time of entry and exit from the program. These pregnant girls did not test in the neurotic range and rate above the general population in only one component of neuroticism, "Submissiveness". The other components tested in the average range. Of the 8 areas on attitudes which were tested there was a difference from unfavorable to favorable attitude change toward school related subjects such as, school personnel, class participation, and preparation, and future educational goals.. The attitudes which seemed not to be affected to any great extent by the Home and Hospital Program were those towards circumstances and persons outside the school, such as , parents, husbands, peers and frustrations.

No description available.