With increasing rates of obesity, research has begun to focus of co-morbidities of obesity such as osteoarthritis. The majority of existing research has focused on older adults as the group most likely to suffer from osteoarthritis. The purpose of this study was to determine if overweight and obese young adults exhibit biomechanical risk factors for knee osteoarthritis, and to determine if young adults with biomechanical risk factors of osteoarthritis can modify these with instruction. This purpose was divided into two separate studies. Study 1: Thirty adults between 18-35 years old were recruited into three groups according to body mass index: normal, overweight, and obese. Participants walked through the lab while we collected 3-d kinematic and kinetic data. Overweight and obese young adults walked with similar gait compared to normal weight young adults. Study 2: Nine young adults between 18-35 years were recruited who walked with stiff-knee gait. Baseline measures of gait were collected in the form of 3-d kinematics and kinetics as participants walked through the laboratory. They then completed the gait instruction program which consisted of four blocks of training. Each block included ten single steps where the participant was provided feedback, followed by 100 practice steps around the laboratory. Participants were successful in increasing sagittal plane kinematics and kinetics of interest in the study. Conclusion: Identifying individuals who had biomechanical risk factors of osteoarthritis according to body mass index was not possible. According to the results of our study, obese and overweight young adults are not at increased risk of osteoarthritis compared to normal weight young adults. Individuals who may be at increased risk due to stiff-knee gait were able to improve their gait following instruction.

Although serious illness is often associated with aging in contemporary society, increasing numbers of young adults are being diagnosed with a variety of serious illnesses. In order to learn more about what it is like to be seriously ill during young adulthood, I completed a qualitative study with ten young women who had recently been affected by a life-threatening or chronic illness. The research was informed by a theoretical approach based on social constructionist and phenomenological principles that recognize that physiological processes such as illness are socially mediated and given meaning within a certain socio-cultural context. Thus,the life course and its corresponding stages are not universal or biologically determined, but rather are social constructions based on socio-cultural factors and the meanings given to certain biological events. This research involved participants between the ages of 20 and 37 from around Saskatchewan who had been affected by a serious illness within the previous three years. The methodological approach that I utilized was interpretive and drew upon phenomenological, feminist, and participatory visual approaches to qualitative research. The young women participated in phenomenological interviews and a photovoice project that explored their lived experiences of serious illness and the specific issues that they faced because of illness. I analyzed the data thematically, incorporating phenomenological concepts of embodiment, temporality, and relationality. Although the interview and photographic data highlighted a range of experiences, the data highlighted several similarities among participants. Foremost, the data revealed that serious illness was highly disruptive for the young women; specifically, participants were required to negotiate disruptions to their sense of embodiment, everyday lives, expectations for the future, and social relationships. Ultimately, serious illness brought about embodied and social experiences that conflicted with how participants had previously envisioned young adulthood and their life course. As such, their experiences of illness had profound implications for their self identity and brought about a complex process of trying to make sense of illness. Based on these findings, I conclude that the young women experienced and made sense of illness within the context of socio-cultural expectations related to age and the life course, as well as gender. I also identify the implications of this research for health care and support services aimed at this population.

Since housing choice and strategy are the result of both an individual’s financial capability in a particular life stage, as well as overall political-economic circumstances, the study of housing behavior has been used to emphasize processes of urban development and social change. However, housing behavior in the Chinese context has not attracted much research attention. Although many studies have been done on various topics surrounding China’s housing reform, only several quantitative studies have touched upon the topic of individual housing behavior. All of the existing literature is based on statistics before 1998 when work-unit housing distribution was officially repealed. This thesis offers an update of qualitative information on how young white-collar workers approach homeownership after 1998. Ten young homeowners from Beijing, together with some practitioners in the housing market and two governmental officials were interviewed. Based on the information offered by the interviewees, this thesis examines how state policies, market situations, family structure, and special characteristics of Beijing as a capital city impact the housing choices and strategies of young homeowners.

Although serious illness is often associated with aging in contemporary society, increasing numbers of young adults are being diagnosed with a variety of serious illnesses. In order to learn more about what it is like to be seriously ill during young adulthood, I completed a qualitative study with ten young women who had recently been affected by a life-threatening or chronic illness. The research was informed by a theoretical approach based on social constructionist and phenomenological principles that recognize that physiological processes such as illness are socially mediated and given meaning within a certain socio-cultural context. Thus,the life course and its corresponding stages are not universal or biologically determined, but rather are social constructions based on socio-cultural factors and the meanings given to certain biological events. This research involved participants between the ages of 20 and 37 from around Saskatchewan who had been affected by a serious illness within the previous three years. The methodological approach that I utilized was interpretive and drew upon phenomenological, feminist, and participatory visual approaches to qualitative research. The young women participated in phenomenological interviews and a photovoice project that explored their lived experiences of serious illness and the specific issues that they faced because of illness. I analyzed the data thematically, incorporating phenomenological concepts of embodiment, temporality, and relationality. Although the interview and photographic data highlighted a range of experiences, the data highlighted several similarities among participants. Foremost, the data revealed that serious illness was highly disruptive for the young women; specifically, participants were required to negotiate disruptions to their sense of embodiment, everyday lives, expectations for the future, and social relationships. Ultimately, serious illness brought about embodied and social experiences that conflicted with how participants had previously envisioned young adulthood and their life course. As such, their experiences of illness had profound implications for their self identity and brought about a complex process of trying to make sense of illness. Based on these findings, I conclude that the young women experienced and made sense of illness within the context of socio-cultural expectations related to age and the life course, as well as gender. I also identify the implications of this research for health care and support services aimed at this population.

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on December 29, 2009). Thesis advisor: Dr. Bruce D. Bartholow. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-154). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-154). Also available on the Internet.

Housing has ever been the major concern of Hong Kong people. The housing prices of Hong Kong have fluctuated up and down largely in the past two decades. Housing prices reached a new record high in December 2013. Although the housing prices slide down slightly in recent months, they remain at very high level. Private housing became more and more unaffordable to Hong Kong people including the middle class. Many Hong Kong people resort to public rental housing (PRH) to meet their housing needs. As at the end of 2013, there were about 122,200 for non-elderly one-person applicants under Quota and Points System (QPS) and that were even more than 121,100 for general waiting list applicants. This reflects the large housing needs of young singletons for one-person household flats and alarms the public and the government of the serious shortage of housing for young singletons. The housing needs and aspirations of young singletons have ever been marginalised by the government that can be indicated by the housing policy carried out in Hong Kong. Singletons aged 21 or over have only been allowed to apply for PRH since 1985. However, the priorities of allocating PRH are given to family households, elderly and the disadvantaged. The successful housed number of non-elderly one-person applicants in permanent public rental housing increased from only 125 in 1996/1997 to 3,700 in 2004/2005. The implementation of QPS since 2005 has greatly restricted the access of PRH by young singletons because the allocation of PRH is mainly on the basis of age and subject to the annual maximum allocation quota of 2,000 units. On the other hand, singletons have only been allowed to apply for purchase of subsidised sale flats and home purchase loans for purchase of self-occupied flat since 1998. All these are restricted by limited quota, size of flats to be purchased and half of the loans granted to general family applicants. Following the cease of various subsidised sale schemes and home purchase loans from end of 2002, the assistance to singletons to purchase their self-occupied flats also has stopped. From the perspective of housing policy in developed countries, government interventions in the housing market have been reduced for the past few decades especially after Asian Financial Crisis and Global Financial Tsunami. Governments of western countries and developed countries of Asia have shifted to adopt more market oriented housing policy and to encourage homeownership since 1990s. Governments emphasize provision of social rental housing to those in need. People living in social rental housing have then been stigmatized. Consequently, housing prices in these countries have been fluctuating up and down largely and supply of housing has not been matched by the needs of people. Accessibility to social rental housing by young singletons is dampened. Shortage of affordable housing affects young singletons seriously. Many young singletons tend to stay longer at parental home as what Yamada (1999) described as “parasite” single. Mckee (2012) finds that it is an international phenomenon of reducing self-occupied homeownership rates for young people as more young people staying with their parents, studying longer, having difficulty in getting employments, facing restriction on accessing state welfare benefit and in changing household formation. In acknowledging the housing needs and demands of young people, governments of Asian countries tend to adopt policy promoting self-occupied homeownership to assist young people in meeting their housing aspirations. Singapore government adopts housing policy encouraging homeownership by introducing different schemes to meet varied needs and aspirations of Singaporeans at different stages of life-cycle. In recognition of the housing aspirations and contribution of singletons, Singapore government has provided housing benefits of singletons aged 35 years or over to buy resale Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats in HDB estates and since 2013 they has been allowed to buy new flats of particular size in non-matures estates from HDB. In South Korea, the previous LEE Myung-bak administration introduced new housing policy to assist newly married couples by providing long-term self-occupied home financing with low interest rates and increasing supply of self-occupied homes for low-income newly married couples to solve the housing problems of young families. The Australian government has introduced various measures to deal with the housing affordability problem including a first self-occupied home owner savings account, a notional rental affordability scheme, national housing affordability fund and establishment of a land supply council. Many researches have found that housing pathways of young people in developed countries are similar in following a sequence that individuals move from the parental self-occupied homes through sharing accommodation, private rental housing and into self-occupied homes. Young singletons have different tenure preferences that may vary according to the educations levels, income levels, security of jobs, family backgrounds, gender, views on marriage and stages of life cycle. This paper attempts to understand the housing needs and aspirations of young singletons in Hong Kong, the reasons causing them to have different needs and aspirations and their expectations on the government in meeting their housing needs and aspiration. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted to obtain the general information and views of young singleton respondents by questionnaires survey and to have better understanding of the relationship of young singleton’s backgrounds, reasons for moving out from parents, their preferences and affordability fro housing and expectations on government by in-depth interviews. The results indicate that nearly half (44%) of young singleton respondents had no plan to buy their self-occupied flats and chose renting and only 56% of young singleton respondents had plan to buy their self-occupied flats. To a certain extent, young singletons of Hong Kong change their housing needs and aspiration according to their stages of life-cycle. After leaving parental home, young singletons would choose sharing accommodation in private rental housing. They plan to buy their self-occupied flat when they get older or married. Factors such as age, education levels, income levels, gender, Chinese traditions, household size and present housing tenures of young singletons as well as government policy affect their housing needs and aspirations. Young singletons expect the government to provide them with more in-kind and in-cash housing subsidies in order to assist them meeting their housing needs and aspirations. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

The housing demand of young people is important for the sustainable development of the housing market as a source of renewed liquidity. However, nowadays in Hong Kong, many of the young adults found difficulties in purchasing their own home in the booming housing market. By interviewing 14 young adults in Hong Kong for understanding their housing aspirations and housing constraints, this paper argued that the above situation is caused by a “gap” existing between the tenure preference of and the housing options available for the young adults in Hong Kong. It is further argued that the “gap” is constituted by the oligopoly housing tenures system in Hong Kong in which owner occupied housing is promoted as one of the dominating housing tenures, which is beyond the financial capacity of most of the young adults. This paper recommended that the Government should provide assistance for those in need of housing for marriage at top priority. Also, the Government should optimize the use of existing housing units by increasing the tenure opinions and enhancing the mobility of the housing market, particularly by energizing the role of private rental housing in Hong Kong. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

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