Relationships between body dissatisfaction, dieting methods, father absence, and puberty timing were investigated in this study. Participants included adolescent females from Wave 1 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health. Logistic regression results indicated that girls without a biological father in the home were significantly more likely to have an early onset of puberty than on-time or late. Girls who experienced early puberty exhibited higher levels of body dissatisfaction, but didn't use more dieting methods. Early onset girls more likely used dieting methods if their biological father was present than absent; however, no significant difference in body dissatisfaction was shown. A negative relationship with fathers indicated more body dissatisfaction. None of the attained findings were found when the biological mother was absent, and having a stepfather did not seem to matter. Evidence was revealed that fathers play a role in their daughters' view of their own bodies.

Female teenagers have been found to be the most affluent teens according to the Rand Youth Poll's nationwide survey. The survey finds the average weekly income from female teens age 16 to 19 to be $82, with $50 from earnings and the balance from their allowances. Other findings from the survey indicate that adolescent girls receive more than adolescent males in allowance from parents, as mothers understand the need for the female teen to have the income necessary to purchase clothing and cosmetics. Past research studies have attempted to measure the influence sources on teenagers when purchasing clothing by asking teens to rank different influence sources or by asking the teens who accompany them when shopping. The current research study develops a structural equation model that allows for the comparison of the three predominant influence sources identified in the consumer socialization literature, i.e., parental influence, peer influence, and promotional communications sought out by the teen. To test the model, 206 randomly selected female teenagers completed a mail questionnaire regarding the influences on clothing interest. The female teens were all members of a non-denominational youth group, age 13 to 19, living in the North Texas region. The model derived is only the third model in the marketing literature to examine the consumer socialization process, and the first in fifteen years. Examining the three main influence sources identified from consumer socialization literature, peer, parent, and media sources, the results differ from past models. The female teens perceive parental influence as a negative influence on clothing interest, contrary to past findings. Peers and media are perceived as positive influences on teen clothing interest as in past models. The results signify the need for marketing researchers to continue to investigate the dynamic nature of consumer socialization.

The purpose of the study was to investigate teenage girls' attitudes toward fashion advertising and media. The study also sought to determine the influence of class enrollment and employment on attitudes toward fashion advertising. The data were collected by questionnaires administered to 121 high school girls enrolled in child development and fashion design major study classes. Descriptive statistics were computed along with a t-test for the difference between means for independent samples. Teenagers were found to possess many positive attitudes toward fashion advertising and to view print advertising less negatively than broadcast advertising. A highly significant difference was found between attitudes toward fashion advertising and class enrollment. In addition, a significant difference was found between attitudes toward fashion advertising and employment.

The main aim of the graduation thesis "Reflection of a girl's world in the magazine Bravo Girl!" using Critical Discourse Analysis is to identify ideology hidden in the texts of the mentioned magazine and to analyze all forms of the ideology "us" against "them". The theoretical part focuses on the significant concepts related to a text and its analysis and simultaneously deals with social and psychological aspects of gender socialization process. Special attention is paid to topics such as family, school, friends, new technologies and media. The author finds them to be a dominant source of influence in the life of teenage girls. The analytical part presents a girl's world from the Bravo Girl! point of view and inspects the language used by girls and the magazine. It attempts to estimate to which extent the magazine through language reflects values, attitudes and priorities of teenage girls and what is the role of the magazine in this. The qualitative method of semiology analysis is applied on press advertising. Keywords Magazine, ideology, language, teenage girls, stereotypes, beauty myth

M.A. / The alarming increase of single parent families in South Africa is distressing. The rising divorce rate and the crisis surrounding divorce was the motivation for the researcher to undertake this study. Many children in South Africa are disadvantaged by the high divorce rate and much documented evidence proves the extensive sociological and psychological effects which this has on these children. Research has shown over and again that divorce is observed from a child's perspective as being stressful. (Wallerstein & Kelly, 1974) It has also been shown that many children are adversely affected by divorce. However the extent to which they are affected depends on various elements, such as age of the child, time since divorce, sex of the child and developmental stage of the child, to mention but a few. The goals of this study were formulated in a response to the need for the eventual development of a support program for adolescent girls experiencing the divorce of their parents. The aim of this study was to select a sample of adolescent girls and interview them by means of a semi-structured interview in order to hear their experiences of their parents' divorces. Research has shown that boys from divorced families are affected differently to girls from divorced families and hence the researcher chose to interview only females so as to exclude any extraneous variables. (Wallerstein & Blakeslee, 1989) The reason for choosing the stage of adolescence in particular is due to the fact that it represents a critical period in the establishment of the self-concept, due to all the changes that accompany adolescence. Adolescence is complicated if it is experienced without the security and care of a stable family structure and the support of both parents. The emotional stability of the single parent and their dealing with single parenthood influences the adolescent and his or her self-concept to a large extent. This study was undertaken within the framework of a qualitative study and qualitative methods of data collection were applied. The research design integrated exploratory, descriptive and evaluative methods. The phenomenon of divorce with specific reference to the effects it has on adolescents and aspects pertaining to the phenomena of coping with parental divorce, were identified and discussed.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management (August 2016) / The purpose of this research paper is to explore the proposition around the factors influencing fashion choices for teenage girls which include attitude, impulse consumption, peer pressure, self-congruency and socialisation agents which all lead to their intention to purchase fashionable clothing brands. The research problem was to identify whether the factors influencing teenagers’ attitudes and decision making styles actually affect their intention to consume fashionable clothing brands. The design approach and methodology was the gathering of qualitative data from conducting five focus groups consisting of six female respondents each. The respondents were teenage girls aged between 13 and 19 years old, from different social backgrounds. Findings showed relatively high levels of consumption of fashion brands among the respondents, but not necessarily conducted in the traditional consumer decision-making processes. The manner in which teenage girls consume fashion brands creates a clear distinction and gap in the market of how to connect with this age segment. Key findings of the research show that teenagers no longer conform to typical adolescent ways, and it is through their consumption behaviour that marketers need to identify ways in which retail marketers can engage with them. / MT 2018

No description available.

This thesis explores the ways in which teenage girls use narrative performance to negotiate participation, social and gender identity, and individual authority in order to establish ratified and equal statuses of power within their social peer group. Although previous work on narrative discourse has shown that narratives can act as the catalyst for the complex co/construction of identity especially in social situations of talk, little work has been done to focus on the way teenagers, particularly girls, use this discourse to their benefit as they fulfill social and gender goals in social and conversational settings. Furthermore, while multimodal, narrative performance has been discussed as a cognitive and participation centered function of narrative discourse, this work has been largely quantitative. Consequently, the field of sociolinguistics, predominantly in the realm of narrative discourse, could use more work on the social function of narrative performance. This project, then, combines an analysis of teenage girls’ narrative co/construction in social contexts with a qualitative analysis of their use of narrative performance to show the ways in which this combination allows the girls to do complicated social and linguistic work to manage membership statuses, via complex participation frameworks. Data for this project consists of 5, one hour long, audio and video recorded instances in which four teenage girls, who make up an established peer group, hang out during regular social meetings. An analysis carried out via a lens of Narrative Discourse influenced by Conversation Analysis (CA), revealed that teenage girls are doing a great deal of power negotiation during their social interactions and that moments of narrative, particularly those in which narrative performances are utilized, function to make these negotiations both visible and therefore more influential on overall group dynamics. Suggestions for how this research could be continued in the future are discussed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on December 6, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

<p>In September of year 2006, a young boy was brutally killed by a girl, age sixteen, in Örebro, Sweden. Girlgangs became a frequent subject in media. Professionals’ working with adolescents claims that girlgangs notis an existing phenomena in Sweden as it is in for example in the United States. The aim of this thesis was to investigate if teenage girls in Sweden have a tendency to join gangs as they do in the United States. This was qualitative study with four focus groups with teenage girls in three different areas in Stockholm. Areas with different social economic standards were chosen for the study to compare the girls’ answers. The result was analysed by a social psychological perspective and theoretic background. The result of this study showed that the group is important to the girls in their socialisation process and in order to create identity. There were similarities between the answers between the result of this study and research in The United States considering the girls choosing friends as they look for similarities between each other and the need of having fun. A tendency in the girls’ answers could not be seen in the matter of creating girlgangs as they do in the United States.</p>