Ropes course programs provide numerous benefits but what makes programs effective has been unclear. The purpose of the study was to: 1) determine if there was a measurable difference in meaningful involvement between the Challenge by Choice (CbC) and Inviting Optimum Participation (IOP) approaches to ropes course program design and delivery, and 2) identify and compare the linkages among program attributes, outcomes, and values with each approach. The study involved 360 young adolescents (ages 10 -15) who took part in full-day ropes course programs provided by one of four organizations in Ontario, Canada. Participants included 172 boys and 188 girls. The average age was 12.7 years and 47% had previous ropes course program experience. Participants completed either: 1) an experience sampling survey related to meaningful involvement or 2) a means-end laddering survey related to program attributes, outcomes, and values. The experience sampling data were subjected to multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The dependent variables were meaningful involvement during high (belayed) activities and low (non-belayed) activities. The independent variables were program type, sex, and ropes course experience. Program type had a significant effect (8(3,158) = 0.937, p< 0.05) for meaningful involvement experienced during high activities. Meaningful involvement consists of the areas engagement, choice, and view of self. Follow-up ANOVAs indicated that choice (F(1, 160) = 6.127, p< 0.05) was significantly higher in IOP programs. Differences between the programs in engagement and view of self were not significant. There was no significant effect for low activities. Means-end analysis was used to identify linkages among program attributes, outcomes, and values. Responses were organized into 11 Hierarchical Value Maps. Participants in IOP programs identified different linkages than participants in CbC programs. IOP program participants were more likely to mention the attribute low activities and the outcome group efficacy as significant and less likely to mention the outcome anxiety. CbC participants were less likely to mention low activities and group efficacy and more likely to mention anxiety and the value excitement. These findings indicate that ropes course program design and delivery can be manipulated to provide specific benefits and facilitate participant experiences of meaningful involvement.

Ropes course programs provide numerous benefits but what makes programs effective has been unclear. The purpose of the study was to: 1) determine if there was a measurable difference in meaningful involvement between the Challenge by Choice (CbC) and Inviting Optimum Participation (IOP) approaches to ropes course program design and delivery, and 2) identify and compare the linkages among program attributes, outcomes, and values with each approach. The study involved 360 young adolescents (ages 10 -15) who took part in full-day ropes course programs provided by one of four organizations in Ontario, Canada. Participants included 172 boys and 188 girls. The average age was 12.7 years and 47% had previous ropes course program experience. Participants completed either: 1) an experience sampling survey related to meaningful involvement or 2) a means-end laddering survey related to program attributes, outcomes, and values. The experience sampling data were subjected to multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The dependent variables were meaningful involvement during high (belayed) activities and low (non-belayed) activities. The independent variables were program type, sex, and ropes course experience. Program type had a significant effect (8(3,158) = 0.937, p< 0.05) for meaningful involvement experienced during high activities. Meaningful involvement consists of the areas engagement, choice, and view of self. Follow-up ANOVAs indicated that choice (F(1, 160) = 6.127, p< 0.05) was significantly higher in IOP programs. Differences between the programs in engagement and view of self were not significant. There was no significant effect for low activities. Means-end analysis was used to identify linkages among program attributes, outcomes, and values. Responses were organized into 11 Hierarchical Value Maps. Participants in IOP programs identified different linkages than participants in CbC programs. IOP program participants were more likely to mention the attribute low activities and the outcome group efficacy as significant and less likely to mention the outcome anxiety. CbC participants were less likely to mention low activities and group efficacy and more likely to mention anxiety and the value excitement. These findings indicate that ropes course program design and delivery can be manipulated to provide specific benefits and facilitate participant experiences of meaningful involvement.

As the title reveals, the thesis deals with primary and secondary prevention of colorectal carcinoma among people over 50 years of age. Colorectal carcinoma, i.e. tumour disease of the colon or rectum, is a serious disease with increasing incidence. The Czech Republic has one of the highest incidence rates of this disease and is at the forefront of global statistics. Every year, about 8000 people are diagnosed with colorectal carcinoma in our country and about 4000 patients die of this disease every year. Almost four people out of ten have vicarious experience with colorectal carcinoma, claiming that someone in their immediate vicinity has developed this disease. Early detection of the disease is thus of crucial importance. Prevention and diagnostics play a major role because tumours detected at an early stage can be treated well. It is reported that lifestyle, the right regimen, plenty of physical activity, wholesome food with an appropriate proportion of fibre and vitamins have a 60 to 80 % impact on the development of carcinoma. The disease poses a threat mainly to people over fifty years of age and people with genetic predispositions. The thesis is divided into a theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part consists of several chapters. First of all, I will be dealing with the basic anatomy and physiology of the colon and rectum. Then I will be dealing with the colorectal carcinoma itself, its development, symptoms, incidence or epidemiological aspects of the disease in the Czech Republic. I will be dealing with the risk factors of colorectal carcinoma that include age, lifestyle, as well as hereditary predispositions. A large part of the thesis is dedicated to colorectal carcinoma prevention. I will be focusing on primary and secondary prevention, including the faecal occult blood test and colonoscopy. Finally, I will touch on diagnostics and treatment of colorectal carcinoma. The practical part makes use of the research data obtained through a quantitative interrogation method, a questionnaire. The questionnaire was anonymous and included 32 questions. The first group of the questions was focused on basic information about the respondents. The rest of the questions concerned respondents´ awareness of colorectal carcinoma, its risk factors and potential prevention. I explored the respondents´ attitudes to lifestyle, their concern for tumour diseases in general, as well as whether they regularly see their physician. A substantial part of the questionnaire was devoted to questions regarding the occult blood test and colorectal screening. The questionnaire was intended for people over 50 years of age. The purpose of the thesis was to map awareness of the risk factors of colorectal carcinoma, look into awareness of the options of secondary prevention of colorectal carcinoma and whether people attend regular screenings. I examined the importance of giving media publicity to the disease and thus related interest in this issue. I wished to know whether there is a gender difference in the interest in undergoing colorectal screening. Four hypotheses were established in the research. Hypothesis 1: People over the age of 50 are informed about the risk factors of colorectal carcinoma. This hypothesis was confirmed. Hypothesis 2: People over the age of 50 know the options of secondary prevention of colorectal carcinoma. This hypothesis was only partially confirmed. Hypothesis 3: The number of colorectal screenings undergone by women over the age of 50 is statistically more significant than that of man over 50 years of age. This hypothesis was not confirmed for the occult blood test. However, men underwent colonoscopy more often. Hypothesis 4: The interest in undergoing colorectal screening increases with the level of education attained. The actual proportion of those who underwent an occult blood test or colonoscopy does not differ depending on education, and therefore hypothesis number 4 was not confirmed.

The number of students enrolling in Advanced Placement (AP) classes has been increasing in Florida and across the nation over the last decade. However, this trend is not happening for traditionally underserved groups of students such as African Americans, Hispanics, and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. These minority groups are underrepresented in AP classes, while Asian and White students are overrepresented. This trend is alarming because there are qualified minority students who have a great chance of being successful in AP classes according to AP Potential data. For some reason though, these qualified minority and low income students are nevertheless not enrolling in AP classes. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether or not the extension of inviting messages to enroll in AP courses was dependent upon students' ethnic and/or socioeconomic background. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed to examine how the role of invitational theory affects minority student enrollment in AP classes. Mean scale scores from a survey were used to measure student attitudes about how welcoming and inviting schools were when it came to student recruitment into AP classes. T-tests and an analysis of variance were used to determine if there were differences in attitudes among students currently enrolled in AP classes, students of various economic means, and students of various ethnicities. Results from this study found that students already in AP classes felt very invited to challenge themselves in AP classes by teachers, administrators, parents, and peers. Richer students, Whites, and Asians also felt more invited to join AP classes than did poorer, African American, and Hispanic students, though these results were not statistically significant. To increase enrollment in AP classes, the overwhelming response from students was that schools should advertise the pros and cons of taking an AP class. Future research should examine students' perspectives regarding inviting school cultures in regions outside of the southeastern United States. Researchers should also focus on students in urban high schools as previous research has only examined student attitudes in rural and suburban high schools. Finally, future research should examine inviting school cultures from other stakeholders' perspectives such as parents and teachers.