Browsing by Subject "Interpersonal relations in adolescence"
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Item Adolescent mothers negotiating development in the context of interpersonal violence (IPV) and gendered narratives: a qualitative study(2004) Kulkarni, Shanti Joy; Lein, Laura.; Busch, Noel B.Adolescent mothers experience interpersonal violence (IPV) at higher rates than almost any other population in our country. Within the scant body of existing research, few studies have been grounded in the lived experiences of young mothers. These emic perspectives are critical to the development of effective and culturally appropriate policies and services. Ethnographic interviews were conducted with an ethnically diverse sample of 30 adolescent mothers. Twenty-four of the 30 interviewed mothers disclosed IPV during the interview process. Interview transcriptions were thematically coded and analyzed with matrices and tables. Analyses focused on the how young mothers’ important relationships were impacted by IPV. Four important themes about the impact of IPV on relationships emerged from the analysis. First, some mothers’ experiences of IPV resulted in lingering depressive and traumatic symptoms. Secondly, IPV made it difficult to trust others. Thirdly, some adolescents described experiences of adultification within their families of origin. And finally, some young mothers experienced the impact of IPV on their relationships when subsequent family estrangement left them without access to vital social support. In addition, nurturing and protective relationships with adults seemed to buffer or ameliorate the effects of IPV. Romance narratives provided a template through which many young mothers experienced their intimate partner relationships. As some mothers centered their lives around their romantic relationships, they failed to notice harbingers of their boyfriends’ abuse. Sexual stereotypes colluded with romance narratives pressuring adolescent mothers to stay with their partners, bottom particularly when they were connected by children. Some young mothers eventually chose to leave boyfriends behind to focus on their own futures. A few mothers resisted traditional romance narratives and sexual stereotypes, postponing serious relationships to concentrate on their educational and career goals. Social workers encounter adolescent mothers in a variety of practice settings and need to ground their interventions in empathy and a sound knowledge base. Programs for adolescent mothers must reflect the complex and diverse needs of this population. Social workers should also advocate for policies that consider adolescent mothers’ safety as they strive to become healthy, happy, and productive adults.Item Exploring cognitive-interpersonal pathways to adolescent psychological disturbance(2005) Yancy, Mary Garwood; Stark, Kevin Douglas; Tharinger, DeborahItem Following different pathways: effects of social relationships and social opportunity on students' academic trajectory after school transitions(2007) Langenkamp, Amy Gill; Muller, ChandraThis study investigates student school transitions during adolescence, and how the maintenance and disruption of social ties during this school change affects students' academic trajectory through high school. School transitions are a compulsory part of the American system of education and are characterized as the movement of students between schools. Students follow these institutional pathways when they change schools, and which pathway followed plays a role in how they adjust to the new school. Some transitions are normative and are a part of the organization of schools, such as the transition from middle to high school. Some involve deviation from the traditional path, such as transferring during high school. In either case, transitions interrupt students' academic trajectory through school and involve a transformation of school-based social relationships that affect academic success. Effects of transitions have been underconceptualized in current empirical research, particularly with regard to the nonacademic realm of schools. This dissertation extends research on school transitions by broadening our understanding of how student movement between institutions affects their academic trajectory and how this is linked to three crucial aspects of student transitions: institutional pathway, social relationships made in schools and the opportunity for new social ties at the receiving school. Results reinforce that both affective attachment and extracurricular involvement are related to students overall academic trajectory. This is the case even after those ties are disrupted and reconfigured by changing schools. Results also suggest that social opportunity at the receiving institution is protective against low academic outcomes in the transition to high school, particularly among students who are socially and academically disengaged in middle school. Finally, results point to similarities among students who follow divergent institutional pathways, either in the transition to high school or for those who transfer during high school. Specifically, these students fare better after a school change by the end of high school, net of where they started academically, if they are disengaged from the sending school.Item Hope as a process and an orientation: a qualitative study of American young adults' relationship with change, difficulty, and uncertainty(2008-05) Alexander, Elizabeth Smith, 1954-; Schallert, Diane L.In this study I explored the intrapersonal and interpersonal differences among individuals who maintained higher levels of hope for their personal future, with lower hope peers who similarly were experiencing challenging and uncertain circumstances. I administered self-report measures of hope and social connectedness to 76 American young adults aged between 18 and 22 years, in order to sample purposively participants who exemplified higher and lower levels of hope. I used qualitative data from semistructured interviews with 13 individuals recruited from three field sites to develop the current model of hope, then tested the model against an additional three individuals from a separate field site, who had scored highly on hope, in order to establish its generalizability. Total interview time with each of the original 13 participants lasted between two and four hours and I coded the resulting transcription data from audio taped discussions for categories and main themes according to grounded theory guidelines. The emergent model of hope comprised five themes, namely: 1) The Initiating Context: Perceptions of challenge and uncertainty; 2) Temporal Comparisons: Envisioning the future, being realistic about the present, learning from the past; 3) Developing Strategies: Values, goals, planning, and action; 4) Drawing on personal and social resources; 5) Openness and flexibility about outcomes. These data suggested that the higher hope participants differed from their lower hope peers with respect to their relationship with change, difficulty, and uncertainty. The higher hope young adults engaged in a process of hoping that relied on an overall positive orientation toward life. This combination of process and orientation better enabled them to take action, exert control, and regulate the fear experienced when faced with ambiguous outcomes associated with personally important and difficult circumstances. I compared and contrasted this new, inductively-derived model of hope with current conceptualizations from the psychological, philosophical, and nursing literatures on hope, and discussed its theoretical and practical implications.Item Interpersonal schemas of adolescents with depressive and disruptive disorders(2006) Ballatore, Melanie Elizabeth; Stark, Kevin DouglasItem Social integration and gender differences in adolescent depression: school context, friendship groups, and romantic relations(2007) Gore, Kurt Alan, 1973-; Crosnoe, RobertThis dissertation investigates the social nature of the gender difference in teen depression by studying its association with social integration at the institutional, group, and personal levels. Taking a developmentally appropriate approach to social integration, I focus on fit within the normative high school context, friendship group position, and involvement in romantic relationships. Based on a conceptual model derived from the strong theoretical assumptions of past literature, the starting point of this research is that the depression of girls, compared to boys, will be more reactive to social integration in positive and negative ways (social integration is conceptualized as a moderator). However, competing viewpoints are also considered to determine whether this traditional assumption masks greater reactivity for boys at these three distinct levels. The quantitative analyses utilize Waves I and II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Results indicate that boys are actually more reactive to a lack of social integration into the normative context of the school. Boys and girls' depression is equally sensitive to integration within the friendship group. Additionally, girls' depression is more reactive to aspects of romantic relationship break-ups. To better explain the gender differences in teen depression, in-depth interviews of students from an Austin Independent School District high school are analyzed to identify the social and psychological mechanisms through which the elements of social integration are associated with depression. Qualitative results support key elements of the proposed conceptual model indicating social comparison and social feedback as the main mechanisms through which social integration is associated with psychological well-being for girls and boys, respectively.