Background: The association between socioeconomic status (SES) and diet habits has been identified in many studies across the globe. However, studies about association between SES and dietary habits are limited in Hong Kong, especially among the adolescents. Therefore, this study was proposed to identify some of the SES measures and their association between some dietary choices among this population. Objective: The primary objectives in this study is to describe the association of diet with socioeconomic position among Hong Kong‘s adolescents, and to assess whether the results differ depending on which indicator, parental education, parental occupation and family affluence, is used. Method: This is a cross-sessional study carried out on 21,721 participants who are in Form 1 – Form 7 from 42 schools. Demographic variables; three SES measures: highest parental education, highest parental occupation and family affluence; and consumption frequency of four food groups: vegetables; fruits; high-fat foods; junk foods and soft drink were obtained and assessed by a standardized questionnaire. In cross-sectional analysis, multivariate logistic regression was used to identify association between the four food groups intake frequency and the three SES measures. Result: Parental education is not found to be significantly associated with sufficient consumption of vegetable nor moderate/high consumption of high-fat foods and junk foods/ soft drink. However, it is found that adolescent with the highest parental education level (post-secondary level) have a higher likelihood of consuming sufficient fruits (OR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.24 to 1.65). Similarly to parental education, parental occupation is also found to be not significantly associated with sufficient consumption of vegetable and moderate/high consumption of high-fat foods, junk foods and soft drink. Conversely, a higher occupational status of the parent is associated with a less likelihood of the adolescent consuming sufficient amount of fruits. In terms of family affluence, a higher perceiving family economic status is found to be associated with a decrease tendency of consuming moderate-high consumption of junk foods and soft drink (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.96). Conclusion: This study finding does not support the use of parental education and occupation as a proxy to measure the association between SES and dietary habit. On the other hand, findings implies that subjective appraisal of one‘s family affluence is a good determinant of sufficient intake of particular food groups. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between gifted students’ perceived parents’ parenting styles living in a residential academy and socioeconomic status. It was also the purpose to investigate if a relationship exists between students’ perceived parents’ parenting styles and their gender. Parenting style was measured by a validated 60-question Parenting Style Questionnaire. The findings were unlike previous research and suggest that residential gifted students may perceive their parents’ parenting styles more negatively than average ability students. Participants did not perceive their parents’ parenting styles differently among socioeconomic status (SES) which is unlike previous research which uses socioeconomic status as a predictor of parenting style among non-gifted students (Pinderhughes, Bates, Dodge, Pettit, & Zelli, 2000) . Statistically significant differences were also found between gifted students’ perceptions of their mothers and fathers. It is the intention of this study to use the results as a starting point for others to investigate residential gifted students and dedicate more studies to gifted research. / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Boston University, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 560-575).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Baylor University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-200).

From discussions with the teenagers of Waverley Congregation, and their poor attendance of the worship service and catechesis, it became obvious that these members’ requirements are not be addressed. In the investigations into this problem, the world of the teenager was first of all addressed. In order to be able to bring the joyous message of the Gospel to them, one first needs to understand the world of the teenager. Otherwise preaching can quite easily be made off as irrelevant, and the unlocking of the message of the sermon into the language and situation of the teenagers cannot be achieved. This entails the first chapter. In the second chapter the focus is mainly on the worship service itself. Additional to this, attention was given to what the reformed identity of the Dutch Reformed Church entails.Attention was also given to renewal and other influences on the worship service. Renewal is not discarding or change, but should rather be thought of in terms of enrichment. Old truths and habits must be seen, used and interpreted anew in the ways of being a church, in such a way as to address the teenagers in their milieu. The third chapter contains the empirical research that was conducted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with some teenagers from the congregation. According to this 91.67% of the teenagers normally attend church with their parents or family. This supports what has surfaced in the literature study, namely the very important influence that parents have on the spiritual forming of children. The other, very interesting, result from the empirical research was the fact that 50% of the teenagers said that they went to church to listen to the Word of God. The other 50% expressed a clear need that the sermons be simpler and more on their level. These results support the literature study, namely that a person wants to meet with God, and specifically via the sermon. One of the big needs expressed by the teenagers is to praise the Lord via contemporary music. Approximately 75% of the respondents were of the opinion that the music has to change if the worship service is to address the teenager. The question is, however, whether the music is really the mayor need, and whether it is not maybe the requirement to hear the Word of God in the language of the teenager. After all, the sermon is the heart of the Gospel, and people go to church to hear the voice of God. Finally the fourth chapter addresses a number of possibilities in order to better address the teenagers. As an experiment the evening worship service and catechesis have been combined at Cunningham Avenue. Over the last three months this has been a fruitful arrangement. The youth council and the “coffee bar parents” increases the involvement of the congregation in the Youth and Family Ministry. This follows the worship vision of the Waverley Dutch Reformed Church congregation, namely that of healthy relationships and the fact that the congregation must be a congregation for the family. / Dissertation (MA(Teologie))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

The focus of this study was to determine what stressors were experienced by junior high age students (N = 145) and what relationship there was between those stressors and self-esteem. A modified Youth Adaptation Rating Scale (YARS) was utilized to identify the stressors. The Index of Self-Esteem (ISE) was used to measure self-esteem. Among the findings were: a moderate though significant negative correlation between the number of stressors experienced and the adolescent's self-esteem, fifteen of the fifty-five stressors were significantly related to self-esteem, and nine of the stressors were associated with gender.

During the 1990's the number of young people being permanently excluded from school increased from 2910 (1990-91) to a peak of 12700 (1996-1997). This increase coincided with the resurgence of the debate centring on lawless and delinquent youth. With the publication of Young People and Crime (Graham and Bowling, 1995) and Misspent Youth (Audit Commission, 1996) the role of school exclusion in delinquency causation appears to have become widely accepted within youth justice thinking. Indeed, and despite the limited research evidence available, the common sense assumption that school exclusion inexorably promotes crime received wide support, something which has resulted in the excluded pupil being portrayed as a latter day folk devil. This research seeks to question this taken-for-granted assumption. By drawing upon what can be broadly described as a refutationist approach, the research questions the causal priority of school exclusion in youth crime. Research interviews were conducted with 56 young people who had experience of being excluded from school. Self-report questions revealed that 40 young people had offended of whom 28 had been cautioned or prosecuted for an offence. Despite the high levels of offending present within the sample the research findings suggest that exclusion is not itself a causal factor with 90% (36) of those young people who had offended reporting onset that commenced prior to their first exclusion. Moreover, 50 (89%) of the total number of young people stated that they were no more likely to commit crime since being excluded. Indeed - and rather significantly, for 31 (55.4%) respondents it appeared that due to the imposition of parental sanction, offending was likely to reduce during their exclusion as they were" grounded" for the whole exclusion period. Moreover, interviews with the young people also revealed that in addition to school exclusion a number of other identified "risk" factors were present in the lives of most of the young people within the sample (see for example Farrington, 1996; Youth Justice Board, 2001). The research concludes that whilst the relationship between school exclusion and crime is highly complex it is certainly neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for a young person to commit crime.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work