The work of the collective research in this thesis is to provide concise insights about the inputs that are responsible for the process by which young adults develop civic competence and how this translates into active participation among young adults in the political process over time. Research for this thesis explores how key concepts of socialization, task generalization, shifts in young adult voting trends between 1972-2008, the role of social research statistics, and political theory informs the role of socialization in the development of civic competence in young adult voters. This thesis also explores critical social contexts, direct and indirect influence of family units, how critical moments in the academic careers of young adults take effect in college and ultimately young adulthood, what shifts in voting trends further indicate, and lastly the role that social media plays in the modern landscape of young adults becoming politically active and in a larger effort to assess core features of the young adult involvement in the political process following the passage of the 26th Amendment based on scholarly research in the aforementioned areas and relevant national studies. By all cited statistics, with the exception of the 2008 presidential election, voting among young adults since 1972 has fallen precipitously. Contrary to traditional beliefs, which suggest that young adults are disengaged with the political process, key research findings indicate a shift in the means by which young adults engage in the political process. For example, at an increasing rate since 1972 young adults seek demonstrate their participation in the political process through hands on mechanisms such as volunteerism. Secondly, given the advent of Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and other social networks, young adults have largely transitioned the ways that they gather information about the political process from traditional means, such as newspapers, televised news broadcasts to social networks. Personal suggestions for increasing rates of young adult participation in the political process include a critical need for civic education curriculum in schooling systems that present contextual lessons on civic duty and how individual participation fits in the political process. Ultimately, the aim of this research is twofold: (1) to explain what are the key drivers of young adult participation in the political process, and (2) to shed light on the role young adults have in reshaping the political process for current and future generations.

Previous research has consistently demonstrated the “inter-generational transmission of divorce.” In comparison to the patterns seen in families with continuously married parents, young adults who experienced their parents’ divorce during childhood are more likely to consider leaving their own romantic partners, including spouses, when medium to low levels of satisfaction are felt. To contextualize under what circumstances and how young adults may be influenced by their perceptions of these family-of-origin dynamics, the present study explored young women’s narratives about their parents’ romantic relationships and another observable romantic relationship in their environment. These narratives included a general description of the romantic relationships, and queried perceptions of efforts invested by the parents in their relationship. Young women were also asked to clarify their expectations regarding how much effort is appropriate in romantic relationships. Twenty-two young women were interviewed and their narratives were analyzed using Charmaz (2006)’s grounded theory approach. Participants were active agents in the creation of meaning about their parents’ romantic relationship and their parents’ divorce. Their narratives were complex, sometimes paradoxical, and suggested participants understood some of the dynamics in their parents’ romantic relationships. The themes, which emerged from the perceptions of their parents’ romantic relationships, their parents’ mistakes and what they felt they have learned from witnessing their parents’ romantic relationships, provided several avenues of interest for future research and clinical practice. / Graduate / 0621 / 0620 / 0451

Bakgrund: Antalet kvinnor som diagnostiseras med bröstcancer uppgår till cirka 9000 per år. Av dessa är endast 4 % under 40 år. Flertalet tidigare studier fokuserar på kvinnor äldre än 40 år. Livet förändras på flera plan för kvinnorna i och med en bröstcancerdiagnos. Behovet av stöd upplevs som stort. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att beskriva unga kvinnors upplevelser av att leva med bröstcancer. Metod: Studien har utförts med en kvalitativ ansats med ett patientperspektiv. Analys av narrativer, i form av bloggar, har använts som analysmetod. Data består av sju bloggar publicerade på internet. Resultat: De huvudteman som framkom var; Ett liv i förändring, en kropp i förändring samt möten med sjukvården. Vidare har dessa uppdelats i underteman. Slutsats: Upplevelsen av att leva med bröstcancer är högst individuell. Dock kan vissa huvudområden urskiljas som är gemensamma för kvinnorna. Studien ger en inblick i vad unga kvinnor med bröstcancer upplever i det vardagliga livet. Genom fördjupad förståelse för individens upplevelse kan sjukvården utarbeta strategier för att möta och stödja de individuella behov som patienten ger uttryck för. / Background: 9000 women is diagnosed with breast cancer every year. Only 4 % are 40 years and younger. Previous research is focused on women older than 40 years. Lifechanges can be seen in many levels when women is diagnosed with breast cancer. The need for support is experienced as great. Purpose: The aim of this study is to describe young women’s experiences of living with breast cancer. Method: This study has a qualitative approach and a patient’s perspective. Analysis of narratives, in form of blogs, is used as analytic method. Data consists of seven blogs published online. Result: The main themes that emerged was; A life in change, a body in change and meetings with the health care. Further, these were divided into sub-topics. Conclusion: The experience of living with breast cancer is highly individual. However, some main areas can be identified as common to the women. The study provides insight into what young women with breast cancer experience in everyday life. Through in-depht understandning of the individual’s experience, healthcare can develop strategies to meet and support the individual needs expressed by the patient.

The young child’s experiences of living with cancer are crucial to providing evidence based care. The overall aim of this thesis was to explore and describe experiences of health and functioning in the everyday life of young children with cancer, over a three year period from diagnosis, to provide insights and suggestions to improve evidence based care. The first and second papers in the series of four for this thesis used a qualitative content analysis to describe the child’s experiences shortly after diagnosis and six and 12 months later. The third paper used mixed methods to identify a comprehensive set of ICF-CY codes describing everyday health and functioning in the life of the young child with cancer. The fourth paper used the identified comprehensive set of ICF-CY codes to follow changes in everyday health and functioning over the study’s entire three year period from diagnosis. Entry into the health-illness transition was characterised by trauma and isolation. Health and functioning in everyday life was utterly changed and physical difficulties were at their peak. The passage through transition was characterised by an active striving on the part of the child to make a normal everyday life of the cancer experience. Difficulties affecting health and functioning in everyday life decreased and changed during the trajectory, though feelings of loneliness prevailed. A new period of stability in the child’s post treatment life was seen from two years after diagnosis and onwards, with (re)-entry to preschool/school and other social activities. However, an increase in difficulties with personal interactions with others and access to, and support from healthcare professionals was seen. Variances were seen within individual children’s’ trajectories. In summary it can be stated that the everyday life of young children with cancer changes over time and health care services are not always in phase with these changes. Young children living with cancer want to be participatory in their care and to have access to their parents as protectors. They need access to and ongoing contact with peers and preschool. Although physical difficulties in living an everyday life with cancer reduce over time, new difficulties emerge as the child post cancer treatment re-enters society. A structured follow-up throughout the cancer trajectory and not just during active treatment is necessary. A child-centered philosophy of care would guide the child towards attainment of health and well-being. Both the child’s own perspective and a child’s perspective as described by adults caring for them should be seen on a continuum, rather than as opposites. This view could help ensure that young children become visible and are listened to as valuable contributors to care planning. Knowledge of health-illness transition can be useful in illustrating everyday health and functioning through long term illness trajectories.

This Ph.D. thesis consists of a novel, EXEUNT, and research associated with it, both being specifically concerned with literary/cultural representations of love and relationships over the age of sixty-five. In consideration of the changing dynamics of ageing, declared internationally by gerontologists during the 1990s, the research investigates the perceptions of British writers, publishers and readers regarding their acceptance of late-life sexuality in British contemporary novels. It identifies key stakeholders in specific interest groups, and operates within an interpretive perspective as a suitable analytical framework for a pragmatic mixed methods investigation. Although the initial focus of the research was on publishers and writers, the inclusion of readers resulted in wider consequences that call for more transparency and a fuller understanding of concepts linked to ageism. Having explored the dynamic between author, publisher and reader, the study concludes there is a superficial disharmony between them, whereas in fact they are mutually complementary. This dichotomy appears to be due to misunderstanding, and lack of trust. In reality, a large percentage of readers, in line with recent research on film audiences, feel it acceptable for people over the age of sixty to have such sexual needs and desires. This acceptability and the new dynamics of ageing inform the novel which places the research in a wider context and constitutes the second part of the Ph.D. The multi-layered novel EXEUNT, in part ontogenetic, works against ageism within current prejudice by depicting the lovers in their fifties, sixties and seventies, and by doing so reveals the wide gap between subjective reality and the perceived public image. Their relationship is accepted by the British woman s friends, family and contemporaries, so that the epistemology of age is acquired only through negative opinions or actions, with the narrative embodying much of current research on the subject. Contrasting attitudes to ageing are found within the ethnographic detail of Romania during the period of communism, revolution and consequential freedom: 1982-2005. The frameworks of the fiction are encapsulated in the concept of Theatre as an analogy for life and death with a unique structure that portrays an ontological viewpoint. This underpins a reality where the attention of the reader/audience is disrupted by an intermittent reminder of the analogy. The term fictodrama has been used to describe this combination of fiction and theatrical effects.

published_or_final_version / Dentistry / Master / Master of Dental Surgery

This thesis presents a reflection on directing There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by examining the relationship between the production and community engagement developed for it. It details the process of connecting theatre for young audiences (TYA) and community engagement and discusses how the project that resulted inspired a dialogue concerning bullying. This document addresses these questions: What is the relationship between TYA and community engagement and how can they be closely connected? How can community engagement inform the production of a play for young audiences? This document explores how collaborative partnerships with student audiences and teachers inspired dialogue and influenced production choices. It discusses how participation in multiple community engagement activities resulted in a rich experience for both actors and audience. It includes a discussion about how the work might be translated outside of the university and concludes with reflective practices for connecting TYA and community engagement. / text

Alcohol use in young adults requires continued attention due to the significant number of problems related to alcohol consumption. The alcohol use literature has explored a variety of constructs related to alcohol use in young adults including religiousness. The aims of the current study were to demonstrate the relationships between religiousness and alcohol use, explore the associations between religiousness and descriptive drinking norms, replicate the relationships between drinking norms and alcohol outcomes, and explore the mediating role of descriptive drinking norms on the relationships between religiousness and alcohol outcomes. Three hundred and thirtythree undergraduate students (M=19.72 years old; SD=1.1) completed questionnaires assessing religiousness, descriptive drinking norms, alcohol consumption, and alcoholrelated consequences. Religious commitment and comfort were inversely associated with alcohol consumption and alcohol-related consequences; religious strain was positively associated with alcohol-related consequences but not significantly related to alcohol consumption. Religious commitment and comfort were inversely associated with drinking norms for ones close friends; religious commitment was also inversely related to drinking norms for the average person his/her age. The significance of the relationships between drinking norms and alcohol outcomes depended on the specific drinking norm target; however the majority of drinking norms were positively associated with personal drinking behavior. Finally, perceptions of close friends drinking behavior at least partially mediated the relationships between religious commitment and comfort and alcohol outcomes. This study contributed to the current literature by examining multiple aspects of religiousness and alcohol use, exploring the role of descriptive drinking norms, and empirically testing a theoretical model explaining the role of religiousness in alcohol use.

<p><p><p><p>The purpose of this study was to gain more knowledge of which discourses dominate the courts’ decisions concerning sentences for young sexual offenders. The issues touched upon were which circumstances the courts find important and which discourses reflect those circumstances when deciding on sentences for young sexual offenders as well as how children that commit crimes are constructed by the court. The study looked at cases of sexual offence where the offender was between 15 and 17 years old, and was based on judgements established at the Stockholm district courts in 2007 and 2008. The method used was content analysis, both manifesto and latent. By using content analysis the information was structured into a manageable basis for the following discourse analysis, which was implemented according to the theory for this study described in King and Piper’s (1995) book How the Law Thinks About Children. Discourse analysis gave an insight into which discourses are most prominent in verdicts against young sexual offenders. The results show that the social services’ recommendations are not given much importance in the courts’ decisions of suitable sentences for young sexual offenders. A majority of the youths were sentenced to criminal punishment such as a youth community order service and a youth detention order. Factors of particular importance in the verdicts are the specifics of the crime, whether or not the offenders understood or should have understood that they were committing a crime, responsibility, age, consent, suitable sentences as well as the credibility and reliability of given statements. The young defendants were constructed by the courts as criminals with regard to the criminal act and the youths’ responsibility for the action. The offenders’ personal and social situation was not given particular importance.</p></p></p></p>

<p>This study elucidates the feelings and the experiences by working with the complex of problems of self-injurious behaviour, of six professionals. The purpose with this study has been to examine the feelings and the experiences of the professionals, coming up when they meet and treat young girls with self-injurious behaviour. The empirical basis of this study is built on interviews of six female professionals, working in the County of Kalmar. The statements of the informants were analyzed out of Goffman’s Role Theory and the norm perspective on social behaviour. Through the interviews we saw that the professionals act out of the rolls that they are expected to. There are expectations from the colleagues, from the clients and from the community that every professional handles in an individual manner. The way they handle the problematic situations varies between persons and depends on the character of the circumstances. The result shows that the work of the professionals arouses many feelings. It varies what kind of feelings they experiences but they do feel fear, powerlessness, sadness, happiness and most of all frustration. They handle their feelings through tutorial, support from the co-workers and through reflection.</p>