No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of the study was to investigate what factors affect the young athletes in the transition from junior to senior sport. The study’s secondary purpose was to find out what the athletes do to cope with the transitions and the final purpose was to revile what indicates the end of the transition to the athletes. The interview guide had three parts with questions about background information, personal experience related to the transition from junior to senior sport and finally the transition’s effect on the athlete’s career, life outside sport and lessons drawn from the experience. The study consisted of nine interviews, with four male and five female athletes. The data was analysed by using sentence categorisation. Quotations were used to underline the results. The results were divided into several categories, namely: demands, resources, barriers, coping, indicators and long-term effects. The results implicate that the participants felt that it was a big step to take that involved changes in demands both in the sport and in the life outside sport. The participants also felt that social demands, demands on the self, school and planning caused the biggest barriers during the transition. The results also imply that the resource most commonly mentioned by the participants were social factors (such as team cohesion) followed by individual factors. The coping strategies mainly involved mental strategies while the long-term effects show effects of evolving mental skills. Finally the indicators most commonly mentioned were objective and involved an increase in responsibility and better statistics. It is discussed in which way the results of this study can be further strengthened by the results of earlier studies and theories.

A needs assessment was conducted to identify top priorities for the development of a Comprehensive Guidance Program (CGP). The assessment was given to junior high students (grades 7-9) and their parents. This thesis is a comparison of students' and parents' perceptions of the needs of students in junior high school setting. The findings indicate the parents and students shared similar views on themes of support for career and future plans, concern for more information on health issues, and concerns of what servics the school should provide. However students' and parents' individual needs were not similar. A Spearman Rho test showed a very low overall correlation between the ranking of needs of the two groups. The findings led to the recommendation that thematic similarities should guide the development of programs and that community support should be sought to address individual priorities identified by each group. A major benefit of the study was the development of a process for the engagement of the community in school development. Further investigation may be needed to help understand the differences in the parents' and students' perceptions. / viii, 120 leaves ; 29 cm.

This study investigated levels of general, academic, and social self-concept in junior high school children. The effects of Gender, IQ and achievement level, as well as type of program were also considered in relation to self-concept. / Subjects were 85 students in grades 7 and 8 attending a large comprehensive high school, 40 of whom participated in a specialized Talented and Gifted (TAG) program. The remaining 45 were drawn from the regular school population and constituted a comparison group. Measurements included the Piers-Harris Childrens' Self-Concept scale and the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test. / Results indicated no significant differences between groups on measures of general or social self-concept. On measures of academic self-concept, TAG students scored significantly higher than students from the regular program. With regard to gender effects, no significant differences emerged between males and females on measures of self-concept. Finally, no significant differences were determined on measures of self-concept between TAG participants scoring higher on measures of IQ and achievement and those scoring lower. Educational implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The main purpose of the present investigation was to compare the personality traits of cegep students enrolled in arts, sciences, and social sciences. In addition, the influence of gender on personality was examined, as well as its interaction with academic specialization. Finally, exploratory research was conducted to study the influence of selected socio-demographic variables on personality configuration. / Participants were asked to complete a socio-demographic questionnaire as well as the French research translation of the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), which measures the five basic dimensions of personality. Thus, another purpose of this study was to provide validational information for the latter instrument. / Results indicated that arts students score significantly lower on Extraversion than science and social science students. Furthermore, females were shown to score significantly higher than males on measures of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiouness. In addition, the interaction of program specialization and gender was shown to be significant on the Openness to experience scale. Exploratory research indicated that students whose parents have a higher occupational level scored significantly higher than other students on measures of Openness to experience. Finally, the internal consistency of each scale and correlations between the scales of the instrument were calculated. The implications of our results were subsequently discussed, as well as potential issues for future research.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.