Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / Substance use among pregnant women is a perennial problem in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. There are many influential factors are associated with substance use among women of childbearing-age. The study explored factors associated with substance use among pregnant women using a qualitative research design and the bio-ecological theoretical framework to explore and guide the researcher throughout the study. Participants were selected using purposive sampling. Only participants accessed from the Department of Social Development meeting the inclusion criteria of the study were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Immediate referral for psychological intervention during the interview was available for participants who needed it. Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six phases of thematic analysis were utilised to analyse the data. The study adheres to ethical guidelines for the participants’ protection. Participants were informed about the study before the initiation of the interviews and the details of their voluntary participation were explained. The key findings from this study illustrate that socio-cultural factors, personal factors, emotional response and intimate relationships are the major contributing factors to substance use among pregnant women in this sample. The results outline the preventative measures that pregnant women implement. Lastly, the study reveals the positive and negative perceptions of substance use programmes that participants share. Some of the study findings are similar to the existing literature and some of the findings differed. Recommendations emanating from the study include that the stakeholders, rehabilitation centres, Department of Health and future researchers should act proactively against substance use during pregnancy.

This project questions and examines the impact of 'take away' culture on our society's lifestyle. The research considers the term 'take away' in relation to food and to broader behaviours such as models of social conduct or lifestyle related to consumerism.The thesis embodies the creative exploration into the relationship between these areas and the outcome is an animated cyclic narrative that illustrates and reflects the concept of 'take away'.The project is constituted as practice-based research. Seventy percent of the final assessment will be associated with the practical work and thirty percent with the contextualising exegesis.

The earlier studies of how gender is visually constructed in lifestyle magazines have mainly been done on photographs. But, photographs are only one part of the entire magazine Therefor3, we saw the importance in examining one of the other big parts, typography. We have been studying if gender can be constructed in lifestyle magazines through the shape and color of typography and the color context. It is important to point out that we have not been studying the written word but only the shape and color of the typography. The study has been conducted through a qualitative content analysis with a comparative process of the selected magazines. The analysis began with a semiotic analysis of selected parts of the magazines. The result was then analyzed with a feminist theoretical approach. The result of the study shows that gender can be constructed through typography in a number of different ways. This depends on what feminist approach it is looked upon. In one way gender is constructed in a traditional perspective where the boundaries of masculinity and femininity is constrained to stereotypes. In another way it is constructed through a modern perspective where the boundaries of gender is no longer fixed.

This study concerns with the characters, movie watching behaviors and lifestyles of the audiences of Kaohsiung Film Archive. Kaohsiung Film Archive, one of the local cultural museums in Kaohsiung city, provides film exhibitions and movie activities for people. The museum studies in Taiwan seldom discussed the audiences¡¦ behaviors based on personal psychological variables. On the other hand, most of the researches about movie viewers were focused in Taipei. This study attempts to reveal the differences of viewers between Kaohsiung Film Archive and other movie theaters. Some marketing suggestions for Kaohsiung Film Archive will be raised based on this study. This research has been conducted by questionnaire surveies from January 20th, 2010 to February 10th, 2010 in Kaohsiung Film Archive daily. 387 valid questionnaires are collected from the audience going to the screen room on the 3rd floor. The result shows: The majority of the movie viewers in Kaohsiung Film Archive are college-educated. The ratio of femail audience to male is 6:4. Their age distributes equally from the youth to retirements. Many people attend movies alone in Kaohsiung Film Archive, and plan the trips in advance. Their motivations to watch movies and the criteria for choosing movies are similar to the results found in the past. Except the mainstream romance and comedy, the study also finds that the audiences¡¦ favorite movie genres include non-mainstream art, documentary, and adaption of literary etc. With respect to viewers¡¦ lifestyles, there are 27 questions in the study listed on the scale meter. By using factor analysis and reliability tests, six common factors can be classified: ¡§loving cinematography,¡¨ ¡§independent and appreciative,¡¨ ¡§engaging in community activities,¡¨ ¡§enjoying family life,¡¨ ¡§taking part in social activities,¡¨ and ¡§calm and gentle nature.¡¨ These common factors further can be divided into 3 groups: ¡§pragmatic,¡¨ ¡§art and leisure¡¨ and ¡§fashion and dynamic.¡¨ The characters and movie-watching behaviors of these three groups are quite different. The age of ¡§pragmatic¡¨ people are relatively aged. They don¡¦t have paracticular vhoice of movie genres. The most frequently moviegoers are ¡§art and leisure¡¨ people, distributed in all ages. They like to watch non-mainstream art and documentary movies. ¡§Fashion and dynamic¡¨ group is the youngest people. Their choices of movies are the same as normal movie audiences.

Convenience and price are the main considerations of the consumers on internet shopping. "Group buying" is a consumption pattern emerging in recent years; it can be used in many places and has become a mainstream. The consumer now through the ¡§group buying¡¨ to reduce their living expenses. The earlier group buying was focus on the products of foods, and physical goods. But through the development of internet, the new internet group buying has been different. It¡¦s not only focused on the foods and physical goods, but also includes all kind of entertainment (cosmetology, outdoor events¡Ketc.). In this study, we regarded the consumers who were ever participated in the new online group shopping as our main target. Through this research, we can understand the consumer¡¦s lifestyle, personality and involvement of new online group shopping. It also can provide a direction for online shopping industry in the future.

Since Ministry of Transportation and Communication of the DGT put ¡§liberalization of telecommunications¡¨ into practice in 1997, the development of the mobile phone industry has been 7 years. The sales volume is affected by brand, function, specification, and service of system proprietor. Moreover, the available distribution channel and the execellent after-sales service have played an important role in it. In other words, according to the replacement of mobile phone, the influence of distribution channel is more important than before. Because the real channel is the biggest part of the mobile phone industry, this study wants to research demographic and lifestyle of consumers in this field. This study adopted the research of questionnaire as study method. The target of this study is consumers who have purchased mobile phone in Kaohsiung area, and the field of this study was concentrated on demographic and lifestyle of consumer behavior. The valid questionnaire volum is 551. This study used SPPS software to access factor analysis and cluster analysis to get the lifestyle data of consumers, and then it used Chi-square test to examine the influence between the demographic and lifestyle of consumers and consumer behavior. If the examination is remarkable, it would go a step further to show the distribution of sample frequencies. By this way, we would know where the difference is.According to this study result, it shows that different gender, years, occupation, and disposable income would have the remarkable difference with consumer behavior. It meant that the consumer characteristics had influenced the purchasing behavior of mobile phone. Therefore, the distribution channel should consinder more about consumer characterstics to decide its strategy. Moreover, different lifestyle would have an impact on purchasing price and choice of purchasing place. It meant that distribution channel could aim the distinguishing feature of different group to choose unique product and business modle. It would help to satisfy the need of different group and to create distinctive position of market.

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The purpose of this study was to understand the difference of health-promoting life styles among the Fifth and Sixth grades students in Kaohsiung City, and analyze the related factors. A descriptive study design was chosen, and data was collected by self-reported questionnaires that include: demographic data, cues to self-efficacy of health behavior and health-promoting lifestyle profile. The number of subjects was 1164, consisting of 623 Fifth grade students and 541 Sixth grade students. The data collection was based on structural questionnaire method, and there were 1164 valid samples, which were then analyzed by SPSS for Windows 14.0. Results of this study include: 1. The average score was 157.93 in terms of overall scaling table. The highest score fell on health-promoting lifestyles, followed by daily life security habits ,then Self-Care habits, Stress & Sentiments Management, Recreation and Sport,and the lowest score was on eating habits. 2.The average score was 113.39 in terms of overall scaling table. The highest score fell on self-efficacy of health behavior, followed by health responsibility behavior, then stress management behavior, nutrition behavior, and the lowest score was on exercise behavior. 3.The result indicated that these background factors did show significant differences in health promotion life-style. 4. The result indicated that these background factors did show significant differences in self-efficacy of health behavior. 5. Health behavior self-efficacy were positively correlated with health-promoting lifestyles. ¡]r¡×.730¡Ap¡Õ.01¡^ 6. It was realized through hierarchical enter regression analysis that, health¡@responsibility behavior , stress management behavior, nutrition behavior, the gender ,results of study in class(last / middle), Father¡¦s occupation¡]field / general¡^ , Father¡¦s teach(democracy /abandon¡^ , exercise behavior, mother¡¦s level of education ¡]a primaryschool / a junior college¡^ and to stay with parent(yes / no¡^ and could explain to 59.7¢H total variance in health promotion life-style. Among these 10 factors, health responsibility behavior ,has the biggest influence; also, the research conclusions could serve as a reference for future health education and activities planning within the school.

Revised; Originally published: 12/2008 / Food labels are designed to help consumers to make healthy food choices. Yet the Nutrition Facts label is not always easy to understand, due to a lot of technical information. The step-by-step approach in this publication is easy to follow, and may help consumers to build skills how to read and use the information on a Nutrition Facts label more easily and effectively for their needs. This two page information sheet is useful, especially when a nutrition educator teaches a lay person those tricky foods labeling terms and recommends healthy alternative in his/her diet.

Introduction: This dissertation seeks to identify novel, potentially modifiable risk factors that could be used to reduce the risk of prostate cancer (PCa) progression. Aim 1 investigates the effects of obesity and smoking on PCa progression, aim 2 studies the effects of specific medication use on PCa progression, and aim 3 identifies factors associated with faster PCa progression.Methods: Data from 140 subjects from the Watchful Waiting study followed every 3 months for up to 5 years were used. Multiple linear regressions were used to determine associations with baseline PSA. PSA velocity (rate of change of PSA over time) was used as a surrogate marker for PCa progression. Mixed effect models were used to assess the effect of obesity, smoking and medication use on PSA velocity(aim1 and 2). For aim 3, subjects were categorized as slow, intermediate and fast progressors based on tertiles of PSA velocity. In addition to the above variables, age, Gleason score, chromogranin-A, family history, selenium and free PSA were investigated as determinants of faster PCa progression using multiple logistic regressions. Analyses were run using two models, comparing slow progressors to fast progressors (model1) and slow progressors to a combination of fast and intermediate progressors (model2).Results: Aspirin use was negatively associated with baseline PSA (coefficient = -0.39 and 95% confidence interval (CI):-0.612, -0.158). Aspirin effect was statistically significant in never smokers (coefficient = -0.54, 95% CI: -0.916, -0.170) but not in ever smokers (coefficient = -0.22, 95% CI: -0.505, 0.065). Ever smoking was statistically significantly associated with higher PSA velocity compared to never smoking (coefficient = -0.001, 95% CI: 0.0002, 0.002). In aim 3, pack-years of smoking were positively associated whereas aspirin use was negatively associated with high PSA velocity in both models. Odds Ratio and 95% CI for smoking and aspirin use for model1 and 2 respectively; 1.03 (0.92, 1.13), 1.02 (1.00, 1.03), 0.24(0.06, 0.94) and 0.26(0.10, 0.68).Conclusions: Although more studies are needed before recommendations can be made, if these results are borne to be true in other studies these modifiable risk factors can be potentially be used in prevention of PCa progression.