Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Le dommage causé à soi-même a très longtemps constitué un sujet hors du droit, synonyme de stigmatisation morale ou de fatalité. Depuis la fin du XXème siècle, c’est un enjeu essentiel des politiques publiques qui fait encore aujourd’hui l’objet d’un débat éthique et juridique. D’une part, la volonté de se causer un dommage exprime les aspirations de l’homme contemporain à obtenir la maîtrise de son corps, qu’il s’agisse de choisir le temps et les conditions de sa mort, de revendiquer des pratiques masochistes ou bien de faire don de ses organes. D’autre part, cette prise de risque dommageable pour soi révèle très souvent une opposition de l’État et de la société en général, en raison de l’atteinte susceptible d’être portée aux valeurs sociales et aux équilibres budgétaires. En tant que sources croissantes de préoccupation, les manifestations et les limites du dommage causé à soi-même méritent d’être soumises à l’étude de leur contexte historique, social et juridique. / The damage caused to oneself was for a very long time a topic outside the law, as a synonym for moral stigmatization or for fate. Since the end of the XXth century, it is an essential public policy issue that is the object even today of an ethical and legal debate. On the one hand, the will to harm oneself reflects the aspiration of the contemporary man to have the control of its body, that it is a question of choosing the time and the conditions of its death or claiming masochistic practices or donating organs. On the other hand, this harmful risk-taking for oneself reveals frequently an opposition of the State and more generally of the society, because of the potential violation of the social values and the budget balances. As increasing sources of concerns, the manifestations and the limits of the damage caused to oneself deserve to be subjected to the study of their historic, social and legal context.

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O bullying escolar é um importante problema de saúde pública que vem sendo extensivamente estudado em países de alta renda. Nos países de baixa e média renda, características individuais e contextuais associadas ao bullying são pouco conhecidas. A presente tese é composta por três estudos. O estudo 1 objetivou realizar revisão sistemática sobre fatores contextuais associados ao bullying escolar. A busca utilizou as bases de dados MEDLINE, PsychInfo, Web of Knowledge e SciELO. Trinta e um estudos foram incluídos. Resultados sugerem associação entre maior desigualdade de renda em classes, escolas e países e maior risco de bullying. A relação entre tamanho da classe e da escola com bullying foi inconclusiva; escolas sem normas anti-bullying, com menor apoio e pior gestão da classe pelo professor tiveram maior risco de bullying. O estudo 2 visou identificar características individuais e contextuais associadas ao bullying verbal na escola, entre adolescentes brasileiros. Utilizou-se dados da Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde do Escolar (PeNSE) 2009, com estudantes do 9º ano escolar. Realizou-se modelos de regressão logística multinível para identificar associações com variáveis de três níveis (indivíduo, escolas, cidades). A prevalência de bullying verbal em adolescentes brasileiros foi 14,2%. Somente 1,8% e 0,3% da variância do bullying verbal ocorreu nos níveis de escola e capital, respectivamente. Nenhuma característica das cidades se associou ao bullying. Escolas privadas apresentaram mais bullying que escolas públicas. Desigualdade de renda não se associou ao bullying. Meninos, os mais jovens, os que não moravam com pai e mãe, os expostos à violência doméstica, os com baixo peso ou sobrepeso sofreram mais bullying. O estudo 3 objetivou identificar padrões de comportamento relacionados a saúde, incluindo bullying, entre adolescentes brasileiros. Utilizou-se dados da segunda edição da PeNSE, coletados em 2012. Realizou-se análise fatorial exploratória e confirmatória, além de regressão linear para descrever características socio-demográficas associadas a cada padrão. Identificou-se três padrões de comportamento: o padrão \"comportamento problema\", compreendeu comportamento agressivo (incluindo bullying), consumo de álcool, cigarro e drogas e sexo não seguro; o padrão \"comprometedor da saúde\" incluiu indicadores de alimentação não saudável e comportamento sedentário; e o padrão \"promotor da saúde\" incluiu indicadores de alimentação saudável e atividade física. Os padrões \"comportamento problema\" e \"comprometedor da saúde\" se associaram aos mais velhos e aos residentes em regiões mais desenvolvidas, sendo o primeiro associado a escolas públicas e ao sexo masculino, enquanto o segundo ao sexo feminino. O padrão \"promotor da saúde\" se associou ao sexo masculino e aqueles com mães com maior nível educacional. Concluiuse que contextos de desigualdade parecem mais propícios à ocorrência de bullying de acordo com a revisão. Entretanto, dados do Brasil não corroboram essa hipótese para bullying verbal. Ambiente escolar com adoção de regras anti-bullying e professores mais solidários devem ser estimulados. As características das escolas e cidades estudadas explicaram pouco o bullying verbal. Características individuais sugerem sub-grupos de maior risco, podendo subsidiar políticas anti-bullying. Perpetrar bullying compôs o padrão de \"comportamento problema\", indicando que as intervenções devem ser mais amplas e direcionadas a múltiplos comportamentos / School bullying is an important public health problem, which has been extensively studied among high-income countries. In low- middle-income countries, there is a lack of information about associations between both individual-level and contextual-level characteristics with bullying. The aim of Study 1 was to carry out a systematic review of contextual factors associated with school bullying. Searches were performed in MEDLINE, PsychInfo, Web of Knowledge and SciELO. 31 studies were included. Results suggested that greater income inequality in schools, classes and countries is associated with increased risk of bullying. The influence of class and school size on bullying was inconclusive; schools without anti-bullying rules, with less support and poorer classroom management by the teacher had a higher risk of bullying. The aim of study 2 was to identify individual and contextual characteristics associated with verbal bullying, among Brazilian adolescents. We used data from the National Survey of School Health (PeNSE 2009) on students in 9th grade. We performed multilevel logistic regression models to identify associations with variables from three levels (individual, school, city). The prevalence of verbal bullying among Brazilian adolescents was 14.2%. Only 1.8% and 0.3% of the bullying variance occurred at school and capital levels, respectively. No city characteristic was associated with bullying. Private schools showed more bullying than public. Income inequality was not associated with bullying in Brazil. Boys, those of younger age, those not living with both parents, those exposed to domestic violence, those underweight or overweight suffered more bullying. The aim of Study 3 was to identify health-related behavior patterns, including bullying, among Brazilian adolescents. We used data from the second edition of PeNSE, carried out in 2012. We conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to identify behavior patterns, and linear regression models to describe sociodemographic characteristics associated with each pattern. We identified three behavior patterns; the problem-behavior pattern, which comprised aggressive behavior (including bullying), alcohol drinking, smoking, drugs use and unsafe sex; the health-compromising pattern, which included unhealthy diet indicators and sedentary behavior; and the health-enhancing pattern, which included healthy diet indicators and physical activity. The problembehavior and health-compromising patterns were associated with older age and from more developed regions. The former was associated with male gender and attending public school, while the latter was associated with female gender and more educated mothers. The health-enhancing pattern was associated with male gender and more educated mothers. In conclusion, the review suggested that bullying is more likely to occur in unequal contexts, but we could not confirm this hypothesis for verbal bullying in the Brazilian setting. Schools should be encouraged to adopt anti-bullying rules and to train teachers in bullying prevention. Among Brazilian adolescents the school and city variables explained litle of verbal bullying victimization. Individual characteristics indicated high risk sub-groups, which could be used to support anti-bullying policies. Bullying perpetration comprised part of the problem behavior pattern, suggesting that interventions should be more broaden

Throughout the animal kingdom, individuals often differ consistently from one another in how they cope with their environment. In particular, consistent behavioural variation, known as animal personality, is a substantial driver of a range of important ecological and evolutionary processes. As most animal species are social for at least part of their lives and group living is common, a crucial link between personality and the social context may be expected. In this thesis I systematically investigate this link, using three-spined stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus) as my model system. I begin by showing that fish vary consistently in their boldness and sociability, with only boldness being positively linked to food intake for fish at rest. This finding provides support for evolutionary theory that links personality variation to life-history strategies, and lays the basis for work related to the social context. I continue by investigating how the social context may modulate personality variation and show that short contact with a social group may have carry-over effects and obfuscate personality expression when individuals are alone. Next, I observed fish in different pairs over time and found that social experience from both the current as well as previous social contexts are integrated in the risk-taking and leadership decisions of individuals but also depends on their boldness type. This result provides support for the importance of social feedback in the expression of personality differences. I go on to demonstrate that, in a pair, bolder fish have lower social attraction, with positive effects on individual’s leadership but negative effects on social coordination. Finally, by detailed tracking of the collective movements and group foraging of free-swimming shoals, I reveal boldness and sociability have complementary driving effects of on social structure, collective behaviour, and group functioning. Furthermore, I show that in turn the group composition determines the performance of individual personality types, providing a potential adaptive explanation for the maintenance of personality variation. Taken together, these studies provide an integrated account of animal personality and the social context and highlight the presence of a feedback loop between them, with personality variation being a key driver of collective behaviour and group functioning but also strongly affected and potentially maintained by it.

此論文包含三大部分。第一部分探討董監事暨重要職員責任保險(D&O保險)的需求因素與公司治理等企業特徵間的關係，配合2003-2007年台灣上市上櫃公司的資料，研究影響公司是否購買D&O保險、保險限額與保險費的決策因素。實證結果證明，大型公司較需要D&O保險保障，且公司的董監事與利害關係人間存在代理成本問題。本文亦發現董監事獨立性等公司治理因素，對D&O保險購買行為有顯著影響，再則，公司的成長性及經理人風險趨避態度，都會影響保險限額的決定。本文結論進一步顯示訴訟風險對保險限額的決定有正向顯著的影響，而財務風險對D&O保險需求亦有若干影響力。第二及第三部分則進一步探討董監事暨重要職員責任保險對公司的行為或策略是否有影響。實證結果顯示D&O保險確實會影響公司風險承擔策略及公司財報方法的穩健性。 / This thesis is comprised of three essays on directors’ and officers’ (D&O) liability insurance, one interesting but little explored research area. Based on an unbalanced panel data set of public Taiwanese corporations in years 2003-2007, the first essay investigates the relationship between directors’ and officers’ (D&O) insurance demand and firm characteristics, especially corporate governance. The results suggest that large firms are more likely to purchase D&O insurance, and that there exists agency cost between directors/officers and stakeholders. The findings indicate that corporate governance, such as board independence, has an important impact on D&O insurance demand. Besides, the results show that growth opportunity or managerial risk aversion can affect the D&O insurance coverage amount. The litigation risk also has a positive and significant impact on the D&O insurance amount, and bankruptcy risk weakly influences the D&O insurance demand. In the second essay, I provide evidence regarding corporate business strategy by investigating the relation between directors’ and officers’ (D&O) insurance and risk taking behavior. This essay tries to test (a) whether firms are more active to adopt risk-taking strategies when their directors and top managers are covered by D&O insurance coverage; (b) whether the quality of corporate governance has influence on firm’s risk-taking behavior; and (c) whether insurers can distinguish D&O insurance purchases decision driven by managerial risk-taking behavior and charge adequate premium rate for such behavior. The empirical evidence suggests that D&O insurance coverage has a positive impact on firm risk-taking behavior. In addition, the results indicate that board composition may remarkably influence corporate risk-taking behavior. The preliminary findings also show that insurers can assess the induced risk-taking behavior ex ante and charge adequate premiums rate accordingly. In the third essay, I investigate whether the legal liability coverage result in the propensity of less conservatism and aggressive managerial behavior/strategy. More specifically, this study tests managerial opportunism behavior by examining whether the purchase of D&O insurance coverage is associated with more aggressive financial reporting strategy (i.e., less accounting conservatism). The empirical evidence suggests that D&O liability insurance purchase decision is positively associated with accounting conservatism. That is, firms with insurance coverage tend to recognize bad news in a timely manner, i.e. more earning conservatism. However, there is no significant relation between accounting conservatism and D&O insurance amount. In addition, the evidence shows that firms with strong board structure recognize good news faster than those with weak governance structure.

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The study aimed at investigating the impact of alcohol on the sexual behaviour of male adolescents, with the purpose of establishing whether a relationship exists between alcohol use and risky sexual behaviour (i.e. multiple partners, unprotected, and unplanned sex) by adolescent males. Data was collected by means of an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire. The sample consisted of 176 male high school learners, aged between 14 and 25, from one school in the Nkonkobe Municipality, Eastern Cape Province. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to obtain data analyses which included descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation (with specific reference to Chi-square analysis), and all procedures were performed at 0.05 level of significance with 95% Confidence Interval. A relationship between alcohol use and risky sexual behaviour was found to exist. A statistically significant correlation was found in support of the alcohol/risky sex hypothesis. Another significant finding was the increase noted in safer sex practises among adolescents. Finally, the findings were correlated to implications.

This dissertation is composed of four essays that empirically investigate three topics in financial economics; financial stress and its leading indicators, the relationship between bank competition and financial stability, and the link between management board composition and bank risk. In the first essay we examine which variables have predictive power for financial stress in 25 OECD countries, using a recently constructed financial stress index. We find that panel models can hardly explain FSI dynamics. Although better results are achieved in country models, our findings suggest that financial stress is hard to predict out-of- sample despite the reasonably good in-sample performance of the models. The second essay develops an early warning framework for assessing systemic risks and predicting systemic events over two horizons of different length on a panel of 14 countries. We build a financial stress index to identify the starting dates of systemic financial crises and select crisis-leading indicators in a two-step approach; we find relevant prediction horizons for each indicator and employ Bayesian model averaging to identify the most useful predictors. We find superior performance of the long-horizon model for the Czech Republic. The theoretical literature gives conflicting predictions on how bank...

Adolescent pregnancy is a worldwide problem. This study attempted to describe and explore the knowledge of female adolescents in Angola's knowledge with regard to contraception. The research results, obtained from interview schedules, revealed that the respondents lacked knowledge about themselves as adolescents as well as a lack of knowledge of their reproductive health and development. Furthermore, the results portrayed a lack of knowledge of contraceptives. The study findings may assist health care providers to identify educational programmes on contraception at schools, markets and in the community. / Health Studies / Thesis (M.A. (Health Studies))