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The first aim of the research was to determine the extent of loneliness among Saudi adolescents and its relationship to psychological and demographic factors. The phenomenon was assessed by means of quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the "meanings" of loneliness. Results indicated a high level of loneliness amongst adolescents in Saudi Arabia. Those with high level of loneliness were found to have fewer friends and scored statistically significantly higher on other psychological measures, particularly depression and anxiety,and lower on self-esteem. An implication of this finding was the need to provide adolescents with a support programme to meet their needs at this critical stage of their development.The argument throughout this study was that the existent counselling/pastoral provision was inadequate to provide adolescents in secondary school with appropriate psychological and personal support.The second aim of the study was to test the applicability of a peer counselling/support programme to prevent loneliness among young people. Implementation of this programme was carried out with comprehensive evaluation, which focused on the peer counsellors and the populations they served. Findings were encouraging in relation to both parties.Those young people who participated as peer helpers reported gains in personal development and said that their participation had benefitted their general lives; clients also reported high satisfaction with the service. Students reported high levels on two areas of social support as measured by Social Provisions Scale, namely guidance and reliable alliance, although a reduction on level of loneliness was not achieved. Additionally, formal record of the school counsellors showed less behavioural and educational problems within the school.Recommendations were made for the introduction of peer counselling programmes in Saudi school system.

The overall aim of this research is to contribute to cross-cultural knowledge and skills on the development and practice of social work in schools, by identifying and comparing the actual and ideal roles of school social workers in Saudi Arabia, ascertaining the major problems facing the social workers and learning their views regarding improvement of the counselling service in secondary schools in Saudi Arabia.The target populations of this study were third year public secondary school students, social workers in public secondary schools and officials. In order to gather data from the three groups, questionnaires and interview schedules, were used. The validity and reliability of the instruments were tested and piloted.Social workers, officials and students ranked twenty-six possible roles of the school social worker on a Likert scale for both actual and ideal practice. The results of the two-tailed paired T-tests conducted to analyse the actual versus ideal functions of the social workers in Saudi Arabian secondary schools, as perceived by social workers themselves, and by students, indicated that there were significant differences at the .005 level for all except two items, though the non-significant items differed between the two groups. The result of the two-tailed paired 1-tests conducted to analyse the actual and ideal functions, as perceived by the officials showed statistically significant difference for all but four items. Thus, the data revealed many significant differences in perceptions of the actual and ideal functions of the social workers in secondary schools in Saudi Arabia. In general, social workers, students and officials thought that, ideally, social workers should do more work in relation to almost every function of the social worker's role.The interviews with social workers revealed some factors, which they thought constrain their role as social workers in the secondary schools. The main factors were burden of other tasks unrelated to their job, such as clerical work, interference in their work from head teachers and sometimes from teachers, and lack of trust. Therefore, problems faced them in performance of their role with teachers, school administrators, education supervisors, parents, and students. Furthermore, social workers complained that students do not seek help from them, even if they are in need of it.

This thesis is concerned to evaluate Local Education Authority Off-Site Special Units for Disruptive Pupils. By reviewing the relevant literature, and by ascertaining the views of Local Education Authorities, the thesis develops the argument that schools are ambivalent in their reasons for referring disruptive pupils to Off-Site Special Units. Whilst maintaining primary concern for the pupils' reform, a greater concern seems to be evident for the removal of recalcitrant pupils in the best interests of the referring school. Either way, the decision to refer the pupil to an Off-Site Special Unit probably rests upon a failure to appreciate the causes of disruptive behaviour, which in practice are less likely to be explained in pathological terms than in institutional ones. In consequence, the idea that a suitable measure for evaluating units is to be found in rates of successfully reintegrating pupils from units back into mainstream schools is open to question. Since many pupils indicate a desire to return to mainstream school whilst others express a wish to enter employment where recognised patterns of good behaviour are necessary, a criterion for evaluating Off-Site Special Units remains the ability of the Unit to produce behaviour change in pupils attending the Units. The dictum is employed in the present thesis. The Bristol Social Adjustment Guides and a Behaviour Checklist, developed by the writer from one used by the ILEA, are used as before and after measures to show that the behaviour of pupils referred to three Off-Site Special Units in one LEA, does improve during the period of intervention. The behaviour of matched control pupils who remain in mainstream schools does not show a similar improvement. The comments of pupils in the Off-Site Special Units confirm that there are positive gains in the Units.

In this work I wish to address some philosophical difficulties regarding the extension of rights to children. In particular I wish to draw attention to the difference between the freedom rights which are traditionally assigned to rational, autonomous persons and the welfare rights children need if they are to become rational, autonomous persons. These reservations include reservations about the centrality of rationality and autonomy to possession of rights. My thesis is that insofar as various versions of rights apply to children they apply with specific qualifications which derive from the differences between children and adults.

This thesis explores the experiences of a group of children with a range of special educational needs within two mainstream schools, using a variety of ethnographic methods. The thesis is sited within the relatively new paradigm of the social study of childhood, which acknowledges children as competent social actors. It explores children's capacity for agency within the structural space of the school, and rejects the notion of the disabled child as passive and dependent. Children's own views are discussed, and the thesis demonstrates how they make sense of concepts such as 'difference' and 'disability', noting how children are influenced by factors such as the primacy of the body in consumer culture and wider social attitudes to disability. Central to the thesis, however, is the crucial nature of the body in adult-child and child-child interaction. Within schools, children are 'civilised' and controlled through the medium of the body and, similarly, children draw upon the body as a means of resistance. During social interaction, all children use the body as a signifier of the social self, as a symbolic resource for playing jokes upon their peers, to evidence changes in status, and to highlight aspects of the 'non-standard' body. They also use aspects of bodily difference to wound and taunt. Whilst all children are subject to these onslaughts upon bodily identity, it is those with special educational needs, whose bodies may appear or behave differently, who are potentially more susceptible to their effect. However, the thesis shows that the experiences of children with special educational needs were not necessarily mediated through those needs, but through particular social skills such as empathy or humour. This thesis demonstrates therefore the manner in which the quality of experience for all children, but specifically those with special educational needs, is mediated through their expertise in particular skills of embodiment.

This thesis investigates the effects on fathers of parenting children with disabilities. In the first chapter, models of family functioning and parental adaptation to disability are discussed. This is followed by an overview of the effects of disability on family members and a review of the literature on fathers in general. The second chapter consists of a review of the literature on fathers of disabled children. Included is a review of personal accounts by such fathers, followed by discussion of previous studies and previous reviews of the literature. The review concludes with consideration of the research evidence in support of seven assertions, about effects on fathers, on which there is a consensus in the literature. Chapter three describes the methodology employed in the current study. From a representative sample of 111 fathers of children with Down's syndrome, 97 were interviewed and 87 completed a booklet of questionnaires. The interviews were semi-structured in order to gain fathers' perspectives of the effects on themselves and their families. The booklet of questionnaires included instruments designed to measure: demographic variables; adaptation; stress; personality; social support; and, marital functioning. In chapter four, the results of questionnaire and interview data were considered in relation to the seven assertions about fathers which emerged from the literature review. Overall findings provided little support for the majority of these assertions. The interview data were analysed into 28 categories of fathers' comments which provided a description of fathers' perspectives of their experiences. The final chapter includes a discussion of the findings from questionnaire and interview data in relation to the existing literature on the effects on fathers. It is concluded that the existing literature may provide a somewhat erroneous picture of the experiences of such fathers. The chapter ends with a discussion of the major weaknesses of the current study, areas for future research, and implications for practitioners.

Over the last forty years, we have witnessed the birth of a new phenomenon in the Western world, that of 'the dream retirement. ' This study examines a group of (mainly) Northern European older people who move to Spain in search of the culmination of their life-project. Following years of working to the clock they move away from the 'rat-race' to find warmth, good health, company, friendship and enjoyment. Yet [...] the experience is often judged negatively by outsiders. The Costa is portrayed as a slightly unreal world, a liminal zone beyond the 'normal' realm of work. This thesis, an ethnographic exploration of life for older migrants in Spain takes seriously this 'unreal' world. It explores the negotiation of the designated 'free-time' at the end of the working life. The creation of retirement at a determined legal cut-off point has forced a separation between working identities and identities in the life beyond, which previously had (if at all) a ragged boundary between them. In short, it is a modern-day rite of passage. Now, as retirement approaches, new questions come to the fore. Where should we retire? How do we negotiate that culturally created 'time off' at the end of the working years? Do we find satisfaction, companionship, hope and fulfilment of dreams? Perhaps more mundanely,what do we actually do with that time? This thesis is an ethnographic study devoted to exploring the lives and worlds of older people who, in answering the above questions, chose to migrate to Spain from Northern Europe. Its focus is the new brand of 'woopies' (well off older persons) seeking the 'rewards' of leisure following a lifetime of working. They enter an interstitial space devoted to the pursuit of adult play. The thesis interrogates the reality of such rewards, looking at the tensions inherent in the 'freedom' sought within utopian spaces such as Spain. I reveal how the imagined freedoms necessitate some form of regulation, and I employ a re-examination of anthropological models of ritual to do so.

This study examines housing, family and community in Hwylan, a small village on the outskirts of Buraidah, a prosperous city in Al Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. The wealth brought to the country by oil exploitation has made possible extensive development and modernisation which are often thought to be a challenge to the traditional way of life: family composition, relationships and social values. These issues are explored in detail in a small scale community study conducted through direct observations, interviews, and a questionnaire based survey. The main part of the thesis dwells on the related issues of family, kinship and housing. It explores the extent to which traditional family life has been maintained and the extent to which change has been resisted or accepted. Particular attention is paid to the different types of house currently occupied by the village population. The present housing stock is largely new with very few occupied houses built more than 10 to 15 years ago. The study assesses the influence of land tenure, property acquisition and interest free government loans on housing and the traditional value system. The central findings of the study reveal that striking changes in prosperity and in house types and domestic technology have not been accompanied by fundamental changes in the value system of the community. The general conclusion drawn is that the local culture remains strong and largely resistant to outside influences despite the village's proximity to the city of Buraidah.