Notwithstanding relationships with parents and primary caregivers the relationship a person has with a sibling is likely to be his first important autonomous relationship with another person. Siblings have the same parents and families, and they often share homes and life experiences. Relationships with siblings are frequently a person’s longest lasting relationship. However, these relationships are often complex and diverse in nature and there is no cohesive theoretical explanation for the role that these relationships play in a person’s life. Therefore this study explored how a group of preadolescent boys perceive and explain their sibling relationships. The data for this exploratory qualitative study was obtained by interviewing the group of boys, and investigated how these boys make sense of their relationships. Four main themes emerged: the role of hierarchy within their relationships, the impact having a brother or a sister has on their relationships, how the boys understand conflict and competition, and finally how they comprehend closeness and separateness within their sibling relationships. The findings highlight the complexity of these relationships and also provide interesting insight into how the boys make sense of this complexity. Most of the boys said they preferred having siblings even if they reported having difficult relationships with their siblings. On the whole the boys felt that these relationships are very important for them, in spite of them reporting that their siblings are often challenging and problematic. The findings suggest that in this small sample, sibling relationships are central for boys in their negotiation of social interactions with people who are not their parents and/or adults.

The problem of this study is to determine if there are fictional books usable by teachers in helping preadolescent boys solve their problems of adjustment. The problem involves the analyses of twenty-five fiction books taken from those books listed by Virginia Bryson Blair in her study, "Directed Reading through the Library for Improving the Social Adjustment of Older Children."

This thesis examines the perceptions of interpersonal adequacy held by preadolescent behaviour disordered boys through comparisons with perceptions held of them by putative significant others and normative comparison with their peers. The sample, selected according to behavioural status, comprised 70 boys drawn from 22 regular primary schools in south west Sydney, Australia. Thirty five boys, identified as behaviour disordered, were matched with boys whose behaviour was perceived to be appropriate in the school setting. An overview of the results would suggest that the influence of selected putative significant others on the multidimensional self concepts of preadolescent boys is not universal and varies according to behavioural classification / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis examines how playful language functions in the friendship talk of preadolescent girls.By experimentation and manipulation of language, speakers negotiate turbulence to accomplish a variety of actions which highlight the talk-as-play function.The analytical focus is on speaker's negotation of talk in and out of play and non play. The methodology is synthesised from interactional sociolinguistics, ethnographic and Conversational Analysis approaches. Findings demonstrate that alliance building is accomplished in a diversity of forms which contribute to the overall game-like key of preadolescent girls' talk.Findings are relevant to applied linguistic and development psychology.The study offers new insights into the acquisition of gendered language practice. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The study reported here attempts to demonstrate the utility of group play therapy as a method of reducing aggression in preadolescent aged boys. Previous research has attempted to demonstrate the value of play therapy as a method of dealing with a variety of emotional and behavioral problems.

To examine family context in relation to body image, weight concerns, and weight control behaviors in preadolescent African American girls. Methods: Cross-sectional baseline data were analyzed from 303 African American girls 8 to 10 years old and a caregiver in the Girls health Enrichment Multi-site Studies Phase 2(GEMS), an obesity prevention intervention trial. Results: Fruit, juice, and vegetable accessibility and family support for healthy eating and physical activity were significantly related to girls' body image and weight control behaviors. Conclusions: A comprehensive understanding of family factors may improve future programs aimed at preadolescent girls.

Currently there is limited research addressing the eating behaviours of preadolescent children, despite evidence suggesting that friends and peers may contribute to the developing eating attitudes and behaviours of children of this age. Eating behaviours in terms of this thesis include both under- and over- eating behaviours, with a specific focus on the under-eating behaviour, dietary restraint, and the over-eating behaviours emotional eating and external eating. The fundamental aim of this thesis was to examine friend and peer influences on children s eating behaviours, with a specific focus on a community sample of preadolescent children. Based on links established in the literature between childhood eating behaviours (dietary restraint, emotional eating and external eating) and parental controlling feeding practices (pressure to eat and restriction) and childhood symptoms of anxiety and depression, these factors were also considered alongside the contribution of friends and peers, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. The longitudinal stability and continuity of self-reported eating behaviours and perceived parental feeding practices in preadolescent children were also examined in this thesis. A pilot study and experimental study provided an objective measure of children s snack food intake following a school lunchtime, when offered a selection (healthy and unhealthy) of snack foods in the presence of friends and peers. Links between food intake in the presence of friends and peers, and self-reported eating behaviours, parental controlling feeding practices, child symptoms of anxiety and depression and BMI were further explored. The research in this thesis suggests that friends dieting behaviours predict individual children s dieting behaviours, and also highlights links between problematic eating and anxiety in preadolescent children. Parental controlling feeding practices were found to have a negative impact on preadolescents eating behaviours and were also found to be potentially linked to the development or maintenance of anxiety and depression symptoms in children of this age. Preadolescents reports of eating behaviours and perceptions of the controlling feeding practices their parents utilised with them were stable over time, but, with the exception of restriction, lacked continuity. Dietary restraint, emotional eating and external eating decreased over a 12 month period. While some of the research in this thesis requires replication, the results present many novel and interesting findings. Using longitudinal and experimental data, the research reported on in this thesis highlights the important contributions of friends, peers, parents and individual anxiety and low mood to the eating attitudes and behaviours of preadolescent aged children.

Previous research indicates that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is helpful in reducing depression in youth. However, little research exists into what specific components within CBT treatment protocols are associated with decreases in depression. Furthermore, little is known about how components within CBT treatment protocols reduce depression. Cognitive theories suggest that interventions targeted at negative cognitions reduce depression. Research has provided initial support for this position, although these studies did not utilize clinically depressed youth. Research has also shown that the therapeutic ingredients of therapist relational behaviors and group cohesion are important general factors in treatment; however, research exploring these variables in youth depression is lacking. Cognitive theories of depression suggest depressogenic thinking mediates the relationship between interventions and depression. However, no research exists exploring depressogenic thinking as a mediator between specific components of CBT treatment protocols and youth depression. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the association between specific components of a CBT treatment protocol and depression. The current study also sought to investigate depressogenic thinking as a mediator between the components of interest and depression. Participants were 42 girls, aged 9 to 14, who completed a manualized CBT group treatment protocol for depression. Participants completed a diagnostic interview for depression and completed self-report measures of depressogenic thinking. Group therapy sessions were coded for cognitive interventions, therapist relational behaviors, and group cohesion. The results of the main hypotheses indicated no significant associations between cognitive interventions, therapist relational behaviors, group cohesion and depression. Furthermore, tests of depressogenic thinking as a mediator could not be conducted based on the aforementioned results. However, post-hoc power analysis revealed extremely low power for the analyses. To further investigate the data, an exploratory analysis was conducted, with steps taken to increase power. Results from the exploratory analysis indicated the therapist relational behaviors measure consisted of two factors, both of which were significantly associated with post-treatment depression. Furthermore, the exploratory analysis revealed a significant association between cognitive interventions and post-treatment depression. Finally, no significant association was found between group cohesion and post-treatment depression. Implications, limitations, and recommendations for further areas of research are presented. / text

Background: Approximately twenty percent (20%) of children and adolescents have mental health disorders and between 50–75% of all adult mental illness has its onset before the age of 18. Few under 18-year-olds with mental health disorders are, however, admitted for psychiatric inpatient care. The majority of those are adolescents who present with emerging serious mental health disorders. Very little is known about inpatient admission of preadolescent children (under 13 years) with mental health disorders. A review in 2000 showed mixed results about outcomes from admissions and highlighted a number of challenges with outcome studies. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the outcomes of preadolescents (hereafter referred to as ‘children') after inpatient admission, both locally and internationally. Methods: To meet the first aim, we performed a scoping review. Two reviewers independently searched EBSCOhost and Scopus (January 2000 – February 2017), using keywords ‘inpatient'; ‘psychiatry'; ‘psychiatric unit'; ‘mental health'; ‘children'; ‘treatment outcome/s'; ‘follow-up'; ‘secondary care'; to identify studies examining child (0–12 years) psychiatric inpatient outcomes. To meet the second aim, perspectives of convenience sampled parent-child dyads, who were previously patients at an inpatient psychiatric unit for under 13-year-olds in Cape Town, South Africa, were gathered using in-depth individual interviews. Data generated from the interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Seventeen studies were identified by the PRISMA-guided search strategy in the scoping review. Measurements used differed widely. Significant improvements were reported at discharge and was maintained in short-term follow-up (1–4 months) studies. However, medium-term (5–11 months) and long-term (1 year or more) follow-up studies showed mixed results, with marked deterioration in very long-term studies. The qualitative study showed that most families found inpatient admission helpful, and indicated positive outcomes, but with ongoing difficulties over time. Two main themes related to outcomes emerged from the 10 parent-child dyads included in the study. The first theme (“A turn in the road”) highlighted inpatient admission as the catalyst of positive outcomes. Diagnostic certainty; newly acquired cognitive and behavioural skills; improved parent-child relationships; appropriate school placements; development of peer relationships; as well as follow-up psychiatric care and medication, were seen as contributing to positive outcomes. Conversely, the second theme (“Still a rough journey”) described ongoing difficulties including lingering problems despite improvement; minimal improvement when lacking a diagnosis; regression with transition to mainstream secondary school; and negative outcomes associated with lack of peer relationships and discontinuation of psychiatric care and medication. Conclusion: Taking together findings from our work, inpatient stay for child psychiatric patients was found to result in substantial short-term improvement. Medium-term outcomes were less clear, while long-term outcomes appeared mixed, with potential deterioration in the very long-term. However, the relatively few and diverse studies found in the scoping review made interpretation of the findings difficult. One striking finding from the research, was the absence of internationally agreed outcome measures to inform such research. In this study, qualitative data from families and children who had received inpatient treatment provided several functional outcomes that may be important, both for outcomes research and for post-discharge clinical practice.

Relatively few people occupy formal leadership positions in their lives. Yet everyone must make decisions in the context of their different roles in life and different positions in society which will influence other people in their environment. Most South African primary schools have leadership models and appointment procedures which culminate in a "formal leadership crush" in the 12th and 13th year of the developing preadolescent. This period is described in literature as a critical development period and serves as a foundation for the forming of identity in the adolescent period which follows it. The purpose of this research is to investigate the appropriateness of existing leadership models for preadolescents in asocial context. Two leadership models are relevant. The first model is the traditional appointment of a core group of leaders for a period of a year, who must perform certain tasks. The second model developed in response to bigger pressure to democratize the leadership process in schools and assumed the form of a committee system. Learners are divided into committees, chairpersons and vice-chairpersons are elected and learners are jointly responsible for performing certain tasks. At the end of the year a core group of high-profile leaders are then appointed. A qualitative research method which follows an inductive, exploring approach was selected, because this method acknowledges the complexity of the phenomenon. Data was content-analytically processed by means of Atlas.ti. The application of different leadership models in the preadolescent development phase is a complex issue. The results indicate that children realize that competence, exemplariness, diligence, hard work, being reliable for teachers, performance and leadership qualities are less important than popularity, familiarity and acceptability among the peer group. In addition the election procedure is inconsequent, because children are brought under the impression that they are being identified as leaders, while at the same time there is a so-called "democratic" process over which children and teachers have no control. Leaders' primary tasks are supervision, discipline and the maintenance of order. This position implies the potential for conflict, because fellow learners are not recognized as authority figures and because the leaders also do not have enforceable authority. Formal leadership models also do not recognize the informal peer group ordering of the participants in the process, and inferiority and a feeling of disempowerment are the result of a situation where a formal role is assigned to someone who is not recognized in the group. The misfit between the demands which a social environment makes of children in the preadolescent development phase may possibly be the cause of the manner in which children's emotional, behavioral and social development disturbances manifest. Primary school leadership models as evaluated in this study, influence the development and end result of the spontaneous development of the preadolescent with regard to the physical, cognitive-moral and psycho-social development. The . compulsory participation in a leadership model in grade 7 has a disruptive and disturbing impact on the preadolescent's development. Proposals for the reviewing of leadership models include the establishment of structure, mentorship and personal involvement and supervision by teachers. That means that time and energy must be spent with the preadolescent, so that behavior and learning may take place by means of modeling and facilitation. / Thesis (PhD (Psychotherapy))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Psychology / unrestricted