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Objectives. Adolescents’ social media use has become more common in the last ten years. At the same time, adolescents’ mental health disorders have increased in Finland, and today up to 20–25% of adolescents suffer from some kind of mental health disorder. The simultaneous increase of these two phenomena has raised concerns that does the use of social media cause mental health problems for young people. In previous meta-analyses, a slight connection has been found between the adolescents’ depression symptoms and the use of social media, but in cross-sectional studies it has not been possible to verify the direction of causality. This thesis examines the relationship between Finnish early and late adolescents’ depression symptoms, extraversion, neuroticism and the use of social media. In addition, adolescents’ extraversion’s and neuroticism’s moderating effect to the connection between depression symptoms and social media use is examined. Methods. 13–14-year-olds (N = 1319) and 18–19-year-olds (N = 751) from the capital region of Finland participated in the data of the study. Participants’ depression symptoms were measured with the DEPS-10 scale, personality traits with the shortened and translated version of the Big Five Inventory, and social media use with the Socio-digital Participation Inventory. Associations were examined using hierarchical linear regression analysis. In addition, interaction terms were used to examine whether the subject's extroversion and neuroticism moderated the connection between depression symptoms and social media use. Results and conclusions. In subjects aged 13–14, the increase in subject's depression symptoms and extraversion were related to increase of social media use. In 18–19-year-old subjects, the increase in subject’s extraversion and neuroticism were related to increase of social media use. Low extraversion and high neuroticism were also related to increase of depressive symptoms in both age groups. However, extraversion and neuroticism did not moderate the relationship between depressive symptoms and social media use in either age group. From the results of the thesis, the conclusion can be drawn that adolescents’ extraversion and neuroticism are both essential factors when studying the adolescents’ depression symptoms and social media use. The connections observed in the thesis are in line with previous meta-analyses.

Knowledge of healthy food does not move alone our food choice. One also needs a piece of tongue evidence that food tastes good. Way to eat is part of our lifestyle. It is important to eat same foods with one's friend. Aims: The overall aim of this study was to find out how youngsters themselves feel and sense of the school lunch, both food and whole lunch situation. This study has three specific research problems. The research problems are: 1. How the youngsters sense their school lunch events? 2. How the youngsters experience the physical conditions of their school lunch events? 3. How the youngsters think their lunch events could be changed? Methods: The data is collected in spring 2009 from two secondary school at the Kaarina city. The respondents were ninth grader. They were studying optional home economics classes. The number of respondents was 28 pupils. The respondents wrote a story, describing what kind of their school lunch situation should be. The story was based on youngsters own vision of school lunch situations. In this study the material is collected by the narrative method and the stories were analyzed with qualitative content analysis. Results and conclusions: According to the results these youngsters wanted their lunch to be more cosier and also more quiet. School lunches should be the moment when they can eat in peace and at the same talk with their friends in the pleasant surroundings. The food selection should be more varied, including both salad and main food as well as bread.

Aims. The aim of this study was to examine what kinds of achievement goal orientation profiles can be identified among general upper secondary school students and how adolescents with different motivational strivings perceive their mothers’ parenting style. Achievement goal orientations refer to relatively stable tendencies to favor certain goals and outcomes in learning and achievement related situations, which are formed through individuals’ own experiences. It is important to study the connection between these phenomena, as it provides better understanding regarding parents’ role in adolescents’ learning and achievement. Methods. The data (N=1344) were collected from all classes of first-year students in general upper secondary schools in one city in Eastern Finland. The participants completed self-report questionnaires, which included measures regarding achievement goal orientations and relationship with mother among other things. By utilizing a person-centered approach and latent class clustering analysis (LCCA), groups of students with different motivational profiles were identified. The group differences in perceptions of mother’s parenting style were further analyzed by using ANOVA. Results and conclusions. Five groups with different achievement goal orientation profiles were identified. The groups were named as indifferent (32%), avoidance-oriented (26%), success-oriented (17%), performance-avoidance-oriented (15%) and mastery-oriented (11%). Mastery-oriented, success-oriented and indifferent students perceived that their mothers showed higher level of maternal affection and were more involved in their lives compared to performance-avoidance- and avoidance-oriented students. Success- and performance-avoidance-oriented students perceived their mothers’ psychological control to be higher than students in the other groups. Avoidance-oriented students perceived their mothers’ behavioral control to be lower than students in the other groups. According to the results, there are differences in how adolescents with different orientations towards studying perceive their mother’s parenting style. This study deepens the understanding regarding the phenomena relating to achievement goal orientations and shows the meaning of parenting in terms of adolescents’ learning and achievement.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to analyse what kind of motivation types there will be composed from 9 to 12 years old Finnish figure skaters who answered to Student Athletes' Motivation toward Sports and Academics Questionnaire (SAMSAQ). Joy L. Gaston has developed the Questionnaire, but it has been used also by Michael P. Shuman (2009), J. Nathan Althouse (2007) and Guidotti, Minganti, Cortis, Piacentini, Tessitore, & Capra-nice, (2013). Because of there has been so much conversation in the media for the last couple of years about how young athlete's future looks like, it was really important for me to study this subject as a becoming teacher. In this study I will analyse quantitatively what are the motivation types of young figure skaters and how they are related to school grades. The purpose is also to evaluate if the SAMSAQ I used would give the same kind of motivation types than Gaston got in his study. In the previous studies results have shown that young athletes who are trying to get to the top of the sport elite are not academically motivated. Methods. Figure skaters all around Finland were asked to answer the questionnaire in February and March in 2013. In the end of March 2013 there were 152 skaters who were between 9 and 12 years and were willing to participate in to my study. The skaters were form all around from Finland, and eventually from 30 different Finnish figure skating clubs. The questionnaire was answered in Internet in a service called "E-lomake". Analysing methods were explorative factor analysis and Pearson's correlation. Results and Conclusions. There were eventually found three different motivation types: Elite sport practicing motivation, academic and sport practicing motivation, and academic motivation. The mean result of the correlation study was that if the skater was motivated to both study and practice she or he would have better future plans and opportunities after she or he has end hers or his skating career. However the best grades at school did go to those who were purely academically motivated. The results shows that sport clubs should concentrate to train the child for sport and to support child's academic motivation.

Subject of this research is the personal goals of young upper secondary level vocational students. Vocational students at upper secondary level are not a very popular research subject, and in research literature they are often treated problem-oriented as drop-outs or at risk of drop-out. The aim of this research was to highlight young vocational students as active subjects who are future-oriented in their studies and at work. Next research questions were asked in this study. What kind of personal goals do students set, and how do the goals change during the studies? How do students differ from each other, when the significance of the goal set is regarded? Which factors supported students and which factors stressed them during the studies? How do vocational students assess the significance of personal goal concerning work among other personal goals of? What kind of goal profiles it is possible to separate on the strength of self assessment of personal goals? Theoretical framework of this research is situated at the field of personality research, and there in the range of personal goals research. In the theoretical framework motivated future oriented thinking and acting in ecological environment is regarded through Brian Little s social ecological model of personal goals. The conscious set personal goals represent motivated future oriented thinking and acting in human life. The context where vocational students study has an essential position in the theoretical review. The research frame is a follow-up study, and research data is gathered in May 2011 and in February-March 2012. The research subjects (10) were upper secondary level students of social welfare and health care. They were aged 16-19 years and had started their studies after comprehensive school. The research data was gathered with Likert-scaled personal goal assessment form and semi-structured interview. The data was analysed with both quantitative and qualitative methods. The goal contents were peculiar to typical role expectations in adolescence, and the goal contents were linked to present studies, social relationships with friends and family. Goals did not change much during the period of follow-up. Goals related to studies were important to students, but the significance of the goal was personal. The third of the students preferred goal concerning studies to goal to sustain social relationships with friends. Students felt primarily comfortable at school due to social relationships. Students enjoyed being at school. Unsupportive atmosphere in the classroom reduced enjoying and motivation too. Students appreciated the support they had got at school. The work was present in job placement and short-term work. Three different goal profiles were distinguished: determined (6) and unsure (2) students and those pursuing many goals simultaneously (2).

Aims: Previous studies have shown, that being in a romantic relationship in adolescence is associated with increase in depressive symptoms. The major aim of this study was to determine whether the association can also be found between romantic relationship and anxiety and psychotic symptoms. The linkages between being in a romantic relationship and depressive, anxiety and psychotic symptoms were examined in this study. It was hypothesized that being in a romantic relationship would predict increase at least in depressive and anxiety symptoms. Besides that this study also examined the linkages between the quality of romantic relationship and depressive, anxiety and psychotic symptoms. It was assumed that the good quality would be associated with increase in symptoms whereas the bad quality would be associated with fewer symptoms. This was also seen to explain the possible associations between romantic relationship and psychic symptoms. Methods: The data of this study was a part of a wider Pathways to Desistance –study which followed serious juvenile offenders' psychological development, behaviour, social relationships, mental health, and experiences in the juvenile or criminal justice system. The subjects were 14–19 years old adolescents and the number of subjects fluctuated between 699–1262 adolescents depending on analysis. The linkages between romantic relationship and symptoms were examined both in a cross-sectional and longitudinal studies whereas the associations between the quality of relationship and symptoms were studied only cross-sectionally. The analyses were done by Poisson Regression. Results and conclusions: This study showed no associations between being in a romantic relationship in adolescence and depression, anxiety and psychotic symptoms. Thus, being in a relationship does not seem to be a risk factor for depression, anxiety or psychotic symptoms according to this study. The quality of romantic relationship does not either seem to be associated with the amount of symptoms. Therefore the bad quality of romantic relationship does not seem to predispose adolescents to more symptoms and respectively the good quality does not seem to promote psychological wellbeing. According to this study only adolescent's partner's antisocial influence was a significant risk factor to an adolescent's psychological wellbeing; It was associated with more depressive, anxiety and psychotic symptoms.

In our society values and ideals are transferred partly by teachers and schools. The basic values of teaching are based on the definitions of the values in the Finnish national curriculum. Values can be transferred trough the behaviour of the teacher and the practices of the school. The transmission of values or the identification of one's own values are not always conscious. Especially the young people living in the modern media society are easily exposed to the environments information overload that contains discourses of values and ideals. Influencing the value transferring contents of media is not easy but influencing the values transferred by the schools and teachers is possible. It is important to study teachers and future teachers conceptions of values and ideals, so that we are able to have a better understanding of the transmission of values in schools. The aim of this study is to determine the internal and external values and ideals of the teacher students. Ideals were examined from the perspective of values. The study involved 22 teacher students who were either subject teachers or class teachers. The data were collected by e-form in the spring of 2015. The form contained three image interpretation assignments. Respondents were asked to search for pictures in accordance with the assignment and interpret them via three questions. The data consisted 66 images and 66 image interpretations. The data was analysed by content analysis and semiotic analysis. The content analysis was based on Schwartz value theory and the pictures were analysed with the concepts of semiotic theory. Through the text data I was able to determine student teachers internal values. Their internal values centered on social, aesthetic, security and self-direction values. The external values determined from the image data emphasized the importance of youth, beauty, health and slenderness. It seems that the ideals and values of teacher students are similar than the values of the Finnish people in general but differ from the base values of the Finnish national curriculum. The results of the study can be used when planning teaching in schools. It is important to acknowledge that teachers' values and ideals differ from the Finnish national curriculum even though the values in the curriculum are meant to be the base of learning.

Objectives. The aim of this study is to find out what factors influence family food choices today and how sustainable eating is reflected in family food choices. In previous studies, food choices can be seen as a complex phenomenon with many different goals. The aim of this study is to reflect how parents experience food choices today. My research brings a new perspective to studying family food choices and answers the current question of how sustainability is reflected in family food choices. Methods. This was a qualitative study. The material was collected in semi-structured theme interviews. One parent of the family was interviewed. Eight families were selected to this study. Since this study focused on the role of sustainability in family food choices of parents of young children, the age of the children was under the Finnish school age of seven. The families had either one or two children. Results and Conclusions. The results show that family food choices were affected by many different goals that might be partly contradictory and sometimes prevent one another from achieving the other. Thus, parents may be considered to be in a type of crossfire when con-sidering food choices. Sustainable eating appeared in three different roles in the families: it was either a guiding factor for family food choices, a somewhat guiding factor, or a meaningless factor for family food choices. Sustainable eating appeared in the food choices, among other things, as favoring of certain diets or products, and the avoidance of certain ingredients or products. The parents of this study had found the eating habits that worked for them. Parents did not experience food choices challenging, although their responses showed some discrepancies when discussing about food choices. These contradictions were brought up by the use of opposites. Intrestingly the parents applied routines as strategies for overcoming the controversies, and as a result, the at times even experienced the potential problems as opportunities.

The purpose of this study is to describe and compare the everyday life of the people with food hypersensitivity, after taking part of limbic system training of Dynamic Neural Retraining System, the DNRS program. The first research task in this study is to describe what kind of every day life is a person with food hypersensitivity living and how food hypersensitivities affect different aspects of everyday life. The second research task is to describe how the DNRS program has affected the every day life of a person with food hypersensitivities and what kind of importance the changes have had. Earlier studies show that food sensitivity lowers the well-being and quality of life experienced by the individuals and their family. The sample of the study consists of six interviewees with multiple levels of food sensitivities and chemical sensitivities, which they had used DNRS to rehabilitate. The interviewees represented both sexes from all over Finland and were 28–45 years of age. The study material was collected by semi-structured theme interviews and analyzed by qualitative methods using International Classification of Function Classification (ICF) as content analysis. On this basis, a model of food-sensitive daily life and functional ability was created, which shows the effects of food sensitivity on various aspects of everyday life. The same model describes the situation even after the respondents had decided on a six-month rehabilitation period for the DNRS program. According to this study, food hypersensitivity has a significant impact on the individual's everyday life and on the well-being. Food hypersensitivity affects well-being, for example, by limiting performance and participation, and makes it more difficult for the individual to function through environmental factors. In addition, everyday food restrictions are perceived as stressful, as it involves significant planning and other meta-work that consumes individual resources. According to this study, rehabilitation of food hypersensitivity is of great importance to the individual, with emphasis on easier everyday life and psychosocial well-being of the individual. With relieved food hypersensitivity, food-related emotions also become more positive.

The goal with this research is to map out how newly graduated teachers in the Swedish schools in Finland experiences forms of and access to social support. The work as a teacher is regarding to Gavish & Friedman (2010) one of the most demanding social professions and more and more teachers become burned out. Teachers are fronting more and larger challenges and as a newly graduated teacher it might become overwhelming as teachers often work independently. What happens if a newly graduated teacher experiences social support and what happens if a newly graduated teacher doesn’t experience social support? This thesis’ theoretical ground for mapping out how the social support is accessed in the Swedish schools in Finlands stems from the social support model from research by Pyhältö (2018). Previous studies have shown that social support is an essential part of an individuals’ ability to prosperand that is especially true for teachers. (Cornér et al., 2017; Gavish & Friedman, 2010; Heikkinen et al., 2020; Pyhältö, 2018; Larrivee, 2012) Seven newly graduated teachers have been interviewed based on a pre-made interview material in this thesis. This thesis has been made in co-operation with the SAMS-samverkan och social stöd I den finlandssvenska skolan-project. The interviews have been analyzed through thematic analysis. The newly graduated teachers experience a broad variation of different support forms. Informative, instrumental, and emotional support is available in the schools the teachers have experience from. The newly graduated teachers are also experiencing that they have a broad access to sources of social support. The results of this research showed that there are quite a lot of themes where the forms of social support have shortages. For example, shortage of support at communication and information flow in the college, shortage of support in administrative tasks and shortage of support in self-criticalness and creating of a teacher identity. The results showed that teachers experienced grade colleagues and the colleagues as an important source of social support. To avoid shortage of social support in the future could mentorship and mentor teacher programs develop in the Swedish schools in Finland. The social support model could be a part of the teacher education. The newly graduated teacher would then have the tools to identify shortages and when needed, search for the social support at the right time. Focus from the professional development during the studies to become a teacher could be integrated later in the teacher’s career.