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Adolescents face many challenges at home and at school which impact various areas of their lives, including their academics. Schools have worked to ensure better student mental health outcomes by hiring school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers. School wellness centers can be an additional resource that students utilize to address mental health challenges during their school day. The purpose of this study is to understand adolescent perceptions of a school-based wellness center. Perceptions of populations who utilize the wellness center and those who do not utilize the wellness center were studied within one high school to understand how schools can better meet the mental health needs of students. This qualitative study employed the use of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) focus groups. IPA card sorting questions were used during the focus groups to facilitate discussion. Results suggest that students across the four focus groups see benefits of the wellness center, notice barriers to using the wellness center, and have advice for how to improve the wellness center. Within all four focus groups, the following implications were addressed. In terms of benefits, students felt that the wellness center helped individuals feel better and that the center was a safe space. In terms of barriers, students reported that fear of missing class and stigma were obstacles to attending. Finally, in terms of advice, students hoped there would be more awareness of the wellness center and that teachers would make it easier to visit the wellness center.

This study focuses on the effects of part-time employment of high school students during the school year. While there are many benefits to be derived from part-time employment, many researchers have concluded that working intensely (over 20 hours per week) during the school year has deleterious academic, social, and psychological effects on high school students' achievement (Bachman & Schulenberg, 1983; Mortimer & Finch, 1986; Steinberg & Dornbusch, 1991; Wright, Cullen, & Williams, 2002). The study made reference to the theory of social embeddedness (Granovetter, 1985) and the primary orientation model (Warren, 2002) which suggested that high intensity work reduces time to focus on and become involved in other activities. There is also application to the ecological theory of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1986) which stated that social contexts such as school, family, and work should all have connections to provide significant influences on adolescents’ development. In this study, it was hypothesized that intense work involvement would be related to less engagement in school and school activities. It was further hypothesized that intensity of work will be negatively related to family and peer relationships. The data for the study were obtained from three school divisions in southwest Virginia. A sample of N=1,402 high school students in grades 9-12 was used. Students completed the Work, School, and Social Experiences of High School Students Survey, which was adapted for the study. The data were analyzed using SPSS 14.0. The researcher employed descriptive and regression based analysis procedures to answer the research questions, and to determine the relationships among variables of interest. The results indicated that intense part-time employment by high school students has negative effects on grades, family relationships, and peer relationship and often contributes to increased stress in the lives of these students. Part-time employment affects all aspects of students' lives and is far nuanced and needs continued attention and supervision from parents, educators, and teachers. This research was supported by a 2005 Graduate Research Development Project grant from the Graduate Student Assembly at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). / Ph. D.