Browsing by Subject "adolescent"

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Association of Breakfast Intake with Obesity, Dietary and Physical Activity Behavior Among Urban School-Aged Adolescents in Delhi, India: Results of a Cross-Sectional Study
(2012-10) Arora, Monika; Nazar, Gaurang P.; Gupta, Vinay K.; Perry, Cheryl L.; Reddy, K. Srunath; Stigler, Melissa H.; Perry, Cheryl L.; Stigler, Melissa H.
In developed countries, regular breakfast consumption is inversely associated with excess weight and directly associated with better dietary and improved physical activity behaviors. Our objective was to describe the frequency of breakfast consumption among school-going adolescents in Delhi and evaluate its association with overweight and obesity as well as other dietary, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors. Methods: Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Eight schools (Private and Government) of Delhi in the year 2006. Participants: 1814 students from 8th and 10th grades; response rate was 87.2%; 55% were 8th graders, 60% were boys and 52% attended Private schools. Main outcome measures: Body mass index, self-reported breakfast consumption, diet and physical activity related behaviors, and psychosocial factors. Data analysis: Mixed effects regression models were employed, adjusting for age, gender, grade level and school type (SES). Results: Significantly more Government school (lower SES) students consumed breakfast daily as compared to Private school (higher SES) students (73.8% vs. 66.3%; p<0.01). More 8th graders consumed breakfast daily vs. 10th graders (72.3% vs. 67.0%; p<0.05). A dose-response relationship was observed such that overall prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents who consumed breakfast daily (14.6%) was significantly lower vs. those who only sometimes (15.2%) or never (22.9%) consumed breakfast (p<0.05 for trend). This relationship was statistically significant for boys (15.4 % vs. 16.5% vs. 26.0; p<0.05 for trend) but not for girls. Intake of dairy products, fruits and vegetables was 5.5 (95% CI 2.4-12.5), 1.7 (95% CI 1.1-2.5) and 2.2 (95% CI 1.3-3.5) times higher among those who consumed breakfast daily vs. those who never consumed breakfast. Breakfast consumption was associated with greater physical activity vs. those who never consumed breakfast. Positive values and beliefs about healthy eating; body image satisfaction; and positive peer and parental influence were positively associated with daily breakfast consumption, while depression was negatively associated. Conclusion: Daily breakfast consumption is associated with less overweight and obesity and with healthier dietary-and physical activity-related behaviors among urban Indian students. Although prospective studies should confirm the present results, intervention programs to prevent or treat childhood obesity in India should consider emphasizing regular breakfast consumption.
Contraceptive Care for Texas Teens: Access, Advocacy, and Adjudication
(2018-12-04) Gessner, McKenna; Aiken, Abigail
My thesis examines the landscape of contraceptive care for adolescents in Texas. While barriers to receiving sexual and reproductive health services have been identified, there is limited research focused on how these barriers manifest at the state level. In my work, I pay special attention to Texas, a state where policies restrict the level of confidentiality guaranteed to minors. This mixed methods project has three distinct elements. The first part of my thesis assesses existing literature on adolescent access barriers to contraceptive services in the United States from the last decade. I synthesize these findings in a systematic review which examines the experiences of both adolescents seeking these services and healthcare providers delivering these services. In this review, I discuss four major types of barriers to obtaining contraception that adolescents must navigate: finances, family, providers, and health systems. The second portion of my thesis involves qualitative data analysis from interviews with key informants in the Austin and Houston areas. These interviews feature the perspectives of those working within the arena of adolescent contraceptive service delivery in Texas. This dataset highlights recent changes in the Texas healthcare system and points to specific state-level challenges that impact the provision of contraception to minors. In the third and final part, the project culminates in an analysis of state policy, with recommendations for how health services might be improved for adolescents in Texas.
The Dangers of Requiring Parental Consent in Abortion Services for Adolescents
(2020) Thurman, Abigail
The Gender Paradox: Sex-Based Differences in Adolescent Suicidal Behavior
(2023-05) Whittlesey, Claudia
This thesis aims to investigate the contributing factors behind the gender paradox in suicidal behavior, specifically in adolescents. This global paradox explains that across all age groups, more cisgender males die by suicide, but cisgender females attempt suicide far more. A literature review was conducted on over one-hundred pieces of scientific literature including systematic reviews, meta-analyses, specific case studies, and more clinical research. Literature was considered that focused on suicide mortality rates, suicide attempt rates, different methods used in suicide attempts and suicides, suicide method accessibility compared to suicide mortality rates, rates of various psychiatric disorders (with potential evidence for underreporting in males), help seeking behaviors, non-suicidal self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (NSSI), and other potential external factors for suicidality and depression. This thesis concluded that although the most widely acknowledged reason behind the gender paradox is the difference in method choice with males choosing more lethal methods, there are many other factors that contribute, and it may be harmfully ignorant to solely account this problem to boys being more likely to pick up guns. These other factors include differences in coping methods and external responses to these behaviors, differences in mental health diagnoses and their symptoms, and differences in impulsivity and help seeking behaviors. Gender-specific help-seeking behavior interventions are ultimately suggested as the most probable way to decrease both male suicide rates and female suicide attempt rates.
“It'S All Inyour Head”: Black And Latinx Students' Mental Health Experiencesfrom The Perspective Of Their Counselors And Teachers
(2019-05-01) Carothers, Anna Lee; Cokley, Kevin
The purpose of this study was to analyze how counselors and teachers manage and perceive the mental health of black and Latinx students in a small urban school. The literature on American black and Latinx students’ mental health lacks qualitative research on how black and Latinx students’ counselors and teachers recognize their mental health problems and intervene in multiculturally sensitive ways. First, this study examined current research on how black and Latinx students’ mental health is affected by demographic stressors, ethnic identity, family, cultural stigma, and school environment. Second, this study reviewed current research on how counselors and teachers have helped their black and Latinx students’ mental health. Third, by using a case study approach, a sample of Texas charter high school’s counselors and teachers were selected for in-depth interview questions. The interviews were coded and analyzed through the interpretivist paradigm and grounded theory. The analysis showed that black and Latinx students experience unique, ethnically based mental health stressors and stigma. The research also confirmed that counselors and teachers who establish a strong, multiculturally sensitive relationship with their students and promote mental health awareness improve their black and Latinx students’ mental health. Based on the findings, it is recommended that all counselors and teachers follow the example of this case study’s educators.
Representations of transgender young adults in multiple medias, or The transgender success story
(2009-05) Smith, Adeline Jocelyn; Carter, Mia; Stone, Allucquere Rosanne
Adolescence is not experienced in the same way by all individuals or communities; individuals who cannot find harmony between their sense of identity and social norms often have a much harder time during this period. In this vein, there is an especially strong need for transgender adolescents to be able to locate themselves in the world around them. I examine current transgender representations available to (and specifically marketed towards) young adults through three venues—literature, television, and the Internet. The amount of material that deals directly with any instance of transgender or transsexual identity is minimal. I will argue at the very least that these representations are important for transgendered adolescents to find someone with whom they can identify but that more than likely, it is important for all adolescents to have exposure to representations of transgender individuals. I closely analyze the young adult novel, Parrotfish (Wittlinger 2007), and the CW television show, America’s Next Top Model, for narratives of success that are applied to transgender subjects. I also briefly analyze three websites and compare them to the previous texts, identifying key similarities and differences. I end with suggestions for future growth in all three areas.
The Effect of ADHD Diagnosis on Individual Identity Formation
(2021-05) Thompson, Morgan
Identity formation and the narratives we construct about who we are, why we perceive the world around us the way we do, and the lens through which we interpret our environment are all life long processes that are formed as we encounter experiences that shape us into the person that we have been, are, and will be. Categorization processes, including the diagnostic process, have a dramatic effect on how we perceive ourselves, as they define and associate us within broader social groups that we use to relate to and identify ourselves. Diagnoses shape our identities through a variety of mechanisms, including stigma, illness narratives, illness stereotypes, social factors, and institutions, and how we perceive our diagnoses has a dramatic impact on how we view ourselves. Mental health diagnoses have a particular impact on individual identity formation, as we view the mind as central to our individual identity. While identity is a well studied phenomenon, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, is a fairly new diagnostic label. Not much literature has been dedicated to studying how the ADHD diagnosis affects the individual’s identity formation. Thus, my thesis enhances current research by describing the processes through which we form our identities, how we make sense of diagnoses, and the structures that form diagnoses in order to answer how ADHD diagnosis affects individual identity formation. After discussing the processes through which ADHD diagnosis is interpreted by the individual, my thesis discusses how to improve the diagnostic process and the ADHD label in hopes that refinement of these processes will benefit the individual. Study of how mental health and chronic diagnoses affect identity formation are essential for moral and social understanding of our diagnostic and social structures, as we should know how the diagnostic categories we create affect what it means to be us.
The Theory Behind Camp Kesem: An In-Depth Look at How Summer Camp Programming Has Lasting Impacts on Children Affected by a Parent's Cancer
(2020-05) Iverson, Juliana
Camp Kesem is a national nonprofit dedicated to helping children through and beyond a parent's cancer. Children who have a parent with cancer face a multitude of difficulties and risks for adverse mental health affects. Four mediators were identified through previous research that are likely to help reduce the risks children with a parent with cancer face. Increases in self-esteem, coping skills, social support, and sense of community have all been linked to an increased likelihood of improving the mental health of individuals in stressful circumstances. There are established and researched intervention programs that are likely to increase these four mediators. The similarities of these researched intervention programs and Camp Kesem camp programming are explored to describe why Camp Kesem theoretically should increase these mediators in the children it serves. A survey for the counselors of Camp Kesem UT Austin was created to quanitatively and qualitatively assess if Camp Kesem does increase the four mediators of interest. Due to study limitations caused by COVID-19, the only mediator that could be unequivically show as probable as increasing was sense of community. Future research should be conducted in regard to the other three mediators and in the populations of the parents and campers that Camp Kesem serves.