Browsing by Subject "Adolescent Health"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Parent-youth relationships and communication among transgender and gender diverse youth: The impact on sexual health
    (2020-08) Brown, Camille
    Adolescence marks a period of rapid development in the domain of sexual health. In general, adolescents bear a disproportionate share of the sexual health burden compared to adult age groups. Among adolescents, transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth are particularly at risk for negative sexual health outcomes. Such health disparity is theorized to be related to chronic stress related to stigmatized minority identity and may be mitigated by factors bolstering resilience like strong parent-youth relationships. Some parent-youth relationship factors such as communication about sexuality, may be especially complex among TGD youth and their parents, which may further influence health outcomes. This multi-methods dissertation study explores these phenomena by first testing associations between parent connectedness and sexual health variables and second by investigating TGD youth perceptions of parental messages about sex and relationships. This study utilized the 2016 Minnesota Student Survey, which provided a population level sample of 2,168 9th and 11th grade students who identified as TGD. In eight of sixteen final analytic models, reports of greater parent connectedness were associated with the less risky sexual health outcome. In the qualitative portion, eight TGD youth between the ages of 16-23 were recruited from the Twin Cities Metro to participate in one-to-one semi-structured interviews about family communication about sexuality. Content analysis led to four overarching themes representing what the youth shared; the first three describing the types of messages youth received about sex and relationships from parents and the final theme relating those messages to youth personal feelings and decision-making. Survey findings suggest parent connectedness likely promotes healthy sexual behavior among TGD youth. Participants in the interviews acknowledged the influence of messages they received from their parents on feelings about sex and relationships while carefully asserting autonomous decision-making and ability to change one’s own feelings over time. Together, these analyses indicate nurses might best choose to acknowledge and promote parental guidance but emphasize youth independent choice while providing care to ensure trusting relationships.
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    Predictors of mental health service utilization among Minnesota high school students.
    (2009-09) Leonard, Nicholas G.
    Mental health is an essential component of young peoples' overall health and wellbeing. Untreated, mental health problems interfere with normal development and functioning. Unfortunately, for most adolescents with mental health problems, the overwhelming majority will not receive the supports and services they need. By merging two extant databases, this study provides Minnesota's first state-wide assessment of mental health utilization. Patterns of utilization are provided. Findings indicate that 7% of Minnesota high school students utilized mental health services during a 12-month period. In addition, Andersen's Behavioral Model of Health Care Utilization was utilized to examine predictors of mental health utilization. Various predisposing, enabling, need variables were found to be significant predictors of mental health utilization. Finally, the study examined school-based mental health in the context of an enabling variable. Findings suggest that students from schools with greater mental health promotion and prevention efforts are less likely to utilize mental health supports and services.
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    The Moorehead Healthy Community Initiative: A Case Study of Collaborations
    (1999) Shafer-Crume, Brenda; Orcutt, Lucia