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Preliminary results of our survey of 1066 adolescent members of a Canadian Forces (CF) community, comparing the mental health and well-being of CF and civilian youth in a secondary school adjacent to an army base, yielded surprising results. The data were collected in 2008 with an instrument that replicated parts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY). Our findings suggested that there are few statistically significant differences between CF and civilian youth on mental health and well-being measures. On the other hand, both the CF and civilian youth scored lower on crucial health and well-being measures than their peers in the national NLSCY sample. This research note attempts to explain these complementary findings, using data from follow-up semi-structured interviews we conducted in 2009/10 with 60 of the CF adolescents. It also considers the possibility of a ‘‘spillover effect’’ of military life stressors on civilian youth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Through cable and wireless connections at home and at work, through Wi-Fi networks and wireless spots in hotels, coffee shops, and town squares, we are indeed connected to each other. But what is the phenomenology of this connection? Technologies of expression such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other social networking technologies increasingly become like Momus windows of Greek mythology, revealing one's innermost thoughts for all to see. They give access to what used to be personal, secret, and hidden in the lives of its users, especially the young. In this article I explore the pedagogy of Momus effects of social networking technologies in the way they may alter young people's experience of privacy, secrecy, solitude, and intimacy. In addition, I examine the forms of contact afforded by instant messaging and texting on wireless mobile technologies such as the cell phone (and its wireless hybrids) for the way young people are and stay in touch with each other, and how intimacies and inner lives are attended to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To test the applicability of an extended version of the theory of planned behaviour for the study of condom use intentions among large samples of young people in South Africa and Tanzania. Methods: Baseline data of a randomized controlled trial of school-based HIV/AIDS prevention programmes were used. The setting comprised secondary schools in the regions of Cape Town, Polokwane and Dar es Salaam. Participants were 15,782 secondary school students. The main measures were scales for intentions, knowledge, risk perceptions, attitudes, perceived social norms and perceived self-efficacy regarding condom use. Results: Seven variables accounted for 77% of the variance in intentions to use condoms: attitudes (β=0.17), injunctive norms (β=0.27), self-efficacy (β=0.41), gender (lower condom use intentions among females), being a student at the Dar es Salaam site (lower scores than students in Cape Town and Polokwane), socioeconomic status (higher intentions with higher status), and access to condoms (higher intentions with higher access). Conclusions: Our results are comparable to those of studies conducted in Europe and the USA. Social cognition models such as the theory of planned behaviour are applicable in understanding the correlates of condom use intentions in African contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]