Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ball State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 11, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 74-86).

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1993. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-165).

Relationship building with faith community provides support through fellowship, guidance, and the social interactions needed for emotional regulation. The support facilitates faith understanding, quest for faith exploration, meaning making, and character building. Although, past research informed on the quantitative measure of adolescent faith support, it is unable to capture the comprehensive information needed for understanding the meaning of faith support in adolescence. This study provides a new direction for understanding and describing the experience of faith support in three dimensions: understanding the meaning, process, and effect of the experience, and projects a conceptual framework for the rich descriptions of faith support experienced by Chinese Christian adolescents in Hong Kong. Apart from the objective of understanding the concept and meaning of faith support in adolescence, this study also reveals the variation in the participants' descriptions of the experience over time. The methodology utilized is on the dimensions of self, others, and outcome of faith experience in adolescence, with follow-up data collection and descriptive analysis on the perception, understanding, and meaning of faith support. Nineteen participants, with 11 females and 8 males, participated in semi-structured face-to-face interviews between November 2014 and July 2015 (the first wave interviews). Ten of the participants (six males and four females) were interviewed between September and December 2016 (the second wave interviews), 18 months after the first wave interviews. The Chinese Christian adolescents (Catholic and Protestant) in Hong Kong were between 15 to 18 years of age. A few of the participants' faith supporters were also interviewed to examine the research questions from multiple perspectives. The essential descriptions of the participants' psychosocial experiences and meanings attributed to faith support are: 1) faith exploration through companionship; 2) feeling loved and secured; 3) trusted relationship and resilience; 4) and emotion regulation through faith application. Narrative and descriptive analyses of the longitudinal data on the effect of faith support show a moderate change in the areas of moral judgment and meaning construct of faith development, and significant change in faith identity over time. Findings show three possible determinants of the effectiveness of faith support: (a) experience, (b) changes in social environment, family problem, and academic pressure and (c) the presence of a strong youth leader or peer mentoring for faith accountability and exploration. Participants who faced academic related stressor, moved to a new environment, and had little faith mentorship, were susceptible to changes in faith development and identity. Importantly, descriptive narratives and numerical data from this study reveal that faith experience through personal involvement tend to have significant difference in stabilizing faith identity status longitudinally through faith support. This study draws on concrete evidence from the rich descriptions of the experience by the adolescents, their supporters, and provides knowledge for understanding the social learning process of adolescent faith support. Research implications are discussed and recommendations made for church/parish, Christian youth leaders, Christian teachers, institutions, including educational and social policy makers, on how to best support Christian adolescents' faith.

This dissertation examines aggressive behavior (bullying) among adolescents in a church-based context. Chapter 1 introduces the research concern that adolescent aggression is a challenge, not only in schools and work environments, but also in church. While the church should be a place of safety and transformation, the research asks if it has become an unsafe place for some. Chapter 2 examines existing literature that addresses the concepts of bullying, the influence of bullying on identity formation, mechanisms used to prevent bullying, and the biblical and theological ideas of wisdom and the pursuit of it as a powerful response to the challenges of bullying. Chapter 3 outlines the means used in this study to analyze and compare the levels of aggressive behavior occurring between adolescents in a church-based context. The researcher shares the research design overview, research population, samples and delimitations, limitations of generalization, research instrument, procedures for the research, and significance of the study. Chapter 4 shows how the research study sought to analyze and compare the level of aggressive behavior occurring among adolescents in a church-based context. To study this objective properly, the researcher examined aggression and victimization in youth, both in general and specifically, in the church-related environment among campers at Uplift in the summer of 2012. The findings and statistical data are evaluated and reviewed in this chapter in a concise manner. Chapter 5 seeks to analyze and compare the levels of aggressive behavior among adolescents in a church-based context. In this chapter there is a review of what the findings mean and the significance of these findings for parents, youth workers, and church leaders. After looking at the possible implications from the stated research questions, the researcher discusses possible ideas for future research in the area of adolescent behavior in a church-based context.

Background: Dyspraxia, a form of developmental coordination disorder (DCD), is one of the most common disorders of childhood (Wann 2007). However, while there is increasing evidence that in many cases childhood motor difficulties persist into adulthood (Kirby et al 2013) little is known about the impact of the condition during adolescence. Moreover, existing research reflects the interests and concerns of professionals and parents rather than the perspectives of teenagers themselves. Methodology: The study was guided by the philosophical principles of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). A Research Reference Group of older teenagers and young adults with dyspraxia was involved in the study design and analysis of findings. Sixteen interviews were carried out with teenagers aged 13-15 years over a two year period. Participants’ accounts were subjected to a systematic process of ideographic, inductive and interpretative analysis. Findings: Five themes that represent the lived experience of dyspraxia during adolescence emerged. These were: “Doing everything the hard way”; “I didn’t want to be seen as someone different”; “I’m an intelligent person but I can’t even write. It’s making me fill up”; right help, right time; and making sense of the diagnosis. In accordance with the philosophical principles of IPA the findings prioritise the voice of the participants, and my influence as the researcher and insights offered by the Reference Group on the interpretation of findings are acknowledged. Evidence built through the process of interpretative analysis is drawn together into a conceptual framework. This is presented as a novel means of demonstrating the complex interaction of personal and environmental factors that influence the lived experience of DCD/dyspraxia during adolescence and their impact on teenagers’ sense of identity, agency, ambition and emotional resilience. The thesis concludes by summarising the new understandings about DCD/dyspraxia that the study brought forth, identifying how these might help parents, professionals, support organisations including the Dyspraxia Foundation and researchers to improve outcomes for teenagers living with DCD/dyspraxia in the future.

M.A. / All children especially adolescents need to feel socially and emotionally supported in every part of their lives for them to have psychosocial well being. This well being includes many different aspects such as physical, material, psychological, and social aspects. Researchers agree that adolescent stage has many challenges of growing up; they need supportive ways of coping and developing. As they grow, high school learners need friendships with same age peers and to be members of formal cultural institutions including educational, play, social and/ or religious groups. The school as an environment where children spend most part of their time needs to have formal and informal support systems that may serve as a tool in ensuring that learner’ copes with the emotional challenges experienced in this stage for optimal social and learning experience. The purpose of this study was to answer research questions on what contributes to the perceptions of adequate social support in a school environment. Which social support systems contribute most to the perceptions of adequate social support? What role does the teacher play in providing social support at school? Would the services of school social worker contribute in anyway to how learners perceive school environment? The concept of social support was described as a key concept of measurement by means of literature study. A questionnaire was designed and utilized to collect data on perceptions regarding social support in the school environment. Data was then analysed to determine whether formal support systems would promote the development of social networks in the community. It became clear from the research findings that high school learners have emotional challenges that needs the attention of a professional person which are non existent in Vosloorus high schools. It was also discovered that learners are unable share their problems in school as the environment is not conducive for them to do so. It also became evident that learners tend to depend on social networks for support in the absence of busy parents. Although the learners felt physically supported, they are lacking emotional and mental wellbeing. The main recommendation of the study is that social support for learners should be supported and mainstreamed in the curriculum to reach majority of learners with emotional, physical, psychological and social needs.

This dissertation endeavours to come to an understanding of adolescents' attitudes and perceptions with regard to recreational reading. The scope of research in the discipline of Children's Literature is a clear indication that researchers in various fields consider it to be a crucial learning area in children's education in general and the acquisition of literacy in particular. This development comes at a time when many pessimists have reason to regard reading, if not a dying art, at least a threatened pastime, especially with modem children whose reading has to compete with a variety of electronic media for divided attention during limited hours of leisure. After a literature review of central issues pertaining to recreational reading, a survey attempts to determine the scope and nature of adolescent reading habits. Finally, strategies are recommended to help teachers in their promotion of adolescent readership. Chapter one takes the view that recreational reading supports all aspects of a learner's development, from the acquisition of literacy to linguistic mastery, from intellectual stimulation to emotional and moral development. The theoretical inquiry studies various factors that contribute to - or detract from - the acquisition of a lifelong reading habit. From parental influence the focus moves to the influence of teachers at school and the role of bibliotherapy. Chapter two endeavours to give an overview of beginning reading strategies as well as early contact with texts since attitudes on reading are formed through these initial experiences at home and at school. An inspection of some theories on children's reading development leads to an understanding of how to match book with reader as a crucial facet in readership promotion. Chapter three focuses on adolescent attitudes and perceptions. An understanding of adolescents, their motives and interests are necessary when teachers wish to motivate their learners to read a wide range of material for pleasure. It is clear that the decline in adolescent recreational reading can be attributed to the pressure of time, the lack of adequate models of reading and the poor use of available reading materials. in the Tshwane South district of Gauteng province as representatives of the middle adolescent phase. The results of the survey are described and the implications of adolescent reading habits are discussed. Chapter five is a comprehensive chapter in which the research findings are applied to design teaching strategies to help promote recreational reading. Encouraging adolescents to choose to read enthusiastically, thereby possibly creating a lifelong reading habit, ultimately requires the combined efforts of governmental and education authorities, principals and teachers, librarians and, of course, parents. The study is followed by two appendices: the questionnaire and some suggestions for readership promotion by learners in their own words. The value of the study rests on the testimony of learners that teachers can influence adolescents with regard to recreational reading. Whether serving as models of reading, leading group discussions on books or applying bibliotherapeutic strategies, the influence and guidance of highly-motivated teachers are decisive. / Dissertation (MA (English))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Modern European Languages / unrestricted

This research was conducted in the hope of making some contribution to the emerging field of developmental psychopathology through an examination of the relations between progressive movement toward social-cognitive maturity and socioemotional adjustment in adolescence. The two developmental matters of particular concern were the contrastive ways in which suicidal and nonsuicidal adolescents undertake to secure a sense of their own personal continuity across time, and a sense of conviction in the face of growing skeptical doubts. Alternative accounts of suicidal behaviour generally fail to offer any explanatory framework with which to account for the sudden and dramatic increase in suicidal behaviour during the adolescent years. It is argued in this thesis that the self-destructive tendencies of suicidal youth may be better understood as behavioural manifestations of difficulties in dealing with the developmental matters of personal continuity and nascent skeptical doubt More specifically, the arguments presented in this thesis lead to the hypotheses that suicidal adolescents are less able than their nonsuicidal age-mates to 1) adequately warrant their own and others' persistent identity across time, and 2) make use of more mature strategies for dealing with issues of uncertainty and doubt. To test these predictions, 29 psychiatrically hospitalized suicidal adolescents, who were subsequently categorized in to either a high suicide risk group (n=13) or a low suicide risk group (n =16), and an age- and sex-matched group of 29 high school students were individually administered: (1) The Continuity Measure, comprised of 2 stories and a semi-structured interview procedure which inquires into how subjects warrant their own and others' personal continuity in the face of dramatic personal change; (2) The Nascent Skeptical Doubt Interview, also comprised of 2 stories and an associated semi-structured interview procedure aimed at determining subjects' characteristic strategies for dealing with uncertainty; and (3) The Nascent Skeptical Doubt Questionnaire, which permits the placement of respondents along an objectivist-relativist dimension. The results of this study indicate that, in comparison to their nonhospitalized age-mates, the psychiatrically hospitalized suicidal adolescents did evidence difficulties both in their abilities to understand how they and others could be said to remain continuous or self-same persons throughout time, and in their ability to cope with questions of uncertainty and doubt. In addition, adolescents at high risk for suicide were distinguished from other psychiatrically hospitalized individuals at low risk to suicide, and from their high school age-mates by: 1) their unique inability to find any workable means of justifying persistent identity across change; and 2) by their more extreme endorsement of absolutistic views in the face of uncertainty. These findings are seen to lend support to the general theoretical attempt of this thesis to interpret certain socioemotional difficulties experienced by adolescents as arising from a developmental asynchrony between progressive movement toward the more abstract, relativized, and self-reflective modes of thought associated with cognitive maturity, and the task of securing more mature strategies for dealing with the reconceptualizations of the problems of continuity and doubt which these cognitive advances necessitate. In addition, a number of theoretical, diagnostic, and treatment implications which are seen to follow from the results of this study are discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

M.Cur / The country and education system is after apartheid in a process of renewal and transformation. Adolescents in secondary schools are increasingly in interaction with adolescents who have different values. The media reports that violence and conflict in secondary schools is common. Adolescents find themselves already in a developmental period characterised by physical, emotional, social and intellectual change (Vermaak, 1993: i). It is apparent that today' s adolescent in South Africa is confronted with more than love disappointments and exam stress. This research tells the story of a group of adolescents within a specific public secondary school in Gauteng in an attempt to give the adolescent a voice. The objectives for this research are: 1. To explore and describe the adolescents' experience of interaction between adolescents with different values in a specific public secondary school in Gauteng. 2. To describe guidelines for the advanced psychiatric nurse practitioner to mobilise resources for facilitating interaction between these adolescents in order to promote their mental health. The Theory for Health Promotion in Nursing as applied by the Nursing Department of the Rand Afrikaans University forms the basis of this research. From this perspective, the human is seen as holistically in interaction with the environment in an integrated manner, and are the four central components of this theory, namely the human, nursing, environment and health defined. The purpose of this theory is aimed at enhancing individual, family, group and community health (Rand Afrikaans University; Department of nursing, 2000: 4) and in this case, mental health. A Functional approach to nursing (Botes, 1991: 19-23) is followed, which implies that the research in nursing is mainly applied research that addresses recent health problems of the South-African community and provide solutions to these problems. It is clear that this research addresses a recent problem/trend in the South African school going adolescent community, namely the interaction between adolescents with different values in schools. The research in nursing, as developed by Botes (1995: 1-21), applies. A qualitative (Cresswell, 1994: 162), explorative (Mouton, 1996: 103), descriptive (Mouton, 1996: 102) and contextual (Mouton, 1996: 133) research design was used, and data was gathered through means ofthree focus groups (Folch-Lyon & Trost, 1981: 443; Krueger, 1994: 14,19 ,29) consisting of adolescents who complied with the sampling criteria. The researcher took field notes during and after the focus groups (Wilson, 1989: 434 ). The Gauteng Department of Education, the schools principal, the parents/guardians of the adolescents and the participating adolescents themselves gave their consent for the conducting of the research. The researcher did analyse the data using Tech's (in Cresswell, 1994: 155) descriptive method and did open coding. An independent coder analysed the data with the researcher and they held consensus discussions (Poggenpoel, 1998: 245). After the data was analysed, a literature control was conducted in order to recontextualise the data (Morse & Field, 1996: 106) and to indicate differences and similarities with other research. In phase one of the research, the researcher concluded that the adolescents experienced that certain practises and incidents in the school contribute to the deconstructive atmosphere in the school. These incidents and practises entail aspects related to discipline, respect, disempowerment, communication, expectations relating to academic issues and the confirmation of certain practises. The practises related to the deconstructive atmosphere contribute to the experiencing of emotions like frustration, anxiety, fear of rejection and victimisation, powerlessness, sadness and disappointment, uncertainty and fury. Discipline, caring and support, friendship and taking responsibility for choices made by the adolescent were practises identified that relate to a constructive atmosphere. Guidelines in phase two describe to the advanced psychiatric nurse practitioner how to facilitate interaction between these adolescents in the specific secondary school in order to contribute to the promotion of their mental health. The researcher generated and describes guidelines, within the survey list as suggested by Dickoff, James & Wiedenbach (1968: 423), for a multicultural empowerment program. The researcher discussed conclusions, limitations and practical problems of the research and made suggestions for the nursing practise, education and research.

This study contributes to the INC theory by adding the stage of prevention to the parent-child relationships' timeline. Ten parents (six mothers and four fathers) were interviewed, and a memory enhancing timeline calendar was used to encourage parents to recall and talk about when they were trying to prevent substance (ab)use. Prevention strategies were coded on the basis of Inconsistent Nurturing as Control (INC) theory. Nurturing strategies consisted of 1.) Promoting open discussions, 2.) Monitoring behavior and activities in respectful ways, and 3.) Presenting a model for responsible use. Punishing strategies consisted of 1.) Reinforcing discipline and rules, 2.) Forcing discussions, 3.) Reprimanding perceived deviant behavior. Results demonstrated that a prevention stage exists in the parent-child relationship in the context of adolescent substance (ab)use, and parents used both nurturing and control strategies for prevention.